Sideboard


Maybeboard


Just a fun deck, looking for suggestions!

Main: You have a few paths to victory with the deck: 1) swarm and overwhelm them with an army of zombies 2) deck yourself while Laboratory Maniac is on the field, or 3) mill your opponents.

There are a TON of ways to make zombies as this deck is geared towards this and is the primary strategy. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant will probably be the main way. This deck is crammed with creatures and ways to bin them from your library, including Mesmeric Orb , Selhoff Occultist , and Embalmer's Tools . Helm of the Host can copy Sidisi, which will make it easier to bin more creatures and get more tokens off of those creatures. Another way to generate zombies is Undead Alchemist with Altar of the Brood , Lich Lord of Unx , and Consuming Aberration ( Helm of the Host and Altar of Dementia also work very well with this combo), which also encompasses the mill strategy for this deck. Outside of that, Diregraf Colossus , Cryptbreaker , Open the Graves , Field of the Dead , Endless Ranks of the Dead , Doubling Season , Parallel Lives , Cemetery Reaper , Ghoulcaller Gisa , Liliana, Death's Majesty , Liliana, Dreadhorde General , Liliana, the Last Hope , Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet , Grave Titan , and Lich Lord of Unx all make more zombies.

Sakura-Tribe Elder , Solemn Simulacrum , Wood Elves , Farhaven Elf , and World Shaper are the ramp creatures; Bloodghast , Gravecrawler , Nether Traitor , Prized Amalgam , Reassembling Skeleton , Relentless Dead , and Scourge of Nel Toth (and kinda Risen Executioner ) all return from the graveyard easily and are great sac targets for Prime Speaker Vannifar , Birthing Pod (which help tutor for the creatures you need), Drowned Rusalka , Izoni, Thousand-Eyed , Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord , Grimgrin, Corpse-Born , Altar of Dementia , Blasting Station , and Attrition . There's also the Butcher of Malakir and Grave Pact combo for all the creatures you sac. Eternal Witness , Genesis , Golgari Findbroker , Havengul Lich , Lord of the Undead , Muldrotha, the Gravetide , Mikaeus, the Unhallowed , Journey to Eternity  , and Hell's Caretaker all can bring creatures/cards back from the graveyard; In Garruk's Wake , Plague Wind , Cyclonic Rift , Liliana, Death's Majesty , and Liliana, Dreadhorde General are board clears. Other cards that I haven't specifically mentioned are utility cards that can draw cards, tutor, gain life, boost zombies, etc.

Side: I have no idea what I should do for the sideboard. I have Hair-Strung Koto as essentially a copy of Embalmer's Tools , Dictate of Erebos as another copy of Grave Pact , Mortal Combat for yet another win condition, Vengeful Pharaoh for the cute interaction it has with Sidisi, Dread Summons for value, and Army of the Damned for fun.

Again, I have no idea what to do for the sideboard or if there's anything else that I'm obviously missing. Yes, I don't have that much spot removal, but that was intentional (to me, EDH is a fun format and spot removal is a bit too much anti-fun in my mind, I may need to rethink it though). I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and suggestions!

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After playing with the deck a bit, I've made lots of changes. There were a few things I noticed: 1) the deck was very susceptible to bad opening hands and not really drawing lands when you needed them, 2) the deck was quick sometimes but mostly took a while to set up/dredge enough cards, and 3) there were a number of cards that really only helped "win more" and that I was never really happy to draw and didn't really do anything when behind on board. That being said, here are the changes I made:

Out Bloodghast, Drowned Rusalka, Ghoulcaller Ghisa, Golgari Findbroker, Grave Titan, Gravecrawler, Hell's Caretaker, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Lich Lord of Unx, Nether Traitor, Prized Amalgam, Reassembling Skeleton, Scourge of Nel Toth, Selhoff Occultist, Bloodstained Mire, Opal Palace, Attrition, Grave Pact, Open the Graves, Plague Wind

In Acolyte of Affliction, Burnished Hart, Dakmor Salvage, Gisa and Geralf, Golgari Thug, Gravespawn Sovereign, Life from the Loam, Liliana, Untouched By Death, Mire Triton, Misty Rainforest, Murderous Rider, Overwhelming Forces, Phenax, God of Deception, Polukranos, Unchained, Rooftop Storm, Shambling Shell, Stitcher's Supplier, Storrev, Devkarin Lich, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Unliving Psychopath

