by Johnny Cycles, March 7th, 2024
In its quest to support what began as a kitchen-table format, Wizards of the Coast began printing preconstructed decks (precons) for Commander in 2011. The first decks they printed gave Commander players some much needed 3-color legendary creatures to build around. In the years that followed, Wizards printed more 2- and 3-color commanders and, in 2016, gave us Magic’s first 4-color legendary creatures.
This was a big deal.
Today’s Commander player may find it hard to believe, but before Wizards actively began supporting the format, legendary creatures were much less common. Part of this rarity was due to an old rule regarding legendary permanents that Wizards first changed in Champions of Kamigawa, released in October 2004. The original rule stated that only one copy of a legendary permanent could be on the battlefield at any time. The idea behind this, of course, is a literal interpretation of the meaning of legendary. Clearly, there can be only one legendary anything, or it wouldn’t be legendary, right? There is only one Brimaz, King of Oreskos in the multiverse, after all. Therefore, there can only be a single copy of Brimaz, King of Oreskos on the battlefield.
There can be only one.
Maybe you’re thinking, yeah, that’s basically the way it is now. I can only control a single copy of a legendary permanent at any given time.
Enter the concept of time travel. Have you ever seen a movie or read a book in which time travel plays even a tangential part? Other than being careful how you change the past, perhaps the biggest no-no is encountering a version of yourself at a younger or older age. Two of the same individual can’t exist in the same space and time or the universe implodes…Well, maybe not, but bad things would happen should such a contradiction occur.
In the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering pre Champions of Kamigawa, it was against the rules for two legendary permanents of the same name (or not, if it was a Planeswalker) to be on the battlefield at the same time, lest all the known universe be destroyed. What this meant for game play was, if your opponent resolved their copy of Sword of Kaldra before you did, you couldn’t actually play the card until removing their copy from the battlefield. This is reflective of the most doomsday interpretation of two unique things of the same name existing in the same time and place. Such an anomaly is both impossible and forbidden.
With Champions of Kamigawa, Wizards changed this rule to that of mutually assured destruction. Instead of forbidding two legendary permanents with the same name to be on the battlefield at the same time, players could now resolve their own Sword of Kaldra after their opponent’s, but both copies of the legendary artifact would go to the graveyard. This is a less strict application of the time travel conundrum. Two identical people or things still can’t exist in the same time and place, but instead of the entire known universe imploding, only the two identical people cease to exist. What this meant for game play was if your opponent resolved a Jace, the Mind Sculptor before you, you could still cast yours, but both copies would go to the graveyard upon resolution of the second Jace, the Mind Sculptor.
In a battle of Olivia Voldarens, no one wins…unless you’re the player losing.
I clearly remember casting Olivia Voldaren just to kill my opponent’s Olivia Voldaren before they could untap and run away with the game. It wasn’t pretty, or ideal, but it was better than losing. In a lot of games like this, it was the first player to draw their second copy of Olivia Voldaren that would win.
Wizards changed this rule of mutual destruction to what it is now with the printing of Core Set 2014, 9 years after the previous rule change and 2 years after the first Commander precons were printed. You can read Wizards’ reasoning for this change here, but this is the relevant text for our purposes: “The third reason is that we simply print more legends today than we used to, both because they give us opportunities to tell the story of Magic on cards, and because they afford us the ability to grant powers and abilities to cards that we might not want players to have multiple copies of at the same time.”
Read between the lines of this and it’s easy to assume Commander’s growing popularity also influenced this decision, even if Wizards didn’t come right out and say it. “We simply print more legends” really means, we see Commander’s popularity and want to support it, while also making a few (million) bucks. To do this, Wizards wanted the ability to print more legends in Standard-legal sets. But the rule of mutual destruction made for an un-fun play pattern in which sweet and powerful cards became Hero’s Demise, rather than what was printed in their text box.
Changing the rule to what it is now – each player may have a copy of a legendary permanent on the battlefield – freed up both Wizards and players to enjoy these powerful cards to their fullest. Not to mention, printing more and more Commander cards in Standard sets without the drawback of mutual destruction preventing players from wanting to include them in their 60-card decks certainly helped sell packs.
Which brings me back to the overall point of this article. Has Wizards’ increasing attention on Commander been all positive? The most frequent complaint/comment I hear is how there are too many legendary creatures in each new set. Wizards is printing more and more of these cards, which both impacts deck building in 60-card formats and the uniqueness of the concept of legendary creatures itself. And while it may seem like the more the merrier, for, after all, the more legendary creatures we get, the more Commander decks can exist, there is something to be said about less being more in this case.
What I’m interested in, however, is not just how Wizards‘ increasing interest in Commander has led to more legendary creatures. Rather, I want to investigate the impact of Tribal precons on the format. More specifically, has Wizards undermined one key aspect of Commander – its uniqueness – by printing entire Commander decks built around a single creature type? Has printing a Zombie Tribal deck resulted in a majority of such decks playing the same commander? The same cards? How many cards from the Zombie precon appear in Zombie decks? And is any of this good for the format?
In order to answer these questions, I’ll use edhrec.com to find out the percentage played of Dimir Zombie commanders and of each card from the Zombie Tribal precon, Undead Unleashed, released in September 2021. I’ll then discuss my deck in the usual fashion, breaking down its primary game plan, my card choices, and how it tends to play out, for those of you interested in a low-to-the ground, aggressive Zombie Tribal Commander deck. After that, I’ll compare it to the precon and other decks with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as the commander, again using edhrec.com. Finally, I’ll give you my brother-in-law’s decklist to offer a last point of comparison.
The Issue with Tribal Decks in Commander
Before I get into the numbers, it is worth discussing the impact choosing a tribal commander has on deckbuilding. Perhaps more than any other voluntary restriction, choosing a tribe to build a 100-card deck with automatically shrinks our card pool from the thousands to somewhere in the…I’m not sure, actually. How many zombies are there in Magic?
I used Magic’s search engine, Oracle, to find the answer. What number would you guess?
It’s 575 as of the printing of Murders at Karlov Manor.
Seems a bit low to me, if I’m honest. Of course, of the more than 27,000 cards in Magic, not all are creatures, but the large majority are. In fact, there are just over 15,000 creatures in Magic (15,289 in February 2024). This number does include sets like Unstable, but those don’t add too many cards to the total.
575 out of 15,000 is just under .04% of total creatures in Magic.
