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Grimgrin's Reanimation Station [cEDH Jank Primer]

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Jank Reanimator UB (Dimir) Zombie

MarcosTithes

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Land (31)

Creature (14)

Instant (23)

Artifact (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

Sorcery (15)

Enchantment (6)

Welcome to the Grimgrin competitive primer!

This deck is a prototype, and is frequently replacing, testing and going through changes, but feel free to use this as a basis for the deck

This deck is retired! Check out the new Sidisi Upgraded version here ->

Take Deck, Flip, ????, Profit [cEDH]

Commander / EDH MarcosTithes

SCORE: 1 | 215 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER


Intro

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born leads the horde as the Commander of the zombie death machine, with his cohorts in crime, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur , Necrotic Ooze , and This deck is now a more combo focused, competitive and reanimator themed deck, and is my main combo centered deck from the decks I own. I am basing this deck off of multiple cEDH reanimator decks that I know of. Down below I will be describing in depth about the main gameplan of the deck, the combos and the setups. In general, I'd say this is probably a tier 2.5 cedh deck, as with the commander, it just isn't powerful enough to warrant anything else, but Grimmy has been one of my favorites for a while, so if you into jank zombie combo, feel free to take a look.

Why Grimgrin?

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born has upsides, and downsides and as a good deckbuilder we need to understand his restrictions while realizing his capabilities.

-- The Upside --
The main thing that set's him apart is his unique "Sacrifice another Creature" clause, that no other commander can offer. This can provide unique combo potential in it's own right, and can easily lead to be a potent finisher. But given the competitive nature of this deck, about 99% of the time we won't be casting our dear boy Grimgrin unless we are about to win with one of the given combos below.

-- What Else? --
The main restriction with old Grinny boy is our colors. We are stuck to Dimir, and therefor we have to get creative, but that doesn't limit us too much.
  • Our lack of is something we have to consider, because we can't play good loot effects like Faithless Looting or Cathartic Reunion for easy binning of our big bombs and hardcore filtering. Additionally, and more importantly, we miss out on the Phyrexian Delver + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite / Deceiver Exarch combo. That combo would be really good in this build because you'd only need to have Buried Alive and a targeted reanimation spell to win, rather than the full Living Death . This combo is extremely less mana intensive, so we are going to have to look for other suitable and effective replacements. Luckily the Necrotic Ooze + Phyrexian Devourer + Walking Ballista combo is going to be a very effective replacement.

  • Our lack of is also pretty detrimental because one of the easiest ways to abuse Razaketh, the Foulblooded is with tons of early ramp manadorks such as Birds of Paradise or Arbor Elf . It also means that we can't abuse the insane power that is Protean Hulk as well. The Breakfast Hulk combo is really strong with Razaketh as well, and it is unfortunate that we can't abuse that as well.

  • Our lack of really isn't a limitation. We are okay without feeling like we need to have this color.

    Green I feel could add a whole lot to the power of this deck, so I might brew a Sultai reanimator list some time (which I did do! check above ^^^) , but this primer is for those dedicated to the Dimir! I haven't found a lot in terms of cEDH Dimir reanimator, so I have to do much of the creation myself. A lot of the cards in this deck are experimental and still in the "figuring out" process, but the gist is going to pretty much be the same.

    • Get a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur , down on turns 1 to 4.

    Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is our main man and, the first step into securing the game is landing him on turn 3 or turn 4 with protection. It's often important to make sure what removal we will have to be paying attention to, and if we can stick a Jin-Gitaxias on the table for a full turn cycle, our odds of winning go up at least 99%. It is possible to get him as early as turn 1 or turn 2 but if you have protection, but waiting an extra turn to ensure he lives can be insanely important. Again though, it completely depends what kind of decks we are playing against too.

    As you can see, a lot of our deck is purely dedicated to slamming these Jin as early as possible; a strategy that have proven to be deadly indeed, but can still be an issue to a simple pongify/path etc, so holding up protection for him is important.

    The infinites in this deck have become much more stream-lined to feel more competitive and directed. Having 1 main combos to go for, and then 1 back up combo. Down below are the main combos.

