i love it and i theory crafted this deck myself a bit. i would say get some targeted gravehate so that you can your opponents deny their creatures

Neth thanks. I'm surprised he's not that well known, seems awesome to me. I was sold at 'card type Zombie Dwarf'.

I've got a couple in there: Shred Memory (which can transmute to one of the reanimate effects, Imp's Mischief or Mesmeric Orb) Withered Wretch and Bojuka Bog. But I've never found you particularly care what other decks are getting from Balthor since you're usually about to win.

Or your sac effects on Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, or Butcher of Malakir + one of the self sac things is gonna kill them again anyway.

Hi roastchicken, I really like your deck and upvoted it. I'm also a Balthor's lover.

I wish to have your feedback on my own take on Balthor: Balthor the Graveyard Defiler, which has a similar strategy but with less quantity of creatures (sort it by custom categories). I would love to debate on cards' choices with you, as I would like to increase my amount of creatures.

Stefouch Nice. Looks like you're doing a lot of similar things but might have taken a slower, more control-style route? I'd love to talk card choices, I've put a tonne of thought into this deck over the last year. How well is your build working for you at the moment?

My control iteration has evolved this way because of my meta. All-in graveyard was suicide as everyone is packing multiple grave-hate silver bullets.

The build is strong in a casual meta (Tier 3 I would say). If I have an open window to put 3 or more creatures in my graveyard, victory is close. I usually lose when I have nothing strong to reanimate, which can happen time to time due to my low creature count (30 is still low).

Stefouch I've just tried to outrun the grave-hate. If it does get exiled before you can reanimate you still haven't lost though, you're just set back. Start assembling a combo or engine that doesn't rely on cards that were exiled. That being said, if they wait until your big turn when you go through a few balthor cycles and get half your deck in your graveyard before they exile it, you're screwed.

Going back to your original question, this build has gone through lots of changes and started out about the same creature count as you have. I found I always wanted more and more creatures over time as I wanted to have a strong balthor effect as soon as I had the mana to use him. Since the most consistent way to self-mill fast in mono-black is using creature effects like Stitcher's Supplier, milling over non-creatures became a problem so I cut it down to the bare minimum. What creatures from my list were you interested in?

Hey man! I really like the list. I play jank like this regularly using my Saffi Eriksdotter list.

I see you already understand well how to make infinite colored and colorless mana, so if you your combo by looping Gravecrawler or something to make infinite mana, and can use said mana to get infinite ETBs with a sac outlet that DOESN'T produce mana, then Blasting Station wins you the game, and Altar of Dementia can do the same.

An include you should make to beef up your lines is Phyrexian Delver (Note: Delver is a Zombie and works with Gravecrawler quite well).

Other than that, I like the list a lot and I can't wait to follow it as it is updated!

Ragnar0k

I like where your head's at. While that Blasting Station win does look spicy, I'm not sure it's worth the slot. I really want my win cons to serve a purpose other than winning and I'm not sure the list even needs another one. I've already taken Altar of Dementia out for the same reasons - plus being artifacts makes them hard to recur as I can't grab them with Xiahou Dun or Balthor.

I don't think I know how the targeting on Delver works. When the ability goes on the stack, if you have to select a target then it will fizzle as the graveyard will be empty from Balthor.

Thanks for following! Let me know if you see anything else as it evolves.

I have the feeling that this deck went from Casual to Competitive in less than one month.

I remember its previous title "Gimli, Son of Gloin."

Yep. I went down a rabbit hole of creature loops and never came out.

Read the Bones doesn't make opponents draw. I think you are confusing with Sign in Blood .

Stefouch woops you're right. Got it right in the decklist but confused it in the update. Thanks for following the deck and catching that. How's your Balthor list going?

My own iteration of balthor (Balthor the Graveyard Defiler) is doing fine!

It is easy to play with an above-average winning rate in my meta.

The last tested cards, Pitiless Plunderer and Krav proved very promising.

Great build! I put together a Balthor the Defiled recently but in no way a cEDH, mostly based on lots of mana and Morality Shift to dump my library in the graveyard and activating Balthor the Defiled with Grey Merchant of Asphodel to finish things off. I think I'm gonna make use of the Nether Traitor + Pawn of Ulamog + Phyrexian Altar for mana and Praetor's Grasp + Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed to finish things off. I also will likely keep those tools for a soon-to-come WUBRG hidden Commander deck!

Congratulations for the deck, I'm also a big fan of Balthor, and I loved Gimli's art!