Most and Least Printed Creature Types in Magic
As a frame of reference, here are the numbers of some of the most represented (and thought of) creatures in the game, as well as some of the most underrepresented tribes. Creature types in italics are those that appeared in Magic’s first set, Alpha. Please note that, other than Zombies, the numbers here are pre Murders at Karlov Manor and so slightly less than current reality. I began work on this article in January of 2024.
| Creature Type | Number | Percentage of Total Creature |
| Human | 3,424 | 22.8% |
| Wizard | 1.029 | .07% |
| Artifact Creature | 1,006 | .07% |
| Soldier | 908 | .06% |
| Spirit | 641 | .04% |
| Elf | 584 | .039% |
| Cleric | 574 | .038% |
| Zombie | 575 | .038% |
| Elemental | 556 | .037% |
| Beast | 491 | .033% |
| Knight | 468 | .031% |
| Goblin | 455 | .03% |
| Vampire | 394 | .026% |
| Bird | 359 | .024% |
| Dragon | 349 | .023% |
| Horror | 312 | .02% |
| Druid | 296 | .019% |
| Merfolk | 286 | .019% |
| Cat | 281 | .019% |
| Angel | 253 | .017% |
| Giant | 224 | .015% |
| Insect | 219 | .015% |
| Demon | 196 | .013% |
| Dinosaur | 185 | .012% |
| Faerie | 155 | .01% |
| Werewolf | 150 | .01% |
| Pirate | 148 | less than .01% |
| Wall | 148 | less than .01% |
| Ogre | 131 | less than .01% |
| Shapeshifter | 128 | less than .01% |
| Dwarf | 126 | less than .01% |
| Dog | 119 | less than .01% |
| Avatar | 110 | less than .01% |
| Wurm | 105 | less than .01% |
| Treefolk | 103 | less than .01% |
| Minotaur | 101 | less than .01% |
| Orc | 96 | less than .01% |
| Illusion | 94 | less than .01% |
| Rat | 85 | less than .01% |
| Wolf | 83 | less than .01% |
| Spider | 80 | less than .01% |
| Assassin | 77 | less than .01% |
| Elephant | 73 | less than .01% |
| Nightmare | 73 | less than .01% |
| Skeleton | 71 | less than .01% |
| Fungus | 66 | less than .01% |
| Hydra | 64 | less than .01% |
| Kithkin | 61 | less than .01% |
| Djinn | 56 | less than .01% |
| Troll | 56 | less than .01% |
| Serpent | 50 | less than .01% |
| Barbarian | 43 | less than .01% |
| Imp | 43 | less than .01% |
| Bear | 39 | less than .01% |
| Gargoyle | 34 | less than .01% |
| Shade | 34 | less than .01% |
| Unicorn | 29 | less than .01% |
| Elk | 28 | less than .01% |
| Kraken | 28 | less than .01% |
| Specter | 27 | less than .01% |
| Leviathan | 22 | less than .01% |
| Lhurgoyf | 11 | less than .01% |
| Pegasus | 22 | less than .01% |
| Nymph | 19 | less than .01% |
| Ouphe | 17 | less than .01% |
| Kobold | 14 | less than .01% |
| Basilisk | 13 | less than .01% |
| Wraith | 12 | less than .01% |
| Wolverine | 9 | less than .01% |
| Mouse | 7 | less than .01% |
| Nephilim | 5 | less than .01% |
| Cockatrice | 3 | less than .01% |
Zombies come in at number 8, which is fairly high, even if 575 seems low based on how often Zombies appear in sets. That means Zombie Tribal Commander players have roughly 60 slots to fill from a total of 575 Zombies. Of course, this number is probably closer to 40, as it’s rare for even a tribal deck to only run creatures of the chosen tribe. The precon Zombie Tribal deck plays 32 creatures. Let’s find out what percentage of Zombie decks those creatures show up in and how many of those are newly printed in the precon deck itself.
For your reference, here is the decklist from the precon:
Decklist – Undead Unleashed (Precon)
| Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver |
Creatures (31)
| Undead Augur | |
| Cemetery Reaper | |
| Death Baron | |
| Diregraf Captain | |
| Diregraf Colossus | |
| Fleshbag Marauder | |
| Gleaming Overseer | |
| Liliana’s Devotee | |
| Lord of the Accursed | |
| Midnight Reaper |
| Spark Reaper | |
| Cleaver Skaab | |
| Corpse Augur | |
| Forgotten Creation | |
| Gisa and Geralf | |
| Havengul Runebinder | |
| Prowling Geistcatcher | |
| Shadow Kin | |
| Tomb Tyrant | |
| Undead Alchemist |
| Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth | |
| Eternal Skylord | |
| Hordewing Skaab | |
| Ravenous Rotbelly | |
| Stitcher Geralf | |
| Gravespawn Sovereign | |
| Ruthless Deathfang | |
| Butcher of Malakir | |
| Eater of Hope | |
| Overseer of the Damned |
| Gorex, the Tombshell |
Artifacts (7)
| Sol Ring | |
| Arcane Signet | |
| Charcoal Diamond | |
| Sky Diamond | |
| Talisman of Dominance | |
| Commander’s Sphere | |
| Crowded Crypt |
Enchantments (7)
| Dreadhorde Invasion | |
| Curse of the Restless Dead | |
| Endless Ranks of the Dead | |
| Liliana’s Mastery | |
| Open the Graves | |
| Rooftop Storm | |
| Curse of Unbinding |
Planeswalkers (1)
| Liliana, Death’s Majesty |
Instants (3)
| Go for the Throat | |
| Drown in Dreams | |
| Aetherspouts |
Sorceries (10)
| Dark Salvation | |
| Dread Summons | |
| Empty the Laboratory | |
| Feed the Swarm | |
| Hour of Eternity | |
| Distant Melody | |
| Ghouls’ Night Out | |
| Syphon Flesh | |
| Zombie Apocalypse | |
| Army of the Damned |
Lands (40)
| Bojuka Bog |
| Choked Estuary |
| Command Tower |
| Darkwater Catacombs |
| Dimir Aqueduct |
| Exotic Orchard |
| Mortuary Mire |
| Myriad Landscape |
| Path of Ancestry |
| Sunken Hollow |
| Tainted Isle |
| Temple of Deceit |
| Unclaimed Territory |
| Island (12) |
| Swamp (15) |
New Cards
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver – As a commander, this new card is played in 17,000 Zombie decks and 10,000 Zombie Token decks. The next most played commander in Zombie Tribal is The Scarab God, with 6,000 and 3,000 respectively. Gisa and Geralf helms 3,000 and 1,000 Zombie Tribal decks respectively. Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is the least played at 1,000 and around 500 Zombie and Zombie Token decks.
These numbers aren’t exact, but they do show that the newly printed Zombie commander is played almost 3 times as much as the next Zombie commander. If we combine all commanders for both Zombie and Zombie Token decks, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver is played nearly twice as much as the other three combined. What this means is that, on average, every other time you sit down across from a Zombie Tribal deck, you’re going to face Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver at the helm.
Now, let’s look at the percentage of decks the newly printed Zombies appear in in the most popular zombie decks. All these numbers come from the Top Commanders for each card as found on edhrec.com.
Percentage of New Cards from Undead Unleashed in Zombie Tribal Decks
| Creatures | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Cleaver Skaab | 72% | 48% | 43% | 44% |
| Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth | 12% | 2% | – | – |
| Forgotten Creation | 20% | 15% | 24% | 10% |
| Gorex, the Tombshell | 12% | 2% | 3% | – |
| Hordewing Skaab | 71% | 42% | 45% | 41% |
| Prowling Geistcatcher | 13% | 1% | – | – |
| Ravenous Rotbelly | 55% | 15% | 23% | 16% |
| Shadow Kin | 7% | 5% | – | – |
| Tomb Tyrant | 62% | 28% | 34% | 31% |
| Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | – | 62% | 56% | 68% |
| Artifacts | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Crowded Crypt | 63% | 25% | 25% | 34% |
| Enchantments | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Curse of the Restless Dead | 32% | 16% | 8% | 16% |
| Curse of Unbinding | 7% | 2% | – | – |
| Instants | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Drown in Dreams | 18% | – | – | – |
| Sorceries | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Empty the Laboratory | 67% | 28% | 30% | 31% |
| Ghouls’ Night Out | 35% | 12% | 12% | 8% |
Of the newly printed cards, 6 appear in more than 50% of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks. What’s really interesting is that, of the new cards, only Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver himself appears in more than 50% of Zombie Tribal decks with one of the other three most popular Zombie commanders.
