Relentless Dead

Creature — Zombie

Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

When Relentless Dead dies, you may pay . If you do, return it to its owner's hand.

When Relentless Dead dies, you may pay . If you do, return another target Zombie creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Discussion (49)

Hapix on The Scarab God's Arisen Horde

4 days ago

@multimedia, your comment is much appreciated! A lot of thought and play testing has gone into this deck (if I’m being honest though, this isn’t the first attempt as this is around the 8th iteration of scarab god due to play testing and not posting until now LOL).

I want to preface my response to your recommendations by saying that lowering the cmc of the deck is not really a priority as I usually have more than enough mana to do, but bringing down the amount of 5 drops and just generally increasing the tempo of this deck is on my radar. Furthermore, some inclusions (such as Consuming Aberration and Noosegraf Mob ) are in response to the meta of my table wherein they perform well (for example, one of my buddies plays an interesting Alesha, Who Smiles at Death homebrew that focuses on controlling the board state by altering base power/toughness of all creatures, Consuming Aberration on its own has saved my hide more times than one against Alesha lol).

Moving onto your recommendations:

“ Wonder > Grimoire of the Dead ”

Just the concept of Wonder alone is fantastic and it was even a part of the original iteration of this deck, but during playtesting (and this might just be me being unlucky) but it was often a mid-game dead draw and when I would have it in my graveyard, having a handful of flying zombies was nice, but not often game ending – hence non-inclusion. Grimoire of the Dead is slow AF and it the second eff is not easy to pull off, the only reason it is in the deck right now is I do not have a Rise of the Dark Realms , not sure what I will replace it with yet but I will take it out.

“ Windfall > Ancient Excavation ”

I like Windfall , it is a great wheel and I would like to include it. As it is right now Ancient Excavation is a card I keep in for the versatility of both self-mill and the basic landcycling, although I might swap it out for the Lim-Dul's Vault that you brought up later in your comment (I really like its’ effect tho).

“ Diabolic Intent > Exsanguinate ”

Diabolic Intent is a good card and that I plan to add in someday, but just to save $ I’m looking at Wishclaw Talisman as a budget alternative with some inbuilt politicking mechanisms. When it comes to Exsanguinate , it was a filler card I tossed in for play testing I’ll replace it with the aforementioned Wishclaw Talisman most likely

“ Relentless Dead > Noosegraf Mob ”

Relentless Dead is a card I used to have in here but I removed it since it felt slow and I just never really utilized the secondary eff I’m looking at getting a Gilded Drake in as a replacement. I agree though that Noosegraf Mob , as a six drop, is quite lackluster in comparison to the other high cmc cards. The potential value of 6 ETBs and/or death triggers is enough to keep him around for now, but if there is something I find I like more I’ll probably take mod out.

“ Graveborn Muse > Liliana's Reaver ”

Graveborn Muse I tested it out and saw myself dying to it more often than not, if I move further away from the zombie tribal aspect I might reconsider it. As for Liliana's Reaver , It isn’t to flashy but it works, no need to remove it rn but if anything better comes along I might.

“2 drop mana rocks > Commander's Sphere ”

Commander's Sphere is place holder card that I had socketed in while I was looking for some better mana rock options. Thanks for bring Arcane Signet to my attention, I’ll probably toss that or the signet in.

“ Arcane Denial > Countersquall ”

Arcane Denial isn’t a card I’d normally consider since the +2 for my opponent kind of hurts, but in a format like EDH with the 99 filling up a library, it seems pretty negligible so I’ll add it but won’t remover Countersquall since Its not that hard to get either {B} or {U} mana on demand. This though does touch on a different subject, I do want to add in some more counter magic, tutors, and removal (I’m looking at Arcane Denial , Swan Song , Pact of Negation , Mystical Tutor , Mastermind's Acquisition , Cunning Wish , Death Wish , Wishclaw Talisman , Victim of Night , Hero's Downfall , Murder , and Doom Blade but am stuck on evaluating which are the most beneficial inclusions).

To wrap up, thank you very much for your input it has been really helpful in reevaluating this deck. I sure do have some tinkering to do, haha. The nature of deckbuilding in EDH to me is everlasting and I hope I can continue to improve and refine my decks with recommendations and insight from other kind folks, like you, on this site :D

One last question, a friend is considering selling their Mana Vault to me at a discount, is this a card that I should seriously consider including or not?

