Ever since we began the history of Magic, there have been a few, highly supported Tribes, that really matter. The core tribes, Goblins, Zombies, and Merfolk, all had leaders in Alpha that improved their ability. Meanwhile we saw Elves get added to that rotation pretty quickly. Adding in Slivers, I’d argue that those are the core five tribes of Magic-dom.

(And here I’m referring to Tribal synergy cards like Wellwisher or Goblin Grenade, not mere creatures that are useful and iconic, like Dragons or Angels).

Given the long history of Zombie lovin’, it’s been one of the most long-lived of the various tribes out there. Thus, when you are sitting down to play, seeing a Zombie deck is no surprise. You have tons of Zombie leaders for Commander as well.

Anyway, I wanted to call back to the first sets with a card printed in Eldritch Moon for mad Commander wranglings. Gisa and Geralf.

So let’s take a fun, graveyard-themed Zombie deck for a spin!

Gisa and Geralf?s Zombie Smash Rawr! ? EDH | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Gisa and Geralf

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Cemetery Reaper
• 1 Corpse Harvester
• 1 Cryptbreaker
• 1 Death Baron
• 1 Deathmark Prelate
• 1 Diregraf Captain
• 1 Diregraf Colossus
• 1 Drunau Corpse Trawler
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Gempalm Polluter
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1 Grave Defiler
• 1 Graveborn Muse
• 1 Gravedigger
• 1 Gravespawn Sovereign
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Lich Lord of Unx
• 1 Lord of the Undead
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Noxious Ghoul
• 1 Relentless Dead
• 1 Risen Executioner
• 1 Shepherd of Rot
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Skinrender
• 1 Soulless One
• 1 Stitcher Geralf
• 1 Stronghold Assassin
• 1 Undead Alchemist
• 1 Undead Warchief
• 1 Vengeful Dead
• 1 Withered Wretch
• 1 Zombie Trailblazer

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Liliana, Defiant Necromancer
• 1 Liliana, the Last Hope

• Spells (22)
• 1 Cruel Revival
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Murder
• 1 Spite // Malice
• 1 Summary Dismissal
• 1 Army of the Damned
• 1 Dark Salvation
• 1 Dread Summons
• 1 Syphon Flesh
• 1 Zombie Apocalypse
• 1 Call to the Grave
• 1 Curse of Shallow Graves
• 1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1 Graf Harvest
• 1 Grave Betrayal
• 1 Necromancer's Stockpile
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rooftop Storm
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Dimir Cluestone
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (39)
• 11 Island
• 11 Swamp
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Darkslick Shores
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Unholy Grotto
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Watery Grave

Buy This Deck

This is a good example of a deck with a strong theme around “Zombie Go!” Using Gisa and Geralf, you grab some cards, toss them in the graveyard, and then to recur one Zombie a turn for no additional cards, just the normal casting cost. That flexibility gives you the ability to play the best Zombie for the situation. You can bring your Zombies back after mass-removal, and acts as a powerful additional hand.

I am also putting in every single Zombie lord and other pro-Zombie cards. the result is a deck that pushes your Zombies to the maximum level.

Even though I included a few fun and clever cards in here, this is really a decklist which would work perfectly with any Zombie-based Commander. Zombie Trailblazer! Vengeful Dead! Undead Alchemist! Drunau Corpse Trawler! You get the idea. Most of the cards in here would be just as good in another deck. But ironically, Gisa and Geralf are the only major Dimir Zombie enabler. (Unless you think of Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as a Zombie enabler) So run them, and get your Zombie on!

Although, again, I’m unsure this deck is any more unique than a decklist featuring leaders like Sedris, the Traitor King.

Another way to build this deck is to enhance the graveyard aspects of Gisa and Geralf in order to best use that graveyard milling and usage.

So let’s build that deck.

Now there will likely be some non-Zombies in here that suit the theme perfectly. Take River Kelpie as a great example. Every time you use your Commander to play a Zombie from your graveyard, you will trigger that Kelpie and draw a card. That’s good synergy.

I’m looking to improve our interactive-ness.

Gisa and Geralf?s Gobstopping Graveyards ? EDH | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Gisa and Geralf

• Creatures (36)
• 1 Body Double
• 1 Cackling Fiend
• 1 Cemetery Reaper
• 1 Coffin Queen
• 1 Corpse Connoisseur
• 1 Corpse Harvester
• 1 Cryptbreaker
• 1 Diregraf Captain
• 1 Diregraf Colossus
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Forgotten Creation
• 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1 Graveborn Muse
• 1 Gravecrawler
• 1 Gravedigger
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 Havengul Lich
• 1 Lich Lord of Unx
• 1 Lord of the Undead
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Noxious Ghoul
• 1 Phenax, God of Deception
• 1 Phyrexian Delver
• 1 Prized Amalgam
• 1 Relentless Dead
• 1 Risen Executioner
• 1 River Kelpie
• 1 Shepherd of Rot
• 1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1 Skinrender
• 1 Stitcher Geralf
• 1 Unbreathing Horde
• 1 Undead Gladiator
• 1 Undead Warchief
• 1 Vengeful Pharaoh
• 1 Withered Wretch

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Jace, Memory Adept
• 1 Liliana Vess

• Spells (22)
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Spite // Malice
• 1 Summary Dismissal
• 1 Army of the Damned
• 1 Dread Summons
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Sever the Bloodline
• 1 Syphon Flesh
• 1 Zombie Apocalypse
• 1 Call to the Grave
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Necromancer's Stockpile
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Rooftop Storm
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of Light and Shadow
• 1 Witchbane Orb