What does this mean?
Well, some of this is simply because the new cards aren’t very good or aren’t Zombies.
Only Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver has made a splash in people’s Zombie Tribal decks that aren’t running him as their commander.
Case closed, right? We now see that the Zombie precon has not ruined Zombie Tribal decks by pushing them all towards uniformity, correct? Not quite. We’ve already established that the printing of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver has warped Zombie Tribal to the extent that 50% of all Zombie decks, whether Token or otherwise, will feature Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as the commander. And while the bulk of the newly printed Zombie cards appear in Commander decks with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver rather than in all Zombie Tribal decks, what about the other cards printed in the precon? After all, reprinting popular and powerful cards makes them more accessible to everyone. What reprints see a high percentage of play? And are we able to attribute this to their appearance in the precon? For this, I’m only looking at creatures.
Percentage of Reprints from Undead Unleashed in Zombie Tribal Decks
| Creatures | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | The Scarab God | Gisa and Geralf | Grimgrin, Corpse-Born |
| Undead Augur | 85% | 56% | 71% | 63% |
| Cemetery Reaper | 78% | 56% | 73% | 65% |
| Death Baron | 89% | 70% | 64% | 72% |
| Diregraf Captain | 96% | 75% | 92% | 85% |
| Diregraf Colossus | 91% | 68% | 66% | 74% |
| Fleshbag Marauder | 67% | -% | 70% | 45% |
| Gleaming Overseer | 56% | 54% | 47% | 29% |
| Liliana’s Devotee | 18% | 10% | 25% | 9% |
| Lord of the Accursed | 77% | 61% | 78% | 63% |
| Midnight Reaper | 67% | -% | 56% | 45% |
| Spark Reaper | 9% | 3% | 13% | – |
| Corpse Augur | 30% | 8% | 12% | 9% |
| Gisa and Geralf | 67% | 50% | – | 52% |
| Havengul Runebinder | 10% | 4% | 4% | 5% |
| Undead Alchemist | 25% | 20% | 16% | 21% |
| Eternal Skylord | 40% | 24% | 37% | 17% |
| Stitcher Geralf | 13% | 6% | 14% | 6% |
| Gravespawn Sovereign | 32% | 10% | 31% | 17% |
| Ruthless Deathfang | 9% | 1% | 2% | 4% |
| Butcher of Malakir | – | – | – | – |
| Eater of Hope | 4% | 1% | – | – |
| Overseer of the Damned | 14% | 13% | 22% | – |
Of the reprinted creature cards, only two see more play in a different Zombie deck than in the precon: Fleshbag Marauder and Lord of the Accursed. For all of the other reprinted cards, they see more play in Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks than the other three popular Zombie Tribal decks. To break it down further, which reprinted cards are played in 75% of any given deck?
Only Diregraf Captain is found in that many decks with The Scarab God as commander. Both Diregraf Captain and Lord of the Accursed see that much play in Gisa and Geralf decks. In Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, it is again only Diregraf Captain that sees play in over 75% of decks.
Meanwhile, in decks with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver at the helm, there are six reprinted creature cards seeing play in over 75% of Zombie Tribal decks: Undead Augur, Cemetery Reaper, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed.
Of these cards, there are a handful that either hadn’t had a reprint in over 10 years or simply haven’t been reprinted very much, or both: Cemetery Reaper, Diregraf Captain, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed all fall under one of these categories. Of these, Cemetery Reaper peaked at $5, Diregraf Colossus hit $6, and Death Baron started out at $10 before slowly trending downwards towards about $4 before the release of Undead Unleashed. The other three creature reprints that see the most play were around or under $1 for most of their printed existence.
This suggests that the reprinting of most cards did not lead to an unreasonable increase in their play across the Zombie Tribal decks. Instead, what the numbers show is that players who picked up the precon and who are using Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as their commander, are playing these reprints since they are powerful Zombies and in the deck already.
What does all of this mean? Well, for a tribe like Zombies that have over 500 creatures to choose from, the precon has not ruined the uniqueness of Zombie Tribal Commander decks…with two caveats.
First, the printing of Undead Unleashed homogenized players’ choice of commander for Zombie Tribal, with, on average, every other person choosing Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver over the other three most popular choices. If we only consider Zombie Tribal and not Zombie Tokens, then 3 out of 4 people choose Wilhelt as their commander.
Second, looking at the High Synergy cards on edhrec.com, 9 of the 10 cards are found in Undead Unleashed. Going further into the Top Cards section, 5 of the 10 cards are printed in the precon. Thus, 14 of the 20 (70%) most played cards in a Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver deck are from the Zombie Tribal precon. 11 of these cards are creatures. And remember, other than Diregraf Captain, all of these cards see less play in other Zombie Tribal decks.
Does this suggest that players who buy the Zombie Tribal precon are keeping much of its creature base intact? Only three other reprints see play in more than 50% of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks, while four of the new cards meet this criteria, so I think the answer is largely no. Those who buy the precon are keeping the best and most synergistic cards, with a focus first on lord effects (Diregraf Captain), second on zombie generation (Diregraf Colossus), and third on card draw (Undead Augur). I think this says as much about Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver‘s text box as it does about the nature of Zombie Tribal as a go-wide, aggressive strategy with late-game potential.
Werewolf Tribal vs. Zombie Tribal
Before we get to some decklists, I want to do one more thing, just to be sure. Let’s compare Zombie Tribal with Werewolf Tribal, a creature type that has far fewer representatives in Magic. This should give us an idea of the impact of newly printed cards, regardless of source, on tribal Commander decks.
There are currently 150 Werewolves in Magic, plus 83 Wolves, which often synergize with Werewolf cards (think Immerwolf or Tovolar’s Huntmaster). Even including Wolves, that’s less than half the number of Zombies players have to pick from for their Werewolf Tribal Commander deck. What this means, then, is it stands to reason that a higher percentage of the same Werewolves will see play in Commander decks across the board. AND there will be less variation in Werewolf Tribal decks.
So, do the numbers bear this assumption out? Let’s take a look.
The most played Werewolf commander by far is Tovolar, Dire Overlord. It is the commander of 7,000 decks. The next most played Werewolf commander is Ulrich of the Krallenhorde, which was everyone’s original Werewolf commander before Tovolar, Dire Overlord due to a lack of legendary Werewolves to choose from. He is played in 69 decks on edhrec.com. Yes, you read that correctly. 7,000 vs. 69. This vast discrepancy reflects both how few Gruul legendary Werewolves there are (two by my count) and just how much better Tovolar, Dire Overlord is than Ulrich of the Krallenhorde.
It also demonstrates Wizards’ changing position on legendary creatures that I discuss above. Huntmaster of the Fells has all the markings of a legendary creature and would make a great Werewolf Tribal commander, but, alas, he is nonlegendary. You would think being both a huntmaster, rather than simply a huntsman, and belonging to a specific region, the Fells, would’ve qualified him for legendary status. If he were first printed today, I’m sure Wizards would’ve made him a legendary creature.
