JJones1090: I used to run Coat of Arms in here, but I ended up taking it out because the other Magic Dude I play most (scallahax) with plays a Prossh, Skyraider of Kher and a tribal Elf deck, so it was pumping all of his creatures too! It's an amazing card, but it can bite you in the ass in a big way if not used carefully (like many of the best ones such as Necropotence). Thanks for the suggestion and for liking the deck!

griffstick: Likewise, I am glad you like the deck, and you have some good suggestions here. I have added them to the maybeboard and will think about them. Tombstone Stairwell can be a little dangerous in this build, since I am milling my opponents with Mindcrank and Altar of the Brood. It also gives them fodder to sacrifice when I have Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos on the board, though it could certainly make Blood Artist explode.

I just saw this and thought of this deck. There couldnt be a better deck for this card then this one, Bitter Ordeal... your welcome.

Bitter Ordeal doesn't gravestorm for cards that are milled or discarded, unfortunately. Though mill isn't that central to this deck. It would work very well after a good boardwipe, however.

Ghoulcaller Gisa + Thornbite Staff on your own creatures. To make a bunch of tokens. Tokens count as perminents too , so kill your own tokens. They will remain in the graveyard, cause they dont fissle out until the end of your turn. Ghoulcaller Gisa + Thornbite Staff on your own tokens until theres enough in the graveyard to mill your opponent. Why would that not work

griffstick ~ token cards exile as soon as thet enter the grave yard. Your suggestion is still pretty good but I wanted to make sure you understood how it works.

Tokens hit the graveyard and then immediately "fizzle" as you put it (though they actually exile). Fizzling is a totally different thing. They exile as a state based action as there is no actual card (even if you have the requisite token card. They are just meant to represent a "fake" creature)

But its still a perminent so would this work?. Also as Ghoulcaller Gisa + Thornbite Staff reads ,it says nothing about what kind of creature, why cant you just keep killing her own tokens? Plus creature tokens hit the graveyard befor they exile aka perminents thus making this Bitter Ordeal a good idea.

griffstick ~ I wasn't saying it didn't work. I was stating that tokens don't leave the grave at end of turn. As you stated in your last comment they leave WHEN they hit the grave. Also Bitter Ordeal is a bad card. It's useless outside of that combo making it a bad inclusion for this deck.

What are your thoughts on Empty the Pits?

I don't think it's great in commander. I don't want to be exiling my graveyard, and it doesn't really give you that many tokens for what you are paying. It's good in Standard, but in EDH there are so many better options.

Shame really it's got great flavour. Nice video by the by!

Great video! On a scale of 1-10, what would you say the difficulty of learning to pilot this deck is for an average MTG player?

I think it's fairly easy? Maybe a 3? The only complicated thing is maybe the Cauldron of Souls + Mikaeus, the Unhallowed combo, which requires a bit of knowledge about the stack, but other than that it's fairly cut-and-dry. For some people it doesn't automatically click that with It That Betrays it doesn't matter whether HE was the one who made you sacrifice permanents in order for them to come under your control--it's just anytime an opponent sacrifices a permanent, period. I'm glad you liked the video. I'd like to make more of them for other decks!

The first thing that comes to mind when looking at your deck list here is Volrath's Stronghold. It's a guaranteed way to bring back the best creature from your graveyard... Including zombies. Shouldn't be too hard to fit this into a mono black deck.

Yeah, I've been meaning to pick one of those up, if only to act as a second Unholy Grotto for Gempalm Polluter. Thanks for reminding me, because I'd actually forgotten that I was going to grab one!

