Grimgrin, Millstone Born

Commander / EDH Combo Mill UB (Dimir) Zombie

xaarvaxus

Creature (35)

• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Gisa and Geralf
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Jhessian Zombies
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Liliana's Reaver
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Noxious Ghoul
• 1x Phenax, God of Deception
• 1x Prized Amalgam
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Stitcher's Supplier
• 1x Tomebound Lich
• 1x Twisted Abomination
• 1x Undead Alchemist
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Wonder

Land (38)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 2x Island
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Nephalia Drownyard
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 8x Swamp
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (6)

• 1x Entomb
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mausoleum Secrets
• 1x Perplex

Commander (1)

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Attrition
• 1x Call to the Grave
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Gate to Phyrexia
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Necroduality
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Pilfered Plans
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Artifact (3)

• 1x Mesmeric Orb
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sol Ring

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty

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Maybeboard

Creature (8)

• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x God-Eternal Bontu
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Helldozer
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Skinrender
• 1x The Scarab God

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Secrets of the Dead
• 1x Underworld Connections

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms

Land (3)

• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Lake of the Dead

Artifact (4)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Altar of the Brood
• 1x Embalmer's Tools
• 1x Skullclamp

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• 1x Liliana, Untouched By Death

Instant (1)

• 1x Necrotic Wound

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Current version of long running EDH deck that I constantly tinker with. Looking for any advice that can help streamline the mill strategy, lower overall deck CMC, or just make the deck run faster.

Mill Combo: Show

Tap Grimgrin, Corpse-Born using the ability granted by Phenax, God of Deception to mill cards equal to Grimgrin's current toughness; sac Gravecrawler to untap Grimgrin, increasing his toughness by 1 then tap and use his mill ability again; with Rooftop Storm in play, Gravecrawler can be cast for 0 from the graveyard allowing for infinite mill. The combo is much slower without Rooftop Storm but getting a horde of zombies out with a couple of lords in play adds up quickly as well.

Other Strategies: Show

If the big mill combo doesn't look like it will come together quick enough or you've already lost a key piece, self-milling with whatever tools are still available; Nephalia Drownyard, Stitcher's Supplier, Forbidden Alchemy etc and then firing off Zombie Apocalypse, Rise of the Dark Realms or Living Death [saccing your creatures in play to Carrior Feeder or Grimgrin in response so they come back on spell resolution] with a lord or two should net a large enough army to end someone's game.

Sometimes you can just get a hand that curves out: Gravecrawler into Withered Wretch into a 3CMC zombie lord into Grave Pact into your commander and recur the crawler to keep Grim untapped & attacking while Pact triggers keep your opponents low on creatures to block allowing Grimgrin to blow up whatever remains and get into the red zone, growing larger each time.

The deck can also win with the combo of: Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Vengeful Dead or Diregraf Captain. Sac Gravecrawler to the Altar for {B}, Vengeful or Captain deals 1 damage to either the table or target opponent, then recast the Crawler from the graveyard with the one {B} mana, rinse and repeat until everyone is dead.

Don't be afraid to leave Graveborn Muse out for 3+ turns if you need to find cards to pull a strategy together, the Merchant can recoup a fair amount of life to support your card draw habit and can act as a backup win-con if recurred with Gisa and Geralf, Havengul Lich or Unholy Grotto.

The deck is also capable of generating big chunks of mana with Crypt of Agadeem, Cabal Coffers/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to allow some big turns. Have considered adding Exsanguinate and/or Torment of Hailfire to make use of the mana.

Gravecrawler/Buried Alive Show

Gravecrawler is your most important card outside of your commander and should be the first thing you use a tutor or Buried Alive to get with Prized Amalgam and Wonder being typical second and third picks if it looks like you're the beatdown deck or Midnight Reaper and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for longer games. Buried Alive is important enough that Perplex is in there just to search for it. I don't think I've ever used it to counter a spell.

Budget Options: Show

I've included some more budget conscious options under the maybeboard to bring down the cost of the deck. Nearly half the price is the Underground Sea. A card like Gate to Phyrexia can just be cut without a cheaper equiv., I might take it out as well as it doesn't seem to come up often enough when I need it and is sometimes too slow when it does so don't take on that additional expense. OUT-Underground Sea, IN-Dimir Guildgate, OUT-Gate to Phyrexia, IN-Underworld Connections, OUT-Mesmeric Orb, IN-Altar of the Brood, OUT-Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, IN-Grave Titan [still a little expensive] or Helldozer, OUT-Lord of the Undead, IN-Josu Vess, Lich Knight, OUT-Patriarch's Bidding, IN-Phyrexian Reclamation, OUT-Demonic Tutor, IN-Diabolic Tutor, OUT-Cabal Coffers, IN-Cabal Stronghold [I'd increase the number of basic swamps a bit for this], OUT-Grave Pact, IN-Dictate of Erebos.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.39
Tokens	Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
Folders	Commander decks