    - The Mike and Trike Combo -
    Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Carrion Feeder / Grimgrin, Corpse-Born + Walking Ballista = Ping everyone to death.

    This combo is going to be the main one we will be going for most of the time. This combo really embodies the classic Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion combo, but we will be using Walking Ballista as a more efficient and effective combo since we have a commander that functions as a sac outlet. There are two setup's for this combo, and the first one is an effective two card combo with Buried Alive + Living Death or Sidisi, Undead Vizier + Rooftop Storm that we will often be using. The Buried Alive + Living Death setup is pretty self-explanatory, but the other is a bit more convoluted as I will show below.

    - Set Up -
    One of the most effective ways to set up this combo is simply with Rooftop Storm and Sidisi, Undead Vizier . To pull this off, you won't need any other creatures on the board as well. The process goes like this...

    - Buried Alive + Living Death Setup -
    1. Cast Buried Alive getting Mikaeus, the Unhallowed , Carrion Feeder and Walking Ballista .
    2. Cast Living Death , reanimating all the creatures you got.
    3. Sacrifice Walking Ballista to Carrion Feeder , and Walking Ballista 's Undying will trigger, returning with a +1/+1 Counter
    4. Remove a +1/+1 counter to ping someone in the face for 1
    5. repeat process 3 and 4 infinitely.

    - Sidisi, Undead Vizier + Rooftop Storm Setup -
    1. Cast Rooftop Storm , (turbo out with ritual or Grim Monolith / Mana Vault type effect)
    2. Cast Sidisi, Undead Vizier , exploit herself, get Phyrexian Delver
    3. Cast Phyrexian Delver for free, Return Sidisi, Undead Vizier and exploit the Phyrexian Delver this time get Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
    4. Cast both Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed for free.
    5. Sacrifice Sidisi, Undead Vizier to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born , and Undying will trigger from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
    6. Sidisi, Undead Vizier enters with a +1/+1 counter and you will exploit and sacrifice herself getting Walking Ballista , (now this is where playing Ballista is better then Triskelion .)
    7. Cast Walking Ballista for X = 0, and it will be a 1/1 from Mikaeus, the Unhallowed so it won't die right away.
    8. Sacrifice Walking Ballista to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born , and Walking Ballista 's Undying will trigger, returning with a +1/+1 Counter
    9. Remove a +1/+1 counter to ping someone in the face for 1
    10. repeat process 8 and 9 infinitely


    - Necrotic Ballista Combo -
    Phyrexian Devourer + Walking Ballista in graveyard + Necrotic Ooze on field = ~120+ direct Damage (The deck has somewhere around 170 cmc worth of cards, so on average you'll be able to kill everyone with 70 to 80 cards left in the deck, if not, beat face with a 80/80 necrotic ooze.

    This Combo is taking over for the Gravestorm Combo down below. I previously knew about this popular and famous combo but forgot about it until now. This combo is a powerhouse, and can land us very strong turn 4 or 5 kills. It's extremely potent mainly because it only costs a mana investment of 4 to 6 mana for Buried Alive and any of our targeted reanimation spells. This allows us to combo all in 1 turn, and go off entirely from there. Additionally, if we have Necromancy , we can even win at instant speed. The setup isn't complicated either, but I will show and describe it below.

    - Set Up -
    1. Cast Buried Alive, getting Phyrexian Devourer , Walking Ballista and Necrotic Ooze
    2. Cast any targeted reanimation spell targeting Necrotic Ooze
    3. Activate the Phyrexian Devourer portion of Necrotic Ooze now for , putting 100+ counters on Necrotic Ooze
    4. When at enough counters to kill every opponent, activate the Walking Ballista portion of Necrotic Ooze until everyone is dead

    - Gravestorm Combo - RETIRED
    Gravecrawler + Plague Belcher + Rooftop Storm , Cast Grimgrin, Corpse-Born for free = infinite drain