Digression aside, those are the numbers for the most commonly played Werewolf commanders. When there are only two to choose from, it’s no surprise the strictly better one sees more play. But how about the most commonly played Werewolves? Are there more Werewolves than Zombies that see more play across the board in Werewolf Tribal?
A quick look at the High Synergy and Top Cards sections for Tovolar, Dire Overlord on edhrec.com reveals something quite interesting. In the High Synergy section, 7 of the 10 cards are from the most recent Innistrad block. 3 of the 10 Top Cards are from the same block. In a tribe with far fewer representatives, then, 50% of the top 20 cards come from the most recent set. Compare that to 70% of the top 20 most played cards in Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks coming from the Undead Unleased Commander precon.
Uh oh.
Now we have to revisit our two caveats…
These numbers do suggest that precons have a greater impact on the homogeneity of Commander decks than Standard sets. Of course, there is no way to know how much the reprints from the precon Undead Unleashed contributed to the current percentage of those cards seeing play in Zombie Tribal. That is, it is possible a card like Death Baron saw just as much play in The Scarab God Zombie decks before the printing of Undead Unleashed as it does now. What we do know is that the release of Undead Unleashed not only saw a new commander come to dominate Zombie Tribal decks, but saw an increase in the number of reprints in the format as well.
TL;DR
The release of Wizards’ first Zombie Tribal precon, Undead Unleashed, has had a mixed impact on the format. Players have not blindly jammed the newly printed cards or the reprints from the deck into their existing Zombie decks. The 99 of most Zombie Tribal Commander decks remains diverse. The same, unfortunately, can’t be said for players’ choice of commander to helm their Zombie Tribal decks. Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver plays an outsized role as Commander, resulting in half of all Zombie and Zombie Token Commander decks featuring this new legendary zombie as their commander. 75% if we only consider Zombie Tribal.
Of course, when Wizards sets out to print a Commander precon deck, they don’t do so with the intention of printing a bunch of unplayable cards. Such a decision is both bad for their bottom line and bad for players. We want new, exciting, and powerful cards to build around. It stands to reason that the flagship card, the commander, from these decks would be one of, if not the, best. Regarding Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, the numbers bear this out. 3 out of 4 Zombie Tribal decks feature this new card as commander.
Does this mean Zombie Tribal as an archetype has been ruined by the printing of Undead Unleashed and Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver? To help decide this question, let’s take a look at two decks, mine and my brother-in-law’s, both of which have Wilhelt as the commander. How different are the builds one from the other? From the precon? Can a diverse 99 make up for the same commander being played 75% of the time?
Decklist 2 – Dimir Zombies with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
by Johnny Cycles
| Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver |
Creatures (40)
Planeswalker (3)
| Liliana, Untouched by Death | |
| Liliana, Death’s Majesty | |
| Liliana, Dreadhorde General |
Artifacts (1)
| Jet Medallion |
Enchantments (10)
| Ghoulish Procession | |
| Oversold Cemetery | |
| Endless Ranks of the Dead | |
| Grave Pact | |
| Necroduality | |
| Call to the Grave | |
| Dictate of Erebos | |
| Liliana’s Mastery | |
| Open the Graves | |
| Rooftop Storm |
Instants (2)
| Flip the Switch |
| Rise of the Dread Marn |
Sorceries (3)
| Eaten Alive | |
| Feed the Swarm | |
| Rise of the Dark Realms |
Lands (40)
| Snow-Covered Island (4) |
| Snow-Covered Swamp (11) |
Primary Game Plan
In my Zombie Tribal deck, I’m looking to flood the board with Zombies, pump them all with lord effects, and overrun my opponent. With this in mind, I play a total of 17 lords. I’m including in this number those that grant +1/+1, like Lord of the Undead, and those that grant abilities, like flying (Hordewing Skaab). Supporting this game plan is the second part of the deck: Zombie token production. We play 20 cards that make Zombie tokens to help our go-wide strategy, not including Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. These range from Diregraf Colossus to Necroduality; from Ghoulish Procession to Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
This token generation synergizes with the subtheme of our deck, which, as with many Zombie Tribal decks, is a sacrifice-for-value plan. Some of our token generation comes directly at the cost of sacrificing another creature. Cards like Cleaver Skaab and Headless Rider belong in this category. But there are other ways for us to gain value from sending our undead horde back to the grave.
The first is card draw. Obviously, our commander gives us a way to gain card advantage at the cost of a zombie, but we also play cards like Undead Augur and Archghoul of Thraben that serve the same or a similar function. Furthermore, we run Sidisi, Undead Vizier as a tutor, and Fell Stinger and God-Eternal Bontu as more card draw.
Second, we are looking to use the zombies we sacrifice as a form of removal. Cards like Dictate of Erebos and Grave Pact are our best and most efficient way to gain this kind of value from our dead zombies. Eaten Alive and Ravenous Rotbelly are similar in function.
Third, we play two cards that drain our opponent whenever a Zombie we control dies: Plague Belcher and Diregraf Captain. We play Overcharged Amalgam as a Disallow at the cost of a sacrificed creature that gives us some surprise counter magic.
As a final part of this sacrifice plan, we play a handful of cards that ensure we aren’t just gaining value upon a Zombie’s death, but that, like any good undead being, we can bring them back from the graveyard to sacrifice them all over again. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is one of our best cards for this. Gravecrawler and Master of Death are examples of the kinds of creatures that have the ability to come back from the graveyard all on their own. Oversold Cemetery and Lord of the Undead are yet another means by which we can recur our Zombies.
The Lords
Tribal Lords go all the way back to Alpha, with cards like Goblin King, Lord of Atlantis, and the OG Zombie lord, Zombie Master all printed in Magic’s first set. Notice that I’ve capitalized Lord in the previous sentence. That’s because before October 2007, Zombie Master and the others listed here didn’t say, Summon Zombie, but rather Summon Lord, thereby making Lord a creature type. This led to various Tribal Lords not granting themselves the abilities they granted their tribe, despite it being obvious that Lord of Atlantis is a Merfolk, for instance.
For the purposes of this article and my deck, I’m considering anything that grants all or all other Zombies an ability or a buff as a lord.
Bladestitched Skaab – a recent printing and a great example of power creep reaching beyond just the mythics and rares in a set. This uncommon costs only , but we get a 2/3 that pumps other Zombies +1/+0. That’s the same power and toughness of Zombie Master for one less mana. And while giving each Zombie the ability to regenerate is arguably more powerful, who cares about regeneration when your opponent is dead from your army of undead all being buffed?
Cemetery Reaper – pumps our team +1/+1, while giving us some incidental, if not costly, graveyard hate to fight reanimation shenanigans. Of course, we can also target our own creatures, but we have ways of bringing them back that incentivize us to leave them in the yard under most circumstance.
Death Baron – our team gets +1/+1 and deathtouch? What a card! This is one of our best lords and such a sweet flavor win. The rotten, infected flesh of our undead poisons anything it touches.
Diregraf Captain – the most played Zombie across the gamut of Zombie Tribal commander decks, this card pumps our team, while giving us an alternate win condition by draining our opponent 1 life for each Zombie we control that dies. This card is at its best helping us lower our opponent’s life total significantly in the early game, then giving us the reach to finish them off in the late game after they’ve stabilized. It also works extremely well with our sacrifice synergies.