• Lands (39)
• 11 Island
• 11 Swamp
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Creeping Tar Pit
• 1 Darkslick Shores
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Dismal Backwater
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Jwar Isle Refuge
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Strip Mine
• 1 Unholy Grotto
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Wasteland
• 1 Watery Grave

Buy This Deck

New cards include:

• Vengeful Pharaoh
• Gravecrawler
• Undead Gladiator
• Prized Amalgam
• Havengul Lich
• Corpse Connoisseur
• River Kelpie
• Coffin Queen
• Forgotten Creation
• Unbreathing Horde
• Body Double
• Phyrexian Delver
• Phenax, God of Deception
• Jace, Memory Adept
• Living Death
• Sever the Bloodline
• Dissipate
• Increasing Ambition
• Witchbane Orb
• Leyline of the Void
• Lightning Greaves
• Sword of Light and Shadow
• Bojuka Bog

Why these cards and what’s going on? Excellent question!

So I wanted to emphasize the graveyard more with this iteration of the Gisa and Geralf narrative. So I retained anything from the first deck that worked in the graveyard.

Take lords like Risen Executioner or Lord of the Undead. These clearly help your Zombie team as well as interacting positively with a stocked graveyard. You get it. We retained stuff like Geth, Lord of the Vault, who can reanimate stuff as needed.

I also retained stuff that I liked from my Zombie triggers. Take the good Noxious Ghoul as a great example. If you are regularly playing Zombies from the graveyard, then this has a powerful anti-non-Zombie theme. We have a handful of creatures it will hurt (including our leaders, by the by) while we are also rocking a huge amount of immune dorks. Our foes will often have no Zombies at all, and not only will this kill off small stuff, but you can use it post-combat to kill stuff you almost damaged and to layer on triggers by playing more Zombies to clean the field. And cards like Rooftop Storm or Undead Warchief work just as well to reduce costs from the graveyard as they do elsewhere.

Another card that already worked well and works arguably better here is Corpse Harvester. Normally you can sacrifice a creature for a Swamp and a Zombie, so it’s a great, grindy way to get card advantage turn after turn after turn. But in here, with so many creatures that self-recur getting tossed into the bin, its sacrifice into two cards is even better. Sacrifice Prized Amalgam or Gravecrawler. You’ve got this. (Check out a combo with it and Corpse Connoisseur. Cast the Connoisseur, and use the trigger to put Gravecrawler into your graveyard for future harvesting. If you don’t have the Connoisseur already, make that your first fetch after you use the Harvester, and then drop it to get the engine going.)

So why is Witchbane Orb here? Excellent question! There are two major types of graveyard hate. I wanted to protect ourselves from one angle of attack. One type of exiling hate targets a player. Nihil Spellbomb, Crypt Incursion, Suffer the Past, Bojuka Bog, stuff like that. Since the Orb gives you hexproof, you are immune to that sort of mass graveyard hate. Hopefully you can counter smaller targeted removal that hurts. I also run Summary Dismissal in case you need to counter a Tormod's Crypt or something that’s already in play and is used against you. (If you feel that you need more options you could look at things like Trickbind, Stifle, or Squelch)

So that’s why I have graveyard sensitive cards. And you can see the value in stuff like Jace, Memory Adept, who draws you a card and mills one card to your graveyard or Sword of Light and Shadow returning dead creatures to your hand. I mean I don’t think you need me to invest paragraphs into that stuff. I tossed in some flashback in case those cards flip over, giving you the opportunity to cast them again. It’s pretty obvious stuff.

Especially when we have fun and unusual cards here and there. Coffin Queen works! Phyrexian Delver works! Body Double has obvious value! Yay cards!

And that’s pretty much a sneaky graveyard Zombie deck!

Check out Ashes of the Fallen. I didn’t include it, but if your deck includes more non-Zombies, then you can Ashes that up and replay them with Gisa and Geralf.

There were a lot of cards on my Almost Played list for the second iteration. I wanted to give them to you in case you were interested, or your deck stock required a different dose of cards. There are a lot of them out here though. Get ready!

Other Graveyard and Fun Based Possibilities:

Zombie Creatures:

• Twisted Abomination
• Scourge of Nel Toth
• Necrosavant
• Raving Dead
• Noosegraf Mob
• Jhessian Zombies
• Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• Gloomdrifter
• Corpse Augur
• Ashen Ghoul
• Cairn Wanderer
• Veilborn Ghoul

Non-Zombie Self Recursive Stuff:

• Stinkweed Imp
• Nether Shadow
• Nether Spirit
• Bloodghast
• Bloodsoaked Champion
• Champion of Stray Souls
• Reassembling Skeleton
• Marang River Prowler

Non-Zombie Creatures that Care About your Graveyard:

• Necrotic Ooze
• Wonder
• Filth
• Hell's Caretaker
• Sewer Nemesis
• Sheoldred, Whispering One
• Soul of Innistrad
• Soul of New Phyrexia
• Tolarian Serpent
• Snapcaster Mage
• Avatar of Woe
• Doomed Necromancer

Non-Creature Synergetic Stuff:

• Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
• Forbidden Alchemy
• Buried Alive
• Chainer's Edict
• Deep Analysis
• Dread Return
• Mystical Teachings
• Oona's Grace
• Visions of Beyond
• Extract from Darkness
• Entomb

All of those cards were in the last section of stuff I was looking at, and just didn’t make the cut. But there’s a lot of value there! You can build a strong deck for everyone from it.

Zombie RAWR!