Cards I'm not sure about Storrev, Unliving Psychopath, Syr Konrad, Izoni, Lili, Dreadhorde, Vraska, Gravecrawler, Grave Titan, Noxious Ghoul, Gary

I basically scrapped the strategy of sacrificing recurring creatures (Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Amalgam, Reassembling Skeleton, Nether Traitor) as I felt that was a bit slow and clunky and I really wanted slots for other cards I thought were better and had a more consistent effect on the game. Findbroker got an upgrade in Acolyte, Plague Wind replaced by Overwhelming Forces, Bloodstained Mire by Misty Rainforest, Hell's Caretaker by Gravespawn Sovereign, and Opal Palace by Dakmor Salvage. I felt that Rusalka and Scourge of Nel Toth were too slow and Grave Titan, Gisa, Open the Graves, Jarad, and Lich Lord of Unx were just "win more" cards and I never really felt happy about drawing them (except maybe Titan).

What I really felt the deck needed was increased speed. I originally didn't include Dredge cards because I wanted to maximize the number of zombies I could get with Sidisi with cards like Mesmeric Orb and Embalmer's Tools. I was absolutely wrong. Having access to the Dredge cards and ETB milling effects of Stitcher's Supplier, Triton, Acolyte, and Gisa & Geralf is what really fuels the deck. Having Loam and (to a lesser extent) Dakmor Salvage will really help ensure I hit land drops more consistently. Furthermore, I realized that I always felt like I had a better chance of winning whenever I had Havengul Lich on the battlefield, so the extra creature from Gisa & Geralf is exactly what I need. I'm wondering now whether include other ETB mill effects like Crow of Dark Tidings, Wailing Ghoul, and Necromancer's Assistant in the maindeck. I also toyed around with the idea of maining Hair-Strung Koto, but opted for Phenax instead. Koto does allow you to tap creatures that just came into play and maximizes your efficiency with Sidisi, but Phenax is a black creature that's cheaper to cast, so I decided for Phenax.

I also realized that I couldn't not include more spot removal (I wasn't finding Grave Pact & Attrition consistently enough and Attrition is surprisingly bad in some EDH games), so Murderous Rider, Polukranos, Lili Untouched, and Psychopath in. I'm really not sure about Psychopath. If you have Lord effects in play (which I have a number), then it could consistently kill other creatures, but that could also be too situational. I was thinking of using either Noxious Ghoul in place since it could fairly easily wipe opponent's boards, but it'll unfortunately kill Sidisi as well (a workaround would be to include Arcane Adaptation naming Zombie or putting Opal Palace back in so Sidisi could survive more zombies each time - the latter may be easier to achieve although the former saves all of my non-zombie creatures) or Skinrender, although that may not necessarily reliably kill anything. I could use Ravenous Chupacabra, but I'm trying to include as many Zombies as possible because I now have Liliana, Untouched by Death. She combined with Rooftop Storm is just bonkers - you can cast your whole graveyard! Further more, this makes an infinite combo with Blasting Station and Grimgrin.

I also have there a list of cards I'm not sure about. I talked about some already, but here are the others. Storrev is another black zombie that can bring back creatures and planeswalkers from the 'yard, but it needs to deal combat damage to do so. I'm not sure how consistently that'll happen, so he may have to be cut. Syr Konrad is another fun option since he mills everyone and hurts your opponents in the process, but he's expensive to cast and activate. Izoni is the exact same, although having access to life gain and card draw is important. Lili Dreadhorde is also very slow, but draws cards, makes everyone sac creatures, and, if you have doubling season out, pretty much wins the game when you cast her. Gary is also phenomenal. I've found that I have to shock myself a lot with lands and birthing pod, so having some way to make a big life swing could be awesome. Gravecrawler is also nice to have since it is another black zombie that makes an infinite combo if you have Rooftop storm and a sac outlet, but outside of that it really doesn't do anything. Vraska also has three nice abilities, but I'm not sure if "nice" is good enough to cut it.

If anyone has managed to read this far, congrats! You've done even better than me! I'd really like to hear people's thoughts and ideas about how to make the deck faster, more consistent, and more fun!

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

20 - 6 Mythic Rares

50 - 33 Rares

15 - 20 Uncommons

7 - 6 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.84
Tokens 1/1 B Token Creature Zombie Goblin, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Emblem Vraska, Golgari Queen, Enchantment Zombie 1/1 B, Experience Token, Insect 1/1 BG, Morph 2/2 C, On an Adventure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Haste
Folders edh, Sultai EDH, Zombie Decks
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