Eternal Skylord – 5 mana is a lot for an effect that only grants our Zombie tokens flying, but I think it’s worth it. It’s a 3/3 that comes with a 2/2 Army, first of all. 2-for-1s are essential in a deck looking to go wide or sacrifice fodder for value. Second, we have a lot of ways to make tokens to take advantage of the flying they get from this Zombie Wizard.
Geralf, Visionary Stitcher – another flavor win that I’ll discuss in the Token Generation section, this card straight-up gives all Zombies flying.
Gleaming Overseer – all our Zombie tokens get hexproof and menace for 3 mana, not to mention the 1/4 Zombie Wizard and 1/1 Army token we get on the battlefield. What’s not to like?
Hordewing Skaab – someone in Wizards R&D made the decision that the thing most holding Zombies back as a tribe was their lack of flying…I don’t really get the flavor or the reasoning behind why this Zombie Horror gives all Zombies we control flying, but sticking this on an otherwise stalled board will often end in victory. Winning is flavorful, right?
Liliana’s Devotee – another +1/+0 buff for our team.
Liliana’s Mastery – 5 mana for a lord effect that also brings two 2/2 (3/3, really) Zombies to the party. It’s a lot to pay, even for all this value, but we want an army of Zombies and this furthers our plan.
Lord of the Accursed – +1/+1 for other Zombies we control makes this our fifth such card to grant this buff. to give all Zombies menace can help push through damage or simply be game over in the right spot. The only drawback is we have to tap Lord of the Accursed. Note that this effect gives all Zombies menace. In the world of 4-person Commander, there will be times when we can use this as leverage with an opponent.
Lord of the Undead – our sixth +1/+1 pumper, we get some cheap recursion from this lord, as well. With a name like Lord of the Undead, I fully expect it to be able to bring Zombies back from the graveyard, so good on Wizards.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed – this card does a lot, but for this section, it counts as our seventh way to give our Zombies +1/+1. More importantly, it gives them all undying, which does more than further buffing them +1/+1. It can also lead to some truly busted turns where we sacrifice our entire team twice to drain our opponent with Plague Belcher triggers. Or where we cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, then sacrifice it with Mikaeous out in order to double up the damage and lifegain. Or both, like here:
There was a bit of shorthand done between me and my brother-in-law, but what you’re seeing here is a resolved Rooftop Storm that allowed me to empty my hand. I cast Mikaeus then Gray Merchant of Asphodel to drain OP for 14. Then I cast God-Eternal Bontu and sacrificed all my nontoken creature permanents to its ETB, stacking my triggers so that I drained OP a further 7 with Plague Belcher. Everything came back, which triggered the Gray Merchant again for 13 this time. My brother-in-law was dead to the second Gray Merchant trigger. Obviously, there is a lot going on other than Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and it’s hard to lose after resolving Rooftop Storm, but the Zombie Cleric was central to putting the game away without even having to attack on the turn we won.
Narfi, Betrayer King – the reason all of our basic lands are snow-covered. This is our eighth lord that gives our Zombies +1/+1. Was it annoying to switch out all my cool foil Swamps and Islands for snow-covered lands? Yes. Is it worth it? Most definitely. The instant-speed recursion we get with it brings all the sweet synergies you’d expect (and which I’ll discuss below).
Risen Executioner – a card that is woefully underplayed in Zombie Tribal, it doesn’t break 8% in any of the most popular decks. Is it because it’s so expensive? Nope. It’s $1. Is it a bad card? Well, if I were rating the lords in our list, Risen Executioner would be pretty low. 4 mana is about 1 mana more than the going rate for most Zombie lords that give other Zombies +1/+1. And its recursion clause comes with multiple drawbacks we don’t encounter with Narfi. However, it is our ninth +1/+1 granting lord. We’re almost to 10% of our deck at this point.
Tomb Tyrant – aaannndd, here’s #10. A new card from the precon, this Zombie Noble is also a bit overcosted for its text box. Its recursive ability is still better than Risen Executioner‘s, though.
Undead Warchief – now here’s some sweet, sweet value for a 4-mana creature. The cost reduction it gives us is arguably better than the odd +2/+1 buff. The art is amazing. The flavor text is incredible. This card works on all the levels.
Token Generation
Zombies as a tribe are great at going wide with a bunch of 2/2 Zombie tokens. And even though we are not a Zombie token deck, we do play a variety of ways of making Zombie tokens besides our commander. As discussed above, the purpose of this is two-fold. First, we want an army of Zombies to pump for our go-wide strategy. Second, we need fodder to sacrifice to Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver and the other sacrifice payoff cards we play. I’ve divided this group into cards that make tokens when another Zombie dies, cards that make tokens all on their own, and cards that make tokens by exiling cards from a graveyard.
Tokens at a Cost of a Creature
This title is a bit misleading, as many of our cards function to replace our Zombies when they die in combat or get killed by our opponent, which isn’t really a cost, but a benefit. However, they only trigger when a creature dies, and so I’m including them here, along with the cards we play that require us to sacrifice a Zombie to make tokens.
Cleaver Skaab – untapping with this Zombie Horror out and almost any of our other Zombies can put us ahead quickly and for good. At its most straightforward, it is making two copies of Lord of the Accursed or another of our lords to double up the +1/+1 buff. At its sneakiest, it’s multiplying Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Plague Belcher to give us a means of closing out a game without combat. Note that the Zombie we sacrifice can be a token, which means the turn after we sac our Diregraf Captain, we can sac one of the copies of it and get two more.
Geralf, Visionary Stitcher – one of our lords that give Zombies flying, this Human Wizard is best used to nerf a kill spell. There is a world where we sac Gravecrawler every turn to make a 1/1, either for fuel to sacrifice to our commander or to add to our team. With a few lords out, this isn’t bad value.
Ghoulcaller Gisa – now this is the kind of sweet, sweet value we want from sacrificing one of our Zombies. Sacrificing Gravecrawler each turn gains us two 2/2 Zombies. Targeting something like Geralf’s Messenger nets us 7 2/2 Zombies over two turns. This Human Wizard is just as good as Geralf, Visionary Stitcher at nerfing targeted removal, but with far superior upside. I’ve yet to go off with this card, but every time I read it, I’m blown away by its potential. Ghoulcaller Gisa, much like Cleaver Skaab, can grow us an army with only a single other Zombie on the battlefield to start. Note, as well, that she can sac any creature, meaning she can put her brother to the axe and get a 2/2 in exchange.
Ghoulish Procession – there are two main reasons this card is in the deck. It’s two mana and it’s an enchantment. The former means we can get it down early and begin getting immediate value out of it, or play it late along with another spell. The latter means it is less likely to get removed right away. And, if our opponent does want to use one of their limited ways to deal with enchantments on this fairly innocuous and innocuously fair card, then that increases the chances one of our unfair and…unnocuous… enchantments, like Grave Pact, sticks around.
Headless Rider – a strictly better Ghoulish Procession, except for the fragile body. This Zombie triggers each time a nontoken Zombie we control dies, meaning we can have some pretty busted turns with this, a sac outlet, and Diregraf Captain out. The tokens also can attack without fear of disintegrating upon dealing damage. The 1 toughness is pretty meh. It’s worth noting here another key difference between Headless Rider and Ghoulish Procession that is pretty obvious. One is a Zombie and synergizes with all of our Zombie-matters shenanigans, and one isn’t. When Headless Rider dies, we get a 2/2 Zombie token, for instance. When Ghoulish Procession dies, we’re just sad.
