Gisa's Undying Horde

Commander / EDH

resplendentobscurity

Fodder (18)

• 1x Abyssal Persecutor
• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Nantuko Shade
• 1x Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Phyrexian Gargantua
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Skirsdag High Priest
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Unbreathing Horde

Recursion (10)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Mimic Vat
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Wake the Dead

Beater (7)

• 1x Abyssal Persecutor
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Unbreathing Horde

Discard (4)

• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Mindslicer
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Syphon Mind

Removal (16)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Butcher of Malakir
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demon of Dark Schemes
• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Mutilate
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Reaper from the Abyss
• 1x Ruinous Path
• 1x Shriekmaw
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Tragic Slip
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Vampire Hexmage

Ramp (10)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Magus of the Coffers
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Unstable Obelisk

Sac (8)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Attrition
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Flesh Carver
• 1x Hell's Caretaker
• 1x Mind Slash
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist

Commander (1)

Draw (13)

• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Greed
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
• 1x Phyrexian Gargantua
• 1x Promise of Power
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Skeletal Scrying
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Syphon Mind

Land (37)

• 1x Arcane Lighthouse
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Desert of the Glorified
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 29x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God

Utility (5)

• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thornbite Staff
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

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Maybeboard

Other (3)

• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Sangromancer

Discard (2)

• 1x Larceny
• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach

Fodder (1)

• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach

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The aim of the deck: Make Zombies! And kill things!

However, just making zombies every turn isn't all that exciting.

So, we want to make zombies in order to do gain advantage.

Sacrifice

Cards like Mind Slash, Attrition, Ashnod's Altar, Sadistic Hypnotist, Hell's Caretaker, etc. are all great sac outlets that let you gain some advantage either on board, or in hand. Tokens are cheap, and this deck makes a ton of them. Attacking with them can be a great way to close out a game, but early on, that's not what we want to be doing.

Recursion

Recursion is a big theme in the deck. We want value where ever we can get it. Cards like Mimic Vat, Nim Deathmantle, Victimize etc all helps us to do just that. Due to this, I've decided to learn toward creatures with good / control oriented ETB effects: Grave Titan, Fleshbag Marauder, Disciple of Bolas, etc. A fun interaction that I've yet to pull off is Demon of Dark Schemes with a bunch of zombies on the board, giving me the ability to pull back my own and my opponents' best creatures.

Weaknesses

It's HUGE weakness being mono black is obviously enchantments and artifacts - I have Unstable Obelisk in here just to be able to get rid things like that - I should probably also put in Nevinyrral's Disk, and a Scour from Existence but Nev's Disk is in one of my other decks, and I don't have Scour.

It's usually pretty slow to start off, so I've tried jamming as much ramp as I can, without having too much. The best I've done is cast Gisa on turn 2 thanks to Sol Ring + a 2 CMC mana rock. But it usually takes a while to really get things going.

Boardwipes can also really suck. Though, due to having fairly easy access to making tokens and recursion it's not the worst. As far as flavor goes, you're a necromancer, so death isn't likely to set you back nearly as much as anyone else. For example, in a game where Worldslayer went off 3 times, I ended winning because of being able to get things like Grave Titan back for as little 2-3 mana.

Also, again, due to being mono black and being more oriented toward creature control, it feels like there isn't a whole lot to do when up against non-creature based decks. Might put in a Larceny to try to get around some of the weaknesses - Usually, I have more creatures than most others, so getting in for some damage could make the card worth it.

Combos

Ghoulcaller Gisa + Thornbite Staff gives you a ton of zombies. Magus of the Coffers + Thornbite Staff + a sac outlet gives you tons of mana. Demon of Dark Schemes + lots of tokens gives you the ability to convert your tokens into good creatures.

A combo I haven't put in, because I'm not a huge fan of infinite combos is: Magus of the Coffers + Gravecrawler + Thornbite Staff + a free sac outlet like Ashnod's Altar or Sadistic Hypnotist = infinite mana.

I haven't put it in because I find infinite combo's to be a bit boring, and I don't have a good use for all of that mana. Exsanguinate, or Demon of Dark Schemes, or being able to untap Ghoulcaller Gisa infinitely at instant speed would be alright, but again, I don't think it's all that interesting.

Overall, I think it's a fun deck. It has a fairly straight play style: Kill your own things, kill your opponents things, and bring everything back from the dead. There have been many times where I've got the board down on lock thanks to cards like Attrition, Mimic Vat/Nim Deathmantle where I'm sacing and recurring cards like Grey Merchant of Asphodel, or Grave Titan, or Fleshbag Marauder, etc. allowing me build up a huge army and / or drain and gain a bunch of life, and ensure my opponents don't have creatures to swing at me with.

It was the mono black 2014 precon that I've altered quite a bit, and it's the first deck that I pseudo-built, so it has a bit of sentimentality to me. It also taught me that black is one of my favorite colors. That said, I've been thinking about switching it toMeren of Clan Nel Toth, because I feel like what this deck wants to do would only be made better with Meren at the helm, but we'll see!

It's a continuous work in progress. It's not finely tuned, and I'm always looking for ways to make it, and my general deck building skills better. That said, I play in a fairly low-mid powered play group, so I'm not looking to make it super broken.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Ghoulcaller Gisa + Thornbite Staff Magus of the Coffers + Thornbite Staff
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 31 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.86
Tokens	Copy Clone, Demon 5/5 B, Demon */* B, Emblem Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Energy Reserve, Horror */* B, Zombie 2/2 B