Gisa and Geralf: Siblings of Self-Mill

Commander / EDH Combo Mill UB (Dimir) Zombie

MegaMatt13

Zombies (27)

• 1x Armored Skaab
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Custodi Lich
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Forgotten Creation
• 1x Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born *oversized*
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Laboratory Brute
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Nantuko Husk
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Unbreathing Horde
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh
• 1x Wailing Ghoul

Recursion (12)

• 1x Call to Mind
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Pull from the Deep
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Twilight's Call
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

Sacrifice Outlet (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born *oversized*
• 1x High Market
• 1x Nantuko Husk

Self Mill (19)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ancient Excavation *list*
• 1x Armored Skaab
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Forgotten Creation
• 1x Fortune's Favor
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 1x Laboratory Brute
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Monastery Siege
• 1x Necromancer's Stockpile
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Wailing Ghoul

Removal (14)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Custodi Lich
• 1x Dissipate
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born *oversized*
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Life's Finale
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Negate
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh

Life Drain (5)

• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Vengeful Dead

Tutor (3)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Corpse Connoisseur
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Commander (1)

Land Base (38)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x High Market
• 9x Island
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Underground River

Ramp (11)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

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Gisa and Geralf like to experiment with dead corpses...nothing strange about that, right? They use their necromancy skills to raise a never ending stream of zombies. This deck often takes opponents by surprise since self-mill is such a counterintuitive strategy. It's focused on throwing cards into the graveyard to be reanimated with Living Death, Zombie Apocalypse, Patriarch's Bidding, Twilight's Call or Rise of the Dark Realms. Click on the dropdown menus for more info and please upvote if you like it!

Card Draw and Self-Mill

Card Draw

Most of the card draw in the deck involves "looting" or "rummaging" effects: drawing cards and then discarding some (or vice versa). We WANT zombies in the graveyard and these cards help us get them there.

Frantic Search, Ancient Excavation, Fact or Fiction, Fortune's Favor , Monastery Siege, Forbidden Alchemy, Geier Reach Sanitarium, Necromancer's Stockpile, and Forgotten Creation all involve drawing and discarding.

Cryptbreaker and Gempalm Polluter involve zombie-based card draw and are also on theme with the deck.

Self-Mill

One of the quickest ways to get zombies into the grave is through milling the library.

Mesmeric Orb has become the biggest mill engine in the deck. It can mill everyone for crazy amounts of cards. It's a very nice set up for mass graveyard recursion.

Perpetual Timepiece allows for self-mill every turn. Plus it can prevent us from decking ourselves.

Geralf's Mindcrusher, Wailing Ghoul , Armored Skaab , and Laboratory Brute are zombies that mimic our commander's ability

Nephalia Drownyard is a utility land that let us self-mill.

Necromancer's Stockpile, and Cryptbreaker turn discard into zombie tokens.

Buried Alive and Corpse Connoisseur let us tutor for zombies to toss into the graveyard.

Altar of Dementia when not used in combo can help us to fill our graveyard too.

Board Control

Blue and Black are excellent control colours and I wanted to take advantage of this. Counterspell, Dissipate, Swan Song and Negate for countering threats.

Hero's Downfall for instant speed removal.

Toxic Deluge, Living Death and Life's Finale for boardwipes.

Custodi Lich for a forced sacrifice effect (and some card draw).

Fleshbag Marauder is a repeatable edict effect in this deck.

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born removes a threat every time he attacks.

Zombie Hordes!

Most of the zombies in the deck serve some utility purpose:

Anthem: Lord of the Accursed, Diregraf Captain, and Undead Warchief.

Recursion: Havengul Lich, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and Relentless Dead

Token Creation: Cemetery Reaper, Lich Lord of Unx, Diregraf Colossus and Cryptbreaker.

Tutoring: Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Corpse Connoisseur.

Life Drain: Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Plague Belcher, Lich Lord of Unx, Diregraf Captain and Vengeful Dead.

Board Control: Fatestitcher, Fleshbag Marauder, Custodi Lich, Vengeful Pharaoh and Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

Card Draw: Cryptbreaker, Gempalm Polluter and Forgotten Creation.

Sacrifice Outlets: Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Carrion Feeder and Nantuko Husk

Combo-enabling: Gravecrawler, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Win Conditions

The deck contains a few key win conditions which provide enough versatility if one gets shut down:

1) The most common way to win is to fill the graveyard with zombies as quickly as possible and then cast Zombie Apocalypse, Living Death, Twilight's Call, Patriarch's Bidding, or Rise of the Dark Realms. With all of the card draw in the deck, it is actually quite easy to cycle to these cards. If you accidentally mill these win conditions, Pull from the Deep and Call to Mind help recur them. Once the zombie army is reanimated you win either through ETB triggers (like Gray Merchant of Asphodel) or by swinging wide.

2) Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Altar of Dementia + any other zombie: This makes an infinite combo of casting Gravecrawler for free from the graveyard and sacrificing to the Altar of Dementia to mill out opponents.

3) Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Vengeful Dead/Diregraf Captain + Sac Outlet: Repeatedly sacrifice and cast Gravecrawler for free to infinitely ping opponents to death.

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 8 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.53
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, The Monarch, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
Folders	Commander decks, Interesting (Others' decks), Deck Ideas, Edh, Decks to consider, Commander Decks, edh, EDH Deck Ideas, Decks of Interest - EDH, Gisa Self Mill Zombies