    This was the backup combo of the deck, but was removed due to the difficult setup. Despite the name I've given this combo, we won't be using Bitter Ordeal to win with it. Basically, this is our backup because if our Mikaeus, the Unhallowed gets exiled, or we have an easier window for this combo we will wan't to use this one. The important thing with this combo as well, is that both Gravecrawler and Plague Belcher are useful on their own as well anyways (Gravecrawler moreso). Often, If you are on the reanimating Razaketh, the Foulblooded plan, the early Plague Belcher , Gravecrawler , Relentless Dead or Bloodghast are good sac fodder to get the deck's combos assembled. This combo may comeout in the future for something more resilient. Recently I have been looking at the Phyrexian Devourer + Necrotic Ooze + Walking Ballista Combo, which is probably going to replace it.
    Cards on the chopping block:
    Razaketh, the Foulblooded , Forbidden Alchemy , Trinket Mage
    _________________
    Overview of cut cards:
    The Focus of this deck has changed so much since I first built the deck, so a lot of the reasons that I don't include the cards down below are simple in that they just aren't competitive any longer for my playgroup, nor are the cards competitive at all. Regardless, for more budget builds or 70% decks, the cards below can lend good insight to other combos or cards you may want to try out at some point.
    ---
    The Geralf's Messenger / Grave Titan + Nim's Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar combo is one I recently just took out to streamline the deck. I never used the combos, so I figured the deck could just be better if there were just a couple main combos to go for instead. Plus, the setup is kinda redonkulous tbh
    ---
    Zombie Apocalypse is a mass reanimation spell that I used to run, but found that even for the great effect, 6 mana was often too much, especially when there are just better options out there. Especially since I streamed the deck too, mass reanimators are things I'm just not really looking for anymore.
    ---
    I used to run Thraximundar as my commander, but found that red didn't add much for the deck that I was building besides the cool Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Deathbringer Thoctar + Carrion Feeder Combo that was on flavor. The combo was a little card to pull of before T5-T6 so it was kinda bad for this streamlined deck anyways.
    ---
    Nirkana Revenant 's effect isn't impactful enough for the mana cost, especially when Crypt Ghast exists anyways, but even crypt ghast can be too squishy sometimes. regardless, I don't really need mana doublers anymore anyways as I'm trying to win T4-T5 or earlier if possible anyways.
    ---
    Graveborn Muse was another interesting card that I wish I could abuse more, but with the lack of actual early zombies in this deck now, it is often a 4 mana Phyrexian Arena on a creature, which is not necessarily a good thing for something where you want to be drawing cards. The potential is high in lower power decks, so it could be good in a different build, but in my competitive playgroup it is often a do nothing card for me most of the time.
    ---
    Diregraf Captain and Vengeful Dead seemed okay to exclude mainly because Plague Belcher effectively does the same job, but for less cmc, can kill one of your own creatures on etb for mass reanimation Mikeaus cheese, and you really only need one in this deck to succeed. If you like redundancy you could include the others, but I don't like the anthem of diregraf captain because being able to Skullclamp Gravecrawler is important at all points in the game. Regardless, I think they are good for lower PL combo decks.
    ---
    Zombie Master and all other zombie lords I left out of the deck for a large reason. For the combo centered theme of the deck, P/T on creatures are not relevant, and I would always rather have a card that can just get me closer to winning rather than making my creatures better for combat.
    ---
    Yawgmoth's Will can be good sometimes, but this isn't a storm build or anything like that, so utilizing it to the fullest is extremely difficult. Additionally getting our stuff exiled ever is super bad for us. When you play yawgmoth's will, you want to be winning that turn, and for us that just isn't realistic given our combos

    Conclusion:


    All the cards in my maybe-board are cards that I am trying, tried out or would like to try, and is basically just a list of reminder cards for what I think could be good in this deck.
    ---
    This is a very competitive Grim-Grin combo deck, so if you love zombie themes and consistent combo, but don't mind the incidental jank, you have come to the right place!

    Recommendations and insight are greatly appreciated as well. Thanks!

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    Casual

    97% Competitive

    Revision 2 See all

    (5 years ago)