(Zombie Sarge by The Gurch, licensed under Creative Commons)
Commander season approaches us again! Commander 2014, an EDH-centric release built around five monocolored decks, will be released on November 7, and I for one can hardly wait. Wizards has been quite hushed about the release and the contents of the decks, but what we know is this: 1) all five decks will be monocolored; 2) each deck contains a Planeswalker that you can use as your Commander (so far, the blue Teferi has been spoiled); and 3) it's gonna be awesome. Call me a hype-addicted EDH weirdo, but right now even mentioning the sets gets me all giddy.
The two spoiled soon-to-be-Commanders are Gisa and Geralf, those two wacky necromancer siblings from Innistrad. I absolutely love the lore behind Geralf: his Dr. Frankenstein-esque skaab designs, his grandiose plans, his lack of knowledge on human anatomy - pretty much everything about him. That's why I was rather disappointed with the card itself. It's fairly lacking in power, and even though he's very flavorful, I would have liked a more streamlined, pushed design. As is, I can't see myself designing a deck for him. Sorry, stitchers!
Gisa, on the other hand, is one foxy lady, and a powerful Commander to boot. When you combine her ability (which is quite powerful even in vacuum) with untap shenanigans and cheap, high-power monsters, you can get to absurd levels of power with her. That, and I love sacrifice decks. Sure, boardwipe the table: here's a little something for every creature hitting the graveyard. Lovely.
That's why we're building a deck for Gisa the Mad today. There's two basic routes you can take with her: Zombie tribal and combo. While I do love me some Zombies, the fact of the matters is that many tribal enablers, such as Patriarch's Bidding and Urza's Incubator, as well as the many Zombie lords, are heavy on the wallet. Thus, we'll take the other route. Untap shenanigans, here we come!
Break the Blessed Sleep - Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH
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ARTIFACT (12)
- Coalition Relic
- Lightning Greaves
- Loxodon Warhammer
- Magewright's Stone
- Mimic Vat
- Obelisk of Urd
- Puppet Strings
- Ratchet Bomb
- Sol Ring
- Swiftfoot Boots
- Thornbite Staff
- Thousand-Year Elixir
- Abyssal Gatekeeper
- Artisan of Kozilek
- Blood Artist
- Bloodghast
- Butcher of Malakir
- Cemetery Reaper
- Coffin Queen
- Corpse Connoisseur
- Death Baron
- Deathgreeter
- Demon of Death's Gate
- Desecration Elemental
- Driver of the Dead
- Falkenrath Noble
- Grave Titan
- Gravecrawler
- Harvester of Souls
- Liege of the Pit
- Lord of the Undead
- Noxious Ghoul
- Ogre Slumlord
- Phyrexian Dreadnought
- Phyrexian Soulgorger
- Reassembling Skeleton
- Scuttling Doom Engine
- Sheoldred, Whispering One
- Solemn Simulacrum
- Tenacious Dead
- Undead Warchief
- Vengeful Dead
- Viscera Dragger
- Waning Wurm
- Wurmcoil Engine
- Zombie Master
CREATURE (34)
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ENCHANTMENT (4)
- Black Market
- Dictate of Erebos
- Grave Pact
- Phyrexian Arena
- Go for the Throat
- Hero's Downfall
- Beacon of Unrest
- Damnation
- Demonic Tutor
- Gild
- Life's Finale
- Mutilate
- Sever the Bloodline
- Syphon Flesh
- Syphon Mind
- Toxic Deluge
- Barren Moor
- Bojuka Bog
- Cabal Coffers
- Crypt of Agadeem
- Dust Bowl
- High Market
- Homeward Path
- Lake of the Dead
- Miren, the Moaning Well
- Mutavault
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
- Opal Palace
- Phyrexian Tower
- Polluted Mire
- 19 Swamp
- Temple of the False God
- Thawing Glaciers
- Wasteland
- Winding Canyons
INSTANT (2)
SORCERY (10)
LAND (37)
The deck has a lot of cards like Phyrexian brothers Dreadnought and Soulgorger, Demon of Death's Gate, Desecration Elemental and Liege of the Pit; cheap, powerful creatures with drawbacks that don't matter with Gisa. Just make sure you have that one black mana available and remember to activate our foxy Commander before the relevant triggers give you a headache. Untap effects (Magewright's Stone, Thousand-Year Elixir etc.) make your combo flow, recur creatures (Bloodghast, Gravecrawler etc.) mean you always have sac targets, and removal takes care of the rest. Thornbite Staff is especially nasty: with it, you can activate Gisa's ability as many times as you have black mana available (target your own Zombies when you run out of targets).