Rise of the Dread Marn – primarily in the deck as insurance against sweepers, we can also use it after sacrificing our entire board to create another army of Zombies to sacrifice again to drain our opponent out with Diregraf Captain.
Liliana’s Devotee – a newly printed card, the token production we get from this Human Warlock is pretty unimpressive. Still, sometimes we only need one Zombie to target with something like Cleaver Skaab in order to start our army again.
Open the Graves – Headless Rider on a 5-mana enchantment, except it triggers any time a creature we control dies, not just a Zombie.
Tokens with No Strings Attached
…other than the mana investment to cast the card, of course.
Necroduality – what a powerful and fun card! This enchantment from Innistrad: Crimson Vow offers insane value. Following this card up with Rooftop Storm is living the dream at its fullest.
Endless Ranks of the Dead – a powerful engine to grind our opponent out of the game. The name is pretty on point, too.
Eternal Skylord – 5 mana for a 3/3 and a 2/2 Army to sacrifice for value.
Gleaming Overseer – 3 mana for a 1/4 and a 1/1 Army to sac. Both of these lords also synergize with the tokens they make. Remember, the best cards in Commander do more than two things.
Liliana’s Mastery – like this one…two 3/3 Zombies and an anthem effect.
Liliana, Death’s Majesty – I have fond memories of playing this card in Standard way back when. 5 mana to reanimate our biggest threat in the yard? It’s still a super powerful effect to have on a Planeswalker. Her +1 is what gets us the token, but its her -3 that gets her a spot in the 99.
Diregraf Colossus – doesn’t make a token when it enters the battlefield, but it does pump out tokens for each Zombie we cast. There’s a reason this card is played in more than 65% of popular Zombie decks.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General – played in about 25% of Zombie decks, it’s her static ability that really puts her over the power level edge. Her other abilities are pretty deec, too…
Tainted Adversary – great stats with the upside of bringing an army with it in the late game.
Tokens at the Cost of a Creature in the Yard
We don’t play too many of these cards, as we don’t really want to exile creatures from our own graveyard. We have other plans for them. However, in a pinch, these cards give us a way to start regrowing our army.
Cemetery Reaper – can target a creature in any graveyard, which gives us a way to interact with other Zombie decks looking to bring the undead back to the battlefied.
Graveyard Marshal – mainly in the deck as a cheap Zombie with a bit of an upside.
Other Cards that Make Tokens
Cryptbreaker – at the cost of a card from our hand, we get a 2/2 Zombie. I list it here because, one, it’s the only card of its kind in our deck. And, two, unless we have Gravecrawler or one of our reanimation cards, we won’t be making tokens with it too often.
Field of the Dead – it would be wrong not to include this card in a Zombie deck, though it appears many people don’t. We play 24 differently named lands, so if the game goes long and we have this card, there’s a good chance we’ll get some Zombie tokens out of it.
Flip the Switch – a better Mana Leak that gets us a 2/2 Zombie token.
Ways to Abuse Tokens
Besides using all the tokens we make to fuel our go-wide strategy, we have a number of ways to gain additional value out of their deaths (and sometimes lives).
Card Draw
Archghoul of Thraben – strictly not card draw, but it’ll draw us a card a pretty high percentage of the time.
Cryptbreaker – a powerful card-draw engine, particularly if we can get it down early. This is one of our rare cards that don’t require us to sacrifice a creature to draw a card. Yay for life!
Fell Stinger – and back to death… We have to sacrifice a creature to draw two cards when this Zombie Scorpion enters the battlefield. As if scorpions weren’t scary enough already…
God-Eternal Bontu – one of our most powerful draw spells, we can even turn extra lands into cards if necessary.
Undead Augur – at the cost of a creature and 1 life, we get a card. I like that deal.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier – a Demonic Tutor at the price of a creature, but on a 4/6 deathtoucher. Note, you can exploit Sidisi if you don’t have any other creatures out.
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver – a powerful card draw engine that comes with the drawback of triggering only on our end step. And since we’re a Zombie deck, we’ll usually have to wait until our next turn to cast whatever we draw.
Counter Magic
Overcharged Amalgam – most opponents will expect Blue to have some counter magic. Will they expect this Zombie Horror, though? Eh, probably.
Let me take a moment to discuss card choices and making Commander fun and unique. If you haven’t read it already, check out My Commander Philosophy for the full article. Is Overcharged Amalgam strictly better than any of the above three counter spells? No. Will there be times Overcharged Amalgam costs us a game because it’s too mana-intensive? Yes, probably. Should we still play it in our Zombie Tribal deck? Most definitely.
Of course, this is your choice to make, but I would get very bored, very quickly if each Commander deck with Blue in it played Counterspell. Commander is so much fun precisely because of all the unique cards, synergies, and flavor wins it has to offer. If I want to play the best, most optimized deck in Commander, I wouldn’t play Zombies. Of course, if Zombies is your favorite deck and you want to make it as powerful as possible, Counterspell probably belongs in the 99. Otherwise, Overcharged Amalgam is a flavor win that is unlikely to have a home in many other decks. Furthermore, it synergizes with our Zombies-matter cards, which makes it a better fit for our deck, even if sometimes you just really need a Cryptic Command and not some janky Disallow-on-a-Zombie card.
Kill Spells
We play several cards that turn the death of one of our creatures into the death of one of our opponent’s. Seems fair.
Dictate of Erebos – if you haven’t played this card in a deck in which you can easily sacrifice creatures, then you may underestimate its power. With just a little bit of set-up, we can lock our opponent out of playing creatures until they find an answer for this enchantment. That’s its ceiling. Its floor is to flash it in after all of our creatures have lost in combat to wipe out our opponent’s board.
Eaten Alive – see above for my discussion of Counterspell vs. Overcharged Amalgam. Are there better removal spells in Black? Most definitely. How many of them have a Zombie biting the flesh of a human in them? I’m of the opinion that if you’re going to play a Tribal deck, you should go as all-in on the Tribe as possible.
Grave Pact – the OG Dictate of Erebos. The most recent artwork is probably sleeker and definitely more modern, but I still prefer the old art. It’s a close thing, but I think the middle picture is my favorite.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born – a lot of hoops to jump through for this one, but we need creatures to sacrifice to untap Grimgrin, and we need to untap it to attack in order to destroy one of our opponent’s creatures. Of course, that’s not why this Zombie Warrior is in the deck. It is a repeatable sac outlet that grows itself with each creature it consumes.
Ravenous Rotbelly – a new card from the precon, we get a 1-time, limited Grave Pact on a 4/5 body. Sometimes that’s all you need.
Drain Our Opponent Out
Diregraf Captain – only target opponent loses one life per creature we control dying. It was printed in February 2012, before Wizards started wording nearly every card as favorably as possible for Commander.
Plague Belcher – fast forward to April 2017 and we have the kind of wording players have come to expect: “each opponent.”