Cheers!

multimedia on Expensive afterlife

5 days ago

Wow, lots of good card here. It's not every day I see a Candelabra of Tawnos :)

I don't think you're taking enough advantage of having a sac outlet in the Command Zone. Grimgrin's no mana cost sac is his strongest ability.

• Undead Augur > Walking Corpse
• Midnight Reaper > Graveshifter
• Diregraf Captain > Gravedigger
• Plague Belcher > Ingenious Infiltrator
• Relentless Dead > Tattered Mummy

These Zombies give you value when another Zombie dies, when one is saced by Grimgrin.

Some other upgrades to consider:

• Brainstorm > Divination
• Ponder > Scour All Possibilities
• Phyrexian Altar > Ashnod's Altar
• Necropotence > Gruesome Fate
• Diabolic Intent > Grave Betrayal
• Buried Alive > Witchbane Orb
• Reanimate > Return from Extinction
• Animate Dead > Finale of Eternity
• Cyclonic Rift > Kindred Dominance
• Counterspell > Exclude
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier > Risen Executioner
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel > Necromaster Dragon
• Apprentice Necromancer > Graveshifter
• Carrion Feeder > Stronghold Assassin

Black is too important of the color to have in the early game because the majority of Zombies are black not blue. 10x Island is a lot I suggest cutting lots of Islands and replacing them with other playable Dimir dual lands.

• Underground River
• Morphic Pool
• Sunken Ruins
• Flooded Strand
• City of Brass
• Tainted Isle

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Cards to consider cutting:

• Divination
• Scour All Possibilities
• Gruesome Fate
• Return from Extinction
• Exclude
• Defile
• Walking Corpse
• Tattered Mummy
• Graveshifter
• Gravedigger
• Ingenious Infiltrator
• Stronghold Assassin
• Necromaster Dragon
• Argentum Armor
• Door of Destinies
• Grave Betrayal
• Finale of Eternity
• Kindred Dominance
• Ashnod's Altar

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on The Scarab God's Arisen Horde

1 week ago

Hey, nice version of Scarab, great first attempt.

Some upgrades within the budget to consider:

• Wonder > Grimoire of the Dead
• Windfall > Ancient Excavation
• Diabolic Intent > Exsanguinate
• Relentless Dead > Noosegraf Mob
• Graveborn Muse > Liliana's Reaver
• Arcane Signet or Talisman of Dominance > Commander's Sphere
• Arcane Denial > Countersquall

Wonder can give all your creatures flying including Scarab. It's great with Buried Alive and Entomb to tutor for it and put it into your graveyard. Grimoire has a powerful ability, but it's painfully slow, needing four turns before you can sac it. Scarab's ability can be used on your opponents' creatures in their individual graveyards and Windfall is a wheel which makes all players discard their hands and draw cards filling up their graveyards with potential creatures to exile. Windfall is one of the best blue cards in Commander.

Diabolic Intent is another tutor that can search for any one card. Exsanguinate is a fine card, but Torment of Hailfire is better and I don't see a need for both. Relentless Dead is a good two drop Zombie and there's not a lot of two drop options. Mob is lackluster for a six drop compared to the other six drops such as Titan and Mikaeus. Graveborn Muse is very good repeatable draw with Zombies and Scarab's upkeep trigger can gain you life that you loss from Muse. Reaver is fine, but not as impactful as Muse.

Whenever you can play a two drop mana rock in place of a three drop then this change can speed up gameplay. Arcane Signet is new in the ELD Brawl precons which right now can be hard to find, but you can buy it as a single online for less than $10. Arcane or Talisman of Dominance can make black mana the turn you play it which can be helpful with so many low mana cost Zombies. The single draw from Sphere is nice, but there's lots of three drop Zombie Lords here that would be a better three drop play then Sphere.

Denial is a two drop hard counter with only one in it's mana cost making it good with a heavy black manabase.

