Full list of changes: IN: Plague Belcher Bastion of Remembrance Kels, FIght Fixer Carrion Feeder Gravecrawler Master of Death Liliana's Standard Bearer Noxious Ghoul Gray Merchant of Asphodel Bolas's Citadel OUT: Curse of Unbinding Eater of Hope Gleaming Overseer Havengul Runebinder Liliana's Devotee Ruthless Deathfang Spark Reaper Hour of Eternity Overseer of the Damned Stitcher Geralf
I was SO bummed when he died. Final turn of the game and I was like "Well I'm not going to win this game, but maybe I can kill someone on the other team!" Then I basically rolled snake-eyes into a critical fail. ;_;
He was a douchebag in life and a douchebag still in death but I can say one thing about him: he's dedicated lol. His literal desire brought his ass back to life and he's just carving up the countryside for her affection. And Giza can't even be bothered to remember his name, she cares so little lol. Definitely an oddball story but it's one of my favorite in recent memory. I can just imagine Geralf giving her shit when he shows up with an army on his doorstep.
With Rooftop Storm and Bolas's Citadel on the bf, you still have to pay life equal to the cmc to cast zombos from the top of the library. You can't combine alternate costs.
Poppet Sticher is just very good value for this deck. When you flip it, it turns all your zombies into 3/3s without decayed. Also Altar of Dementia is just another sac outlet for you to turn your decayed zombies into mill after they attack. Extra bonus of going infinite if you have them both with your commander
I'm so hyped about this deck ! Here are some other ideas : - Teferi's veil (prevents your unblocked decayed zombies from dying - stack the effects so that TF triggers first) - Stitcher's supplier - Bloodline pretender can become crazy fast with the zombie + tokens - Crow of dark tidings : flying zombie + mill - Murderous rider is a great removal candidate - Bone dancer : fun zombie, specially with flying/menace/deathtouch - Phyrexian ghoul : another free sac outlet on a zombie - Draugr necromancer : graveyard hate + shenanigans with snow lands - Endling : awesome flexible zombie - Gravedigger : I was surprised this one wasn't in the deck - Liliana's reaver : great zombie too - Species specialist : yummy card draw - Tormod the desecrator - Undead warchief : sweet lord - Elvish dreadlord : zombie b. wipe - Fallen shinobi for shenanigans - The Scarab God : OP - Geth, Lord of the Vault / Grave Titan / Pontiff of blight : for lategame - Lazotep plating : awesome card, even more in a zombie tribal - Sudden substitution : I take your awesome spell and give you a decayed zombie - Enter the god eternals : kinda janky but on theme - Necrotic hex : pricey "b. wipe" but added value - Bad Moon : for the flavor :D - Tombstone stairwell : broken in many yard decks... even more here - Eldrazi monument Enjoy your zombies tribal decks, folks !
I think Havengul Lich is just superb added value, enabling that relentless strategy. Another card I’d consider is Fact or Fiction which may as well read “draw 5” because opponents may not have any good choices. Songs of the Damned may be a bursty ramp option when you need lots of mana, and Dictate of Erebos will ensure your opponents can’t maintain a creature presence. And she’s not a zombie but the aristocrat function of Ayara is difficult to ignore.
Here's a fun interaction a lot of people have glossed over. When a decayed creature doesn't die after attacking, and it is sacrificed at end of combat, it is still considered an "attacking creature". Death tyrant replaces decayed zombies with healthy ones, regardless of if they're blocked
I got this precon just for the value, tried it out, it's really good. Love some of the suggestions! Unexpectedly figured out what I want my Dimir deck to be!
Great video! Another good inclusion to the deck would be wake the dead! Gets you enter, dies, and sacrifice triggers and a great combat trick that can blow people out
Great video, just because you ask if there's anything you missed, there weren't any prices for the cards/how much the adds were in total. Love the budget upgrades in general, always watch when I get a new precon!
Thanks for the show guys. Great suggestions as always. I've been working on the deck this weekend and lowered the curve with a lot of festering type zombies. Added artifact ramp (even 3 mana cost rocks as they are still cheaper than the commander). My (extra) 2 cents for the 10 cards: graveborn muse, patriarch's bidding, stitcher's supplier, scourge of nel toth, ghoulcaller's chant, zombie infestation and last but not least Sidisi undead vizier to tutor for rooftop storm or any other win con. All very much on team, graveyard filling, card-drawing, recurring type-of-cards.
Bought this as my first commander deck after playing online exclusively for the past couple years. Hope my lgs is friendly to new players, looking forward to upgrading this deck. Thank you for this video!
Fun fact, rooftop storm grants an alternate cost for casting zombies, and citadel grants an alternate casting cost... you cannot use rooftop storm's alternate while casting with citadel
Great video. Had no idea what I bought, just saw zombies and my favorite color blue (not to play, just the actual color, lol) and was like "Fuggit, I'll get it". Played Commander once or twice in the past with a kaldheim commander precon and did aight. Feel like this will be the one to fully pull me into Commander and get me engaged with it.