Magic has both redundant and more effective ways of draining our opponent for each creature that dies. Why aren’t we playing them? I won’t lie, a big part of me is looking hard at certain Zombies, say, Graveyard Marshal or Risen Executioner, and thinking, is a tenth lord effect on an otherwise bad card really worth playing over Blood Artist? I mean, Vampires and Zombies are friends, right? They’re like Zombie adjacent… Zulaport Cutthroat is a Human and Zombies often start out as Humans. Surely this is still on flavor. If you’re looking to up the power level of this build and don’t mind the break in theme, I’d make this change in a heartbeat. Just be warned, though. It’s a slippery slope! Soon, you’ll be playing Counterspell and Doom Blade in place of our more flavorful Zombie cards.
Graveyard Recursion
Like any good Commander deck, we want the graveyard to be an extension of our hand as much as possible. And, like any good Zombie, we want to bring them back from the dead as often as possible. We play 15 cards that either recur themselves or let us get a Zombie out of our yard, either directly to the battlefield, to our hand, or on top of our library.
Self Recurring
Geralf’s Messenger – undying means it brings itself back once. How thoughtful.
Gravecrawler – the rug that ties the room together for us. What a powerful and synergistic Zombie. Don’t overlook this card simply because it’s a 1-drop. Our most busted and fun turns will come on the back of casting and sacrificing this Zombie again and again and again.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed – giving all of our creatures undying is as powerful as it sounds.
Narfi, Betrayer King – for just 3 mana, we get to put this lord back into play at instant speed, which can lead to some blowouts in combat if our opponent doesn’t see it coming.
Risen Executioner – there will be games where we cast this card from our graveyard for . In most other ones, though, we’ll either ignore it or exile it to one of our token producers.
From Yard to Table
Gisa and Geralf – we get to cast our most powerful, but dead Zombie each turn. It’s a flavor win and, very likely, a game win.
Liliana, Death’s Majesty – we get our most powerful, but dead Zombie back to the battlefield for her -3. Targeting something like Ravenous Rotbelly can ensure Liliana sticks around long enough that we get to do it again.
Liliana, Untouched by Death – untapping with this Planeswalker lets us cast any of the Zombies in our graveyard.
Rise of the Dark Realms – 9-mana sorceries should read, you win the game. Oh, wait, that’s not what this says? It might as well in most spots.
Tomb Tyrant – want a little excitement in your life? Want to live on the edge of wondering, will I get my Cryptbreaker back and die next turn, or my Gray Merchant of Asphodel and win on the spot? Then this is the card for you!
From Yard to Hand
Lord of the Undead – for we get our best, but dead Zombie back to our hand.
Master of Death – such a great name for such underwhelming abilities. You’d think Wizards would’ve saved a name like this for something that did more than return itself to your hand from the graveyard. Still, the recursion is worth it, even if this Zombie Wizard is in my first four out (it’s March Madness time!).
Oversold Cemetery – what a great name for what this card does. The old art is really sweet, too.
Relentless Dead – now here’s a name that matches the abilities. What a busted card for just two mana. Of course, the drawback is we have to hold up mana to get value out of it, but the flexibility and the upside makes this card super powerful and an auto-include for me, though the community doesn’t agree, according to edhrec.com.
From Yard to Library
Unholy Grotto – usually this kind of effect isn’t worth it, but its on a land and so feels like a freebie.
Flex Spots
The remainder of the deck is made up of Zombies or Zombie-themed cards that function largely as removal, and it is here that I would look first to make changes. Cemetery Desecrator has an obvious replacement in Grave Titan, which at least makes Zombies. Of the Zombies we play, if you’ve managed to read this entire article, you can probably guess which ones I’d cut. Risen Executioner is the worst of our +1/+1 granting lords, and we play plenty, so I could see cutting it to make room for something you like or prefer, or to shore up a weakness against your meta.
Graveyard Marshal and Master of Death are both Zombies that could be replaced with something that increases the overall number of an effect we want, like token generation or sacrificing for value. I just bought a copy of Corpse harvester and can see making room for this Zombie Wizard.
Finally, Ghoulish Procession is a card I could see cutting. It’s certainly powerful, but since it can only trigger once per turn, it has obvious drawbacks that some other cards we play do not.
With almost 600 Zombies to choose from and even more support cards that aren’t Zombies but that would strengthen the deck or give it a new angle of attack, it should be easy to make your deck unique, fun, and budget-friendly, if necessary. And with almost 600 Zombies to choose from, it’s a bit too time consuming for me to list all the possible cards that could find a home in this build. Besides, that would take the fun out of it for you, right?
However, three cards that I’m currently considering finding room for are Diabolic Intent, Corpse Harvester, and Vengeful Dead. The first two are tutors that synergize with our sacrifice-for-value subtheme, while the third gives us some redundant drain effects to help close out a game on an otherwise stalled board state.
Ideal Hand and Game Play
We are, at our undead heart, a go-wide, aggressive deck looking to attack early and often. With this in mind, we’d love to see Zombies up the curve from turn 1 to turn 3 in our opening hand, plus either removal or one of our token making cards. Card draw is also acceptable. What we don’t want to see are a lot of 5- and 6-mana cards, or a bunch of enchantments that give us value out of creatures dying and no creatures in hand.
We definitely want at least three lands, even if we don’t have a card that costs more than three mana in our opening hand. This is a very important fact about our deck that needs to be remembered. We want to make a land drop every turn until 6 at the very least. Yes, we have a low curve, but for us to really put the pressure on our opponent and close out a game, we want to cast two Zombies a turn as soon as possible. Getting stuck on 3 mana and only being able to play a single creature a turn is the recipe for losing.
Weaknesses
Beyond what I just wrote about getting stuck on three or four mana, our creatures can easily get outclassed by bigger, badder threats. After all, we are a low-to-the-ground aggro deck. Yes, we play a lot of ways to pump our team, but if we don’t build up a wide enough board, having 4 3/3s instead of 4 2/2s won’t be enough to close out a game. As usual, however, we want to be careful not to overextend into a sweeper, though we play enough graveyard recursion that we aren’t hurt by this as much as, say, my Elf deck is. Speaking of the graveyard, we are also not all in on recursion, so graveyard hate or stopping death triggers won’t shut us down completely. It can hamstring us somewhat, especially if our draw shapes up with this secondary gameplan as our primary, but we can win through Rest in Peace.
My Deck vs. Undead Unleashed
After looking at the impact Undead Unleashed has had on the diversity of Zombie Tribal, it’s only fair to see just how diverse my Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver deck is compared to the field.
