Combos Browse all Suggest
Tokens
Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Undead Alchemist
Creature — Zombie
If a Zombie you control would deal combat damage to a player, instead that player mills that many cards. (They put that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard.)
Whenever an opponent's creature card is milled, exile that card and create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Rivel on
Necromancin' Dancin'
7 months ago
For those interested, here is the list of removed cards, added cards, as well as total current deck stats.
Removed
- 6 Island
- 6 Swamp
- Dreadhorde Invasion
- Liliana, Death's Majesty
- Dispel
- Drown in Dreams
- Negate
- Plumb the Forbidden
- Reality Shift
- Resculpt
- Unwind
- Exsanguinate
- Final Parting
- Ghouls' Night Out
- Charcoal Diamond
- Sky Diamond
- Gleaming Overseer
- Hordewing Skaab
- Undead Alchemist
Added:
- Evolving Wilds
- Exotic Orchard
- Malakir Mire Flip
- Mystic Sanctuary
- Obscura Storefront
- Reflecting Pool
- Secluded Courtyard
- Terramorphic Expanse
- Unclaimed Territory
- Verdant Catacombs
- Vesuva
- Mystic Remora
- An Offer You Can't Refuse
- Blue Sun's Zenith
- Pongify
- Rapid Hybridization
- Read the Bones
- Bident of Thassa
- Dimir Signet
- Fellwar Stone
- Herald's Horn
- Pyre of Heroes
- Thaumatic Compass Flip
- Urza's Incubator
- Champion of the Perished
- Fell Stinger
- Liliana's Standard Bearer
- Murderous Rider
- Shambling Ghast
Misc deck stats: Ramp: 13 Draw: 19 Tutors: 4
DreadKhan on
Grimgrin - Needs your Help
10 months ago
When I was testing out your deck, I definitely noticed mana issues, you probably want a mix of a couple more lands and some mana rocks. There is the odd mana dork you could use, none generally as good as a Green one. I always like Dreamscape Artist in a Dimir deck that makes use of the graveyard, it's actual Harrow so the lands are entering untapped, making the ramp a bit better than it might usually be. With a 5 mana Commander I think I would run Sol Ring, especially without Green, there is also Talisman of Dominance and Dimir Signet that are solid. A really solid 3 mana rock is Skyclave Relic, it can be a 3 drop or a big (and versatile) efficient 6 drop. Not sure if you need all of those, but I think you want some of those ramp options. TBH, you might also lower your average Mana Value, you're well over 3, which might be a tad high for 33 lands in a reasonably competitive deck. A couple handy utility lands that are nice with Voltron decks include Witch's Clinic, Shizo, Death's Storehouse, and Tyrite Sanctum. Sanctum is a bit weird, but getting Indestructible on your Commander will probably feel pretty good. There are also some MDFCs that aren't bad in Black, you could replace one of your 2 mana Black removal creature removal with Hagra Mauling Flip, risking 4 mana to remove something (with no restriction though) is harsh, but it's also a land which feels incredible in a lower land count deck. I hear Malakir Rebirth Flip is also very good, especially with a Voltron Commander.
I also noticed that the deck seemed to not excel at clearing the board of threats/problems, this can include combo pieces or Voltron creatures. From a competitive standpoint, if you expect to play against decks that are 7s or above you probably want at least a couple more solid counters, it's hard to know which to run because actual Counterspell costs UU, which is hard to hold up obviously, but Swan Song and Negate might not be versatile enough, but I think any or all of those would make the deck more functional. Niche removal like Ravenform, Resculpt and Feed the Swarm are also worth a look, you never know when you'll need to tutor up an answer for either of those types, and being able to hit a creature is also useful, fwiw Black isn't great at exiling creatures. I see you only have 1 Planeswalker in here, have you thought about Liliana, Death's Majesty? She's got some synergy with Zombies for sure, and offers a potential wipe.
A tutor that might fit in here that you're not running is Final Parting, which is clunky at 5 mana but it also offers a two for 1 tutor, so even if it's a lot of mana it does a lot of work. I'm not sure how many cards you're that desperate to get into the graveyard, but Final Parting finds 2 of 3 pieces for Gravecrawler combos in my Meren deck, very handy if I have one in hand already.
Pretty tough finding stuff that sticks out for being suboptimal in this list! Here are a few I suspect could be upgraded: Reassembling Skeleton is a Skeleton. The recursion aspect is not particularly good at 2 mana for a non-Zombie body, with a max of one on board at a time. Undead Alchemist might do something sometimes, but I feel like it's a bad interaction with a lot of your deck, it's terrible with Living Death type stuff obviously, and if someone is close to death, this gives them way more life. Call to the Grave seems potentially iffy, you run some very good non-Zombies, and you can't sac a token instead to it, it eats only non-Zombies. Kindred Discovery seems questionable potentially, it negatively interacts with any combo that uses a zombie entering or dying repeatedly since you have to draw, this can also make you unable to swing with a huge zombie army, which seems agonizing without at least throwing in something like Capsize. More curious than certain, but do you often have 1 toughness things to work with Skullclamp? Any Zombie at 1 toughness is buffed by your lords, and the tokens you make are 2/2s iirc? If you ask me, unless you have a source of 1 toughness bodies I'm missing, you could instead run Mask of Griselbrand, it can draw cards too (sometimes way more), both require a sac outlet, and it offers real utility in combo by offering evasion and lifelink. I would run any of the removal I mentioned over Doom Blade and Go for the Throat, I feel like the versatility and some offering exile has an edge. For Tragic Slip, do you get stuck without a sac outlet very often, this seems like an unnecessary complication to have on your removal, but at least it can hit Indestructibles? IMHO if you can afford it run Deadly Rollick, this will also exile stuff without as harsh a requirement (I'd rather have the downside of 4 mana vs removing only x/1s).
GoldenAgeBatman on Your Cheap Obscure Overperformers?
10 months ago
Undead Alchemist in Varina, Lich Queen has been phenomenal, especially against other creature heavy decks. Archfiend of Ifnir and Zombie Infestation are also a wonderful combo to destroy an opponent's board while building up your own.
MistaMint on
Filthy wHorrors
1 year ago
cptinsaneoman Thanks :)
The true advantage of Undead Alchemist is the quantity over quality approach along with locking down graveyards from reanimator abilities. Same idea as Nautiloid Ship, it may seem counterintuitive to remove things from opponents graveyards but sometimes that hurts them most. Ideally you'd never have him out at the same time as your commander as well.
Don't forget there's also the play that when your opponent decides not to block your zombies because it's just mill damage, if you have enough you can kill your own Alchemist before damage to turn it all back into health damage.
cptinsaneoman on
Filthy wHorrors
1 year ago
I've been looking into doing something with this precon since I saw it pop up, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I do enjoy mill decks, but I think you've got two competing things going on here: Captain N'ghathrod makes your horrors mill stuff, and then you can steal creatures that hit graveyards. However, Undead Alchemist does the same thing with your zombies, but then exiles those creatures to go wide with zombie tokens - when this happens, you won't be able to steal any of them with Captain N'ghathrod.
I suppose if you just pick which direction you want to go, based on your first few turns and card draw, it doesn't really matter. You just won't be able to make use of your commander much if Undead Alchemist is the way you roll that game.
Neat deck either way.
parksplace on
Fun opponent mill deck
1 year ago
Bruvac the Grandiloquent + Persistent Petitioners Also works great. Undead Alchemist can also provide you blockers when you mill opponents creatures.
