The Day the Dead Walked

Commander / EDH* Mono-Black Reanimator Tribal Zombie

D2Toaster

Creature (25)

• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Gempalm Polluter
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gravespawn Sovereign
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Noxious Ghoul
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Risen Executioner
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Zombie Trailblazer

Instant (5)

• 1x Dismember
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Sudden Death
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Wretched Confluence

Artifact (18)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Heirloom Blade
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Obelisk of Urd
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Dark Salvation
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Kindred Dominance
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Worst Fears

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms

Commander (1)

Land (38)

• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 30x Swamp
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Wasteland

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Contamination
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

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Zombie tribal deck with Ghoulcaller Gisa as the commander.

Zombie is one of the oldest and most powerful creature types along with Elf, Goblin, Soldier, and Wizard. (In contrast, some tribal like Giant, are hard to build. I've built one here Fee Fi Fo Fum)

Zombie tribal is so old that it makes me think of all the years since I started playing.

I started playing Magic around 2001 and the Apocalypse preconstructed zombie deck was one of the first decks I played. It was , and the most tribal and powerful feature it had was Strength of Night. I had fun overwhelming friends with it.

Then, a few years later, the Onslaught block came out. A lot more powerful tribal cards were released and I changed my zombie deck to mono black. (My friends and I still played free format at the time)

I stopped playing around the time Shards of Alara was released, because I'd never felt like playing standard or extended, and free format became less enjoyable when others always cared about game format. This made me miss out Innistrad, a block full of Zombies. I still played draft from time to time, usually when a new set is released. Therefore, news of Magic still reached me. By the time the block Return to Ravnica came out, I'd learned EDH was a thing and started to work on a Zombie tribal EDH deck since then. The first few versions sucked so I gave up until Commander 2014 came out, and I gave it one more try with Gisa. It worked. A few more upgrades has been made from last year's Shadow over Innistrad. Now it's one of my most favorable and powerful decks.

As you can see, this deck reminds me of my childhood and all the history of Magic. To me, it's this kind of deck that brings out the spirit of EDH; You use the cards you've got since you started playing and build around a theme that you love.

Most people here on Tappedout run zombie tribal decks with either Gisa and Geralf or Grimgrin, Corpse-Born for or Sidisi, Brood Tyrant for . While some do use Ghoulcaller Gisa, most of those decks are mono-black decks that include too many non-zombie creatures and are not so tribal themed.

In my build, while the tribal cards used may be similar to other builds, the strategy may be different. The key to make this deck work is to bring out a lot of zombies, and the efficient way to do that is token generation.

Once you have enough zombies, besides simply overwhelming your opponents, Coat of Arms and Endless Ranks of the Dead also become powerful and help your numbers grow exponentially. Cryptbreaker, Zombie Trailblazer, Shepherd of Rot, and Gravespawn Sovereign also do wonders when you have enough zombies.

Each mono-colored deck has it's weakness. For black it's the lack of non-creature removal. I've lost many games facing cards like Propaganda, Glacial Chasm, Iona, Shield of Emeria (it's a creature, but it's the nemesis of mono-colored decks), or Necrotic Ooze etc. Therefore, I run Unstable Obelisk and Pithing Needle. It's not the most efficient removal, but it's one of the only ones available.

Suggestions are welcome, but I play with a budget so please don't suggest cards that are too pricey.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 30 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.53
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B
Folders	EDH, EDH