RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE, GRIMGRIM!
This is the reborn version of my Grimgrin EDH deck. The deck is a mess of win cons- commander damage, large volumes of tokens, or straight up combos all come together. The most important part of the deck is to know when you have an explosive hand that combos as early as turn 4, and when to play battlecruiser while digging deep in the deck to find combos. If you're looking at fast acceleration, early tutor effects, and pieces of a combo (at least 2 usually), go for that combo as fast as possible. If you just have a nice sustainable value-town hand, be chill Grimgrin, and just make cool zombies and stuff.
I used to have a TON of janky combos. Now it's down to 2.
Option 1: Rooftop Storm + Grimgrin (or a sacrifice outlet) + Gravecrawler or
Risen Executioner
+ Diregraf Captain,
Vengeful Dead
, Altar of the Brood, or Altar of Dementia. This is easy enough- sacrifice Gravecrawler to Grimgrin, people/person loses life (or mills), repeat ad naseum. For the last step, prefer to use the zombies over the altars. If using altars, you need another zombie if you're using Gravecrawler, cuz he cannot reanimate on his own. Executioner DOES reanimate for free in the presence of dead friends and Rooftop Storm, so don't let anyone stop you from that. Also altars can't mill people using old Eldrazi titans (Ulamog or Kozilek), so don't bother. (You can technically tell them to repeat this cycle until those are the only cards left in their deck, but some people will be complete assholes about a shortcut in a hidden zone. Just remind those people you're playing a casual format :P). However, if you have Undead Alchemist out, he'll gobble the Eldrazi as they get processed through the graveyard.
Option 2: Nim Deathmantle + Ashnod's Altar +
Grave Titan
. This combo ends with infinite zombies and colorless mana. Sac zombie, sac zombie, sac the Titan, use 4 of the 6 you've made to put him on Nim, he enters again, makes more guys, repeat. Giant army of the damned. This is a two turn combo as they don't have haste. Luckily it can use the same cards from the last combo to win the same turn! You can also replace Grave Titan with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Phyrexian Delver. You sacrifice the Merchant, then Delver, then bring Delver back, bringing Merchant back, draining the table. Important to note that this combo does not always work- if you have less than 5 devotion and are against a single opponent, Gary will give you 4 life, but Delver will take 5. However it's unlikely that that entire scenario will happen- most likely you net life off this combo.
A couple cool non infinite synergies:
Sidisi, Undead Vizier +
Unholy Grotto
- replace your draw step with 4BBB: Tutor a card.
Lich Lord of Unx + Undead Alchemist- Massive milling makes many multiplayer matches mad.
You'll usually want to use your tutor effects to set up MORE tutor effects. For example, one playtest saw me use Demonic Tutor to grab Buried Alive to bury Gravecrawler, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. I then played Phyrexian Delver to get back Jin-Gitaxias, who then dug through my deck, found
Unholy Grotto
, and started recurring Sidisi. It sounds clunky, but this guarantees a tutor every 1-2 turns, versus a few quick attempts at comboing off. Now if your combo cards are taken away, you can tutor for value. (I reanimated Jin instead of Sidisi as he is both a huge boost for me and a huge nuisance for everyone else. Also Sheoldred was stuck in my hand).
Grimgrin has a few good buddies in this deck. Gravecrawler is obviously his favorite, but Reassembling Skeleton, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Bloodghast, and Lich Lord of Unx are all welcome to the fold. Just keep reanimating dudes or making tokens, then eat those tokens and/or dudes as you punch people's faces. Use Grimgrin politically, swinging at whoever has the most annoying toys and taking them away from them.
Lastly comes the games where you neither get combos nor your commander. For those ones, just straight try to out-value your opponents. Turn 1 creature into 3, evolve a board presence that never truly dies, and reanimate Sheoldred for a good time. I still keep finding new and exciting combos in this deck, so by no means is this all you can do. Test it, try it, tweak it. Find the right zombies for your life and your needs.