First, let’s see how it compares to Undead Unleashed. My deck shares 14 creatures with the precon; 1 Planeswalker; 0 artifacts; 4 enchantments; 0 instants; and 1 sorcery for me. That’s a total of 20 nonland cards that appear in both decks. Here’s a list of the cards from the precon that didn’t make the cut in my build:
Creatures
Fleshbag Marauder
Midnight Reaper
Spark Reaper
Corpse Augur
Forgotten Creation
Prowling Geistcatcher
Shadow Kin
Undead Alchemist
Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth
Stitcher Geralf
Ruthless Deathfang
Eater of Hope
Overseer of the Damned
Gorex, the Tombshell
Artifacts
Sol Ring
Arcane Signet
Charcoal Diamond
Sky Diamond
Talisman of Dominance
Commander’s Sphere
Enchantments
Dreadhorde Invasion
Curse of the Restless Dead
Curse of Unbinding
Instants
Go for the Throat
Drown in Dreams
Aetherspouts
Sorceries
Dark Salvation
Dread Summons
Hour of Eternity
Distant Melody
Ghouls’ Night Out
Syphon Flesh
Zombie Apocalypse
Army of the Damned
Now, here is how my deck compares to other Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver decks. Again, I’m using edhrec.com to find the percentage each of the cards I play show up in decks with the same commander.
| Creatures | % Played |
| Gravecrawler | 80% |
| Cryptbreaker | 47% |
| Bladestitched Skaab | 29% |
| Graveyard Marshal | 1% |
| Relentless Dead | 32% |
| Tainted Adversary | 17% |
| Undead Augur | 85% |
| Archghoul of Thraben | 37% |
| Cemetery Reaper | 78% |
| Death Baron | 89% |
| Diregraf Captain | 96% |
| Diregraf Colossus | 91% |
| Fell Stinger | 18% |
| Geralf’s Messenger | 4% |
| Geralf, Visionary Stitcher | 32% |
| Gleaming Overseer | 56% |
| Headless Rider | 62% |
| Liliana’s Devotee | 18% |
| Lord of the Accursed | 77% |
| Lord of the Undead | 41% |
| Master of Death | 19% |
| Murderous Rider | 29% |
| Plague Belcher | 55% |
| Cleaver Skaab | 72% |
| Gisa and Geralf | 67% |
| Overcharged Amalgam | 31% |
| Risen Executioner | 3% |
| Tomb Tyrant | 62% |
| Planeswalkers | % Played |
| Liliana, Untouched by Death | 14% |
| Liliana, Death’s Majesty | 54% |
| Liliana, Dreadhorde General | 26% |
| Artifacts | % Played |
| Jet Medallion | 5% |
| Enchantments | % Played |
| Ghoulish Procession | 7% |
| Oversold Cemetery | — |
| Endless Ranks of the Dead | 65% |
| Grave Pact | –% |
| Necroduality | 61% |
| Call to the Grave | 7% |
| Dictate of Erebos | 17% |
| Liliana’s Mastery | 44% |
| Open the Graves | 38% |
| Rooftop Storm | 93% |
| Instants | % Played |
| Flip the Switch | 4% |
| Rise of the Dread Marn | 25% |
| Sorceries | % Played |
| Eaten Alive | 9% |
| Feed the Swarm | 72% |
| Rise of the Dark Realms | 7% |
Of the creatures I’m playing, seven show up in over 75% of decks with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as commander. They are Gravecrawler, Undead Augur, Cemetery Reaper, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed. The only other card I’m running that sees this much play is Rooftop Storm.
Perhaps most interestingly, of the seven creatures that I and 75% of people play, six are found in Undead Unleashed. The only exception is Gravecrawler, which didn’t get reprinted in the precon. I went through and looked at each of these six cards to see how many of them had the set symbol from the precon deck and none of them did. I built my Zombie Tribal deck before the release of Undead Unleashed, so I, along with a bunch of other people, deemed these six cards auto-includes. Meanwhile, I did get my copy of Rooftop Storm from the precon, as my other copy is in my Everybody Draws Commander deck featuring Nekusar, the Mindrazer.
A Different Direction: Decklist 3 – Dimir Zombies with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
by Dan Fuerst
| Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver |
Creatures (28)
| Undead Warchief | |
| Corpse harvester | |
| Grimgrin, Corpse-Born | |
| Hordewing Skaab | |
| Noxious Ghoul | |
| Ravenous Rotbelly | |
| The Scarab God | |
| Vengeful Pharaoh | |
| Mikaeus, the Unhallowed |
Artifacts (10)
| Arcane Signet | |
| Dimir Signet |
| Talisman of Dominance | |
| Thought Vessel | |
| Bontu’s Monument | |
| Commander’s Sphere | |
| Crowded Crypt | |
| Dimir Locket | |
| Heraldic Banner | |
| Wand of Orcus |
Enchantments (7)
| Cover of Darkness | |
| Grave Pact | |
| Necroduality | |
| Call to the Grave | |
| Dictate of Erebos | |
| Kindred Discovery | |
| Rooftop Storm |
Instants (6)
| Drown in the Loch | |
| Infernal Grasp |
| Flip the Switch | |
| Keep Watch | |
| Rise of the Dread Marn | |
| Sudden Spoiling |
Sorceries (10)
| Eaten Alive | |
| Empty the Laboratory | |
| Pact of the Serpent | |
| Ancient Craving | |
| Distant Melody | |
| Lich-Knights’ Conquest | |
| Zombie Apocalypse | |
| Kindred Dominance | |
| Necrotic Hex | |
| Army of the Damned |
Lands (38)
| Choked Estuary |
| Clearwater Pathway |
| Darkwater Catacombs |
| Dimir Aqueduct |
| Drowned Catacomb |
| Path of Ancestry |
| Sunken Hollow |
| Tainted Isle |
| Temple of Deceit |
| Island (13) |
| Swamp (16) |
Similarities
The chief similarity, of course, is the commander, but what of the 99? Has the precon deck or the printing of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver pushed Zombie Tribal decks to run similar lists?
First, the numbers. We share 18 creatures, with my deck running a total of 40, and my brother-in-law’s deck playing only 28. I play only one artifact (Jet Medallion), compared to his 10 (no Jet Medallion). I play three Planeswalkers to his none. I play 10 enchantments, 5 of which he plays, as well. I play two instants, both of which show up in his deck (he plays 6). Of my two sorceries, we share one (he plays a total of 10).
Add that all up, not including lands, and our decks run 26 of the same cards. That’s less than half of the nonland cards we play (60 for me, 62 for him).
As a quick comparison, how do our decks line up with the precon? My deck shares 14 creatures with the precon, his 13; 1 Planeswalker for mine, none for his; 0 artifacts, his 3; 4 enchantments, his 1; 0 instants for us both; and 1 sorcery for me, and 4 for him.
Thus, my deck shares a total of 20 nonland cards with the precon, while his shares 21.
Our decks share the most similarities with each other and the precon in our choice of creatures. We both play some number of lords, like Diregraf Captain, though I play 4 more than he does. We both play Undead Augur, Gisa and Geralf, and Ravenous Rotbelly, each of which are in the precon.
Key Differences
The real divergence in our decks comes in our noncreatures. His deck runs more ramp and a lot more card draw. The decks also differ in removal, though both play Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos.
Overall, I would say his deck is more midrange compared to my aggro. He is more set up for a game to go long, as he looks to outvalue his opponent with recursion and card draw, rather than attack early and often and hope to find a way to push through the last bit of damage via draining or a lord effect like menace or flying.
Conclusion
Zombies have been a part of Magic since Alpha. With nearly 600 cards to choose from, Zombies are in the top 10 most printed creature type in the game. Perhaps this, more than everything else, should tell us something about the impact of the precon Undead Unleashed on Zombies in Commander. With so many cards to choose from, a significant number from this precon show up in Zombie decks with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver at the helm. More importantly, Wilhelt as commander has come to dominate players’ choice for which legendary Zombie to build around.
Is this just power creep’s impact on Commander? Or is it Wizards taking too much of an interest in supporting the format? They do have to walk a fine line of printing cards people actually want to play without making them auto-includes in every Zombie deck, or risk players complaining about the precon being too weak or too broken. Have they managed this balance with the printing of Undead Unleashed? With Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver? You be the judge and let me know in the comments!
As always, thanks for reading!