And all this for around 450 dollars! Oh wait, that's hardly budget-friendly. Luckily, a lot of the cards in the deck are replaceable with slightly less in-your-face, toned-down versions with similar results. One of the benefits of playing a budget deck is that you're rarely the target. When you lay down a Thousand-Year Elixir and a Wurmcoil Engine, your opponents will know something's up. Much less so when you cast an innocent-looking Crumbling Colossus... and follow it up with Thornbite Staff and several activations of Gisa's ability.
So the expensive cards have got to go. When building a budget deck, I operate on the idea that no single card except the Commander should cost much over a dollar, and the whole deck shouldn't go much past 50 dollars. The exception to this rule is when I happen to already own an expensive card (from a booster or a good trade), which I will happily cram into any deck that will take it, as well as a few select cards I believe you should splurge on (more about this in my next Sunday post).
Goodbye, Coalition Relic and Mimic Vat! Arrivederci, Lightning Greaves and Scuttling Doom Engine! Au revoir, Zombie Master and Black Market! In their stead, we'll use an assortment of similar cards which, while not as ridiculous in raw power, will do the job. Here's the revised, more wallet-friendly list:
Budget Necromancy - Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH
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ARTIFACT (13)
- Ashnod's Altar
- Bonesplitter
- Darksteel Axe
- Loxodon Warhammer
- Magewright's Stone
- Obelisk of Urd
- Puppet Strings
- Ratchet Bomb
- Ring of Xathrid
- Sol Ring
- Strata Scythe
- Swiftfoot Boots
- Thornbite Staff
- Abyssal Gatekeeper
- Blood Artist
- Brood of Cockroaches
- Butcher of Malakir
- Corpse Connoisseur
- Corrosive Mentor
- Crumbling Colossus
- Deathgreeter
- Delraich
- Demonlord of Ashmouth
- Desecration Elemental
- Dregscape Zombie
- Driver of the Dead
- Evernight Shade
- Falkenrath Noble
- Grixis Slavedriver
- Harvester of Souls
- Hunted Horror
- Liege of the Pit
- Noxious Ghoul
- Ogre Slumlord
- Pawn of Ulamog
- Phyrexian Soulgorger
- Reassembling Skeleton
- Rotting Rats
- Sadistic Hypnotist
- Solemn Simulacrum
- Tenacious Dead
- Veilborn Ghoul
- Vengeful Dead
- Viscera Dragger
- Volrath the Fallen
- Waning Wurm
CREATURE (33)
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ENCHANTMENT (3)
- Cover of Darkness
- Dictate of Erebos
- Mind Slash
- Altar's Reap
- Rescue from the Underworld
- Bone Splinters
- Dregs of Sorrow
- Gild
- Life's Finale
- Mutilate
- Rise from the Grave
- Sever the Bloodline
- Skulltap
- Syphon Flesh
- Syphon Mind
- Barren Moor
- Blasted Landscape
- Bojuka Bog
- Crypt of Agadeem
- Opal Palace
- Polluted Mire
- 31 Swamp
- Temple of the False God
INSTANT (2)
SORCERY (10)
LAND (38)
Power-increasing equipment has largely taken over the role of the expensive creatures of the previous deck. Voltron up a creature at will and then sac it, receiving a big bunch of Zombies. Even a measly Darksteel Axe pumps out two extra Zombies, and with an equip cost of just two mana, it'll be moving around a lot. A few extra sac sources (Ashnod's Altar, Sadistic Hypnotist, Altar's Reap, Skulltap etc.) take up the role of the expensive sac lands that were cut out. I also added a land to the deck, what with the less degenerate pool to choose from.
That's all for today, folks! Keep on waiting for new Commander 2014 spoilers - I know I will. Come back on Thursday, when we'll revisit a certain lovable scamp from a ecumenopolis we've all come to love.
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