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Others upgrades to consider:

• Lim-Dul's Vault > Pull from Tomorrow
• Dark Ritual > Vanquisher's Banner
• Ponder > Consuming Aberration
• Animate Dead > Havengul Lich
• Murderous Rider or Hero's Downfall > Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

These last upgrades to consider are cutting high mana cost cards and replacing them with low mana cost cards to speed up gameplay. The five drop spot has a lot of options with Scarab as the go to play having lots of other five drops can hinder gameplay since you don't really want to play them over Scarab and having a hand full of five drops doesn't help. Good luck with your deck.

RNR_Gaming on Zombie

1 week ago

Modern is very fast and I don't think you'll do particularly well with this build. My suggestion would be to proxy up some of the good zombies and test against some established decks like tron or uw control and see how you fair. Tribal outside of humans and merfolk is a bit rough due to the efficient removal and cheap pay offs other decks have and most tribes feel like they're lacking from one or more things but here are the cards that may help you break into modern a bit better; though their price point is a bit much for some

Bloodghast - 2 devotion and recurs itself simply by playing a land

Death Baron - all tribes should have lords and this is one of the best

Lord of the Undead - another lord with a very relevant activated ability

Gravecrawler - very good 1 drop

Relentless Dead - lots of text and good stuff going on with this guy

Cryptbreaker - a really all around great value engine

Carrion Feeder - sac outlet that gets huge

Grey Merchant of Asphodel - very good pay off zombie

Geralf's Messenger - does something when it comes in and comes back again

Dwarfinside on Modern Zombies

1 week ago

I know we shouldn't overthink it, but I think you should put at least some thought into your mana curve. No two-drops? 20 three-drops? Seems a little clunky. I'd drop the Tomebound Lich for Undead Augur or Relentless Dead . Just a suggestion. Also I've really been liking Compelling Deterrence as a tempo play/ removal.

hungry000 on An Extreme Amount of Dead-ication

1 week ago

Against midrange, you want cards that are able to create value so you can keep up with them; the most popular midrange decks play 1-for-1 removal, so creatures with recursion (like Relentless Dead ) or ones that make multiple bodies ( Diregraf Colossus ) are good. Murderous Rider is a beast vs midrange since it's almost an automatic 2-for-1 on its own (kills something then they need removal to kill it). Rotting Regisaur , while big, is easily answered by most removal spells outside of Lightning Bolt , plus its ability is the opposite of what you want in a resource-dependent matchup like midrange. So don't play it. If you do play Nykthos only play 1, there are a lot of B symbols on your creatures so 2 is a little risky without Urborg.

Hazankob on Highschool of the Dead (EDH)

1 month ago

Commander swap.

Out:

Karona, False God

In:

Morophon, the Boundless

New stuff/Lowering curve a bit.

Out:

All Suns' Dawn , Grave Betrayal , Gravespawn Sovereign , Unburial Rites , Vulturous Zombie

In:

Diregraf Colossus , Fallen Shinobi , Gilded Lotus , Josu Vess, Lich Knight , Relentless Dead

Jpinkman on Zombie Horde

3 months ago

well, butcher ghoul is not that good unless you put a sac engine into this deck like Carrion Feeder , in general cmc is too high. i think cemetery reaper is a bad zombie lord because he doesn't do much, it makes u spend mana and tap him. death baron is ok. diregraf colossus ok too (death baron and diregraf colossus are only lords i would play). diregraf ghoul can be replaced with Gravecrawler (can't miss him in a zombie deck) or Dread Wanderer (a bit slow but still fine). u should play at least 8x 1mana zombies. graveyard marshal is not so bad but of course he can be replaced too, maybe with Relentless Dead .

liliana's triumph is ok. murder should be replaced with Fatal Push or at least Defile . vile rebirth can be nice only for sideboard because you can't cast it if you don't exile a creature from enemy graveyard (you dont want to exile yours!).

Call to the grave is just too slow for modern. Endless rank of the deads could be playable but not more than 2x of it.

Liliana death majesty again has a very high cmc, so i would not consider buying her. Of course there are better lilianas: Liliana of the Veil (too expensive), Liliana, the Last Hope (again very expensive), Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip affordable and still nice, Liliana, Untouched By Death is still better than death majesty but honestly i won't play her.

You should play a good mix of creature destroying cards and some discard for at least trying being a bit more competitive.