I love the deck.... i did the same one but the commander is Balthor the defiled(Fearless Zombie Horde), and the one that i made is actually 40+ creature based zombie deck armed to swarm even in multiplayer mode. i understand that your deck is a splashed cleric...and the twist has disrupt, but if you will, i would like to suggest some cards that might make you reconsider creating another decklist that focuses on this deck's potential..Gauntlet of Power, Akroma's Memorial, Endless ranks of the dead(Naruto X2 X2 X2 X2), Zombie Apocalypse, Army of the damned(kage bushin no jutsu x13), Helldozer(Lande is always cool hehehe and no drawback like that of demonic hordes), Withered Wretch is also a cool anti recursion for your opponents, Geth, lord of the Vault is also cool with Bonehoarde and Bloodchief Ascension synergizes with your Mindcrank,Corpse Harvester (is an MVP to fetch other MVPs and makesure that you don't go land drought), Reliquary tower for your Undead Muse with Scroll Rack to back her up aswell as Zombie infestation or Crown of Oblivion to throw those zombies for Balthor to dig.

I will post my Decklist soon so as to inspire you with the undead hordes

Dread: Most of these cards you are suggesting have already been discussed here.

Only half of my creatures are zombies, and my commander is a human, so Zombie Apocalypse isn't likely to be much help here.

Army of the Damned is super slow and at a high mana cost compared to how quickly and cheaply I can pump out tokens with Gisa; same with Endless Ranks of the Dead, which tends to get removed very quickly, often before I even get a single trigger from it. That's also the case with Bloodchief Ascension. People won't let that thing sit on the board long enough for it to become activated, and I'm not trying to go for an infinite combo with Mindcrank.

I'm not using Reliquary Tower because I want to be able to discard creatures into my graveyard so I can bring them back with Victimize, Reanimate, Beacon of Unrest, Rise of the Dark Realms, etc.. For the same reason, I'm not using Necropotence. I am fine with Graveborn Muse giving me more cards than I can keep because then I can dump them into my graveyard.

Akroma's Memorial would not be a bad idea, and I have thought about adding it here in the past. I have put that in the maybeboard, maybe to replace Dragon Throne of Tarkir. As for Geth, Lord of the Vault, I used to have him in this deck, but I feel like his activated ability just costs too much, and I usually have better things I can do with that mana.

Thornbite Staff with Ghoulcaller Gisa could be busted with Phyrexian Altar.

Alizer313: Yeah, I used to have Ashnod's Altar in here for ramping into a huge Exsanguinate or Diabolic Revelation. Both are definitely great fits in this build.

Hey, have you ever thought about Rings of Brighthearth? It really seems cut and dried with Gisa at the helm.

I thought about it, especially in the event I don't have her equipped with Thornbite Staff or it gets exiled. It is definitely a natural choice in here. The reason I didn't put it in is because I'm finding that I sometimes don't have enough creatures to sac with Gisa! 29 is a little bit low for such a creature-heavy deck, though oftentimes I Mimic Vat far larger creatures from others' decks than what I run. I'm actually thinking of culling a couple of non-creature cards and making room for some cheap sac fodder like Hunted Horror and Waning Wurm.

The last game I played with her, I Mimic Vatted this dude's Malignus. That was a good game. I won.

Heheh. Glad my suggestion of Mimic Vat worked out for ya :3

I feel like your deck -might- benefit from a few more tokens generators. There are some really awesome ones, like Thopter Assembly.

Yeah, Mimic Vat was an inspired suggestion. I'll have to think about Thopter Assembly. I don't usually like things that require waiting a go around the table to activate, but I have enough graveyard recursion here that unless it gets exiled, creatures kind of have a pass on that general rule.

Phyrexian Dreadnought im not shure but when this enters the batter field you have the choice to sac creatures eaqual to its power to keep it but, can you just sac Phyrexian Dreadnought in respose with Ghoulcaller Gisa. If you can then this is wayyy better then Hunted Horror.

I find it hard to imagine a mono-black EDH deck that wouldn't love Phyrexian Obliterator. A lot of red wraths are damage based, and he really makes those difficult to pull off for your opponent. If exiled with Mimic Vat, you can even cast him in response to damage-based wraths, which is just silly.

There may be special credence in putting him in this deck, as low-damage wrath effects like Anger of the Gods, etc. tend to screw with tokens. Ol' Phyrexo is a great way to say "NO." and will make your opponent's think twice before wrathing in that manner.