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This Body's Dust in the Wind that's Hurling Past

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 UB (Dimir)

boba2989

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Land (36)

Sorcery (8)

Artifact (21)

Creature (11)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

Instant (15)

Enchantment (8)

Deck concept: Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is the very first Commander deck I built, back in 2011. To this day, it is still my favourite deck and I have continuously evolved the list to run all the cards I wanted to play in the format. The result is a very optimized control list, that aims to win the game through Commander damage or via Gravecrawler-enabled combos.

Restrictions: none, currently. The deck runs a number of Game Changers and very powerful cards, with no real restriction. However, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born doesn’t really lend itself to truly competitive games, so you may aim for high-power tables, but you’re nowhere near cEDH territory.

Strengths and weaknesses: the deck plays some of the strongest cards available in Dimir, from Mystic Remora to Force of Will, from Imperial Seal to Bolas's Citadel. It’s a greedy, power-hungry list, that tries to generate as much value as possible, at the cost of its own life total. It’s fairly easy to get carried away and pay excessive amounts of life into your own Necropotence, so I would not recommend the deck to anyone who doesn’t like playing most turns below ten points of life. Your opponents will often make sure to exploit this weakness and are very likely to aggressively attack you, as each point of life lost can be critical when you are playing this deck. On the other hand, you have a lot of great options to protect you and your board, from Mana Drain to Cyclonic Rift, so striking the perfect balance between greed and self-control is key. The deck itself is very versatile, so you may find yourself playing in completely different ways between one game and another.

How to play the deck: depending on the explosiveness of your opening hand and the threats posed by your opponents, you may either want to run out Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as quickly as possible, or play a more conservative and defensive game. The former allows you to pressure your opponents’ board state from the get-go, while the latter guarantees a more solid long-term plan. The list also includes a notable amount of tutors, from the classic Demonic Tutor to the more specific Fabricate: depending on how the game is progressing, you may find yourself wanting to use them to either find key combo pieces like Gravecrawler, mass removal spells like Toxic Deluge, protection cards like Fierce Guardianship or raw card advantage engines like Rhystic Study. Winning with this deck usually revolves around dealing enough Commander damage with Grimgrin, Corpse-Born or dealing noncombat damage with an infinite Diregraf Captain loop.

Key cards and notable interactions: Gravecrawler is probably the most important card in the deck, allowing you to untap Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and make it slightly bigger for each black Mana spent to loop it from the graveyard. Diregraf Captain also makes an opponent lose one life every time Gravecrawler dies. This is the core interaction of the deck, which can be worked on with additional support pieces. Rooftop Storm and Relic of Legends make this Gravecrawler loop go infinite: the former discounting every Zombie you are playing, the latter allowing you to tap Grimgrin, Corpse-Born itself to reanimate Gravecrawler. Phyrexian Alter allows you to go infinite even without having access to Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, as Gravecrawler is able to generate its own black Mana to return from the graveyard, provided Diregraf Captain is still on the battlefield. Moreover, Phyrexian Altar is just a great card on its own, as sacrificing your smaller creature for Mana is rarely a bad play, considering how Mana-hungry this deck can be. Skullclamp can profit from all the small creatures you may want to sacrifice and is just a great synergistic piece with Bloodghast and Bitterblossom. Speaking of drawing a lot of cards, Grim Haruspex can fill up your hand with all your creatures dying and will draw your entire library once the infinite Gravecrawler loop has been set in motion. Should you need to push through combat damage, Sword of Fire and Ice, Sword of Light and Shadow and Sword of Feast and Famine can provide much-welcome protection and evasion to your Commander. One final mention goes to Whip of Erebos: while it surely is good to have another way to reanimate a key creature, providing Grimgrin, Corpse-Born with lifelink is a huge boon, as the deck isn’t really shy when it comes to paying life.

Evolving the deck: Grimgrin, Corpse-Born’s main allure, to me, stems from the fact that it is a very versatile Commander, easily shifting gears between aggressive Voltron strategies and defensive combo-oriented play lines. Whether you are focusing on its attack trigger to remove pesky creatures your opponents are playing, or making good use of its Gravecrawler-enabled combo potential, there is very little Grimgrin, Corpse-Born can’t do. However, I am well aware Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is nowhere near the strongest Commander in Dimir. Should you want to build a stronger list in blue and black, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and The Scarab God are probably your best options, going for a more aggressive or a more reanimation-focused strategy, respectively. Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is just extremely impactful and cheap, Mana-wise, so it’s no secret she is one of the most popular Dimir Commanders. If you are a fan of Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, but don’t want to go for an optimized list shifting between Voltron, control and combo, you may consider building it as a Zombie-centred Commander, although it probably got overshadowed by Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver.

Origin of the deck's name: a verse from "Marigold" by Periphery.

Last updated: October 2nd, 2025.

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