I built Eloise as the commander and swapped out about 10 cards! Still very much a Zombie tribal, but I leaned more on sacrifice and tokens to get more investigating- so much fun! I can't wait to see this one played!
Although this may not be budget, I wonder what people would think about including poppet stitcher/factory and an ashnods altar in the deck as well. Can effectively go infinite and mill the whole table with Wilhelt out. There's also a super jank idea that I've been dying to see happen in game: Zombie Master along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth! All zombies (including enemies') have swampwalk and all lands are now also swamps!
Your "jank" idea isn't even jank! Regenerate is a strong ability on its own, so Zombie Master isn't a bad card to be playing even without Urborg. If you're spending the money for Urborg already, you should also grab Cabal Coffers. All those cards are good on their own, and if you can make your zombies unblockable, that's even better. I added a few infinite combos to my Wilhelt deck. The deck already has Diregraf Captain, which combines with Poppet Stitcher and a sac outlet to ping infinitely. Blasting Station + Gravecrawler is a classic as well.
I added Sidisi, Undead Vizier w/ Dawn of the Dead. That can create a tutor engine that allows you to get your win condition out that you don’t have to reveal. Especially with Rooftop Storm. I also changed the land base to Snow-covered lands and incorporated Narfi Betrayer King in the deck to buff the zombies and provide more reanimation. Zombie Trailblazer w/ Blanket of night is useful because it allows you to use the decayed zombies to make the beefier zombies unblockable w/swampwalk
Rooftop Storm + Bolas's Citadel doesn't work the way you guys said here. Bolas's Citadel says you pay life equal to the Mana Value. Rooftop Storm doesn't change the MV of the cards, it just gives you an alternate casting cost of 0. Not that Citadel is bad, just doesn't work quite the way you guys said here.
@38:28 Dear Jimmy Wong, I may be tired and not catching stuff correctly but please explain me how phyrexian arena will go infinite with gravecrawler? Not to mention that you will be casting it from your graveyard not from your library. Phyrexian altar on the other hand will work with it allowing to go infinite. Please buy someone a cookie if it was mistake on your side. If I am in wrong please accept my humble appologies and apoint reasonable punishment :P
Or any restriction, like pauper, penny, only one rarity, or maybe strict themes that are out of the box. Just don't know if the editors could do that, they already work a ton. It would have to be a less professional vid
With the AFR decks, they did this kind of budget upgrades for each deck. Then they made an extra turns video in which the four upgraded decks played against each other
Wouldn't you still take damage when using Bolas Citadel and Rooftop Storm together? It doesn't matter that Storm makes you able to cast them for free because you're still playing them using Citadel's ability Not saying the card isn't a great include, just a bit confused by the statement that you can go "infinite"
@@dubbsmt6128 Rooftop Storm doesn't change CMCs. It gives zombies an alternative cost of zero. Bolas' Citadel lets you cast cards from the top of your library and forces the alternative cost of paying life. You can't do both.
@@DemagogueBibleStudy this is correct when presented with multiple alternate casting costs such as cast it for free or cast it for overload you have to choose 1 of those alternate casting costs hence you cannot overload cyclonic rift off of something that says cast your next spell for 0 or Exile and cast for 0 if you choose the 0 cost mode you don't get the overload clause
Hate to break to you guys but Bolas Citidel and Rooftop storm doesn't work like that. Rooftop storm doesn't change the mana value of Zombies, it merely provides an alternate cost. Bolas Citidel still makes you pay life That being said I'd still use it in this deck, you can get a lot of mileage out of this
Just seen this: If you want to combine rooftop storm with bolas’s citadel then you can do so with a workaround. The workaround only cost you 1 life per card. You need a third piece called sensei’s divining top. You can tap the top to draw the top card of the library then replace it with the top. If the spell is applicable then you can cast it for free with rooftop storm. Then you use bolas’s citadel to cast the top for 1 life, tap the top to repeat as needed.
I got this thing for a precon league (five subs a week), and I am shoe-horning all the amass stuff from War Of The Spark into it. I have gotten Dreadhorde Invasion to pop off only ONCE at a FNM a week after the set came out; and I am chasing that dragon whenever I can.
Does Rooftop Storm works with Bolas's Citadel? Can you pay two alternative costs at the same time? Even if the zombies cost 0, their mana value it's still the one printed
It does NOT work. Citadel allows you to cast from top of library for its alternate cost - you CANNOT combine two alternate costs. Part of Rule 601.2b is "A player can't apply two alternative methods of casting or two alternative costs to a single spell."
nope, it doesn't. the citadel mandates that you pay life for the card you cast rather than pay its mana cost. This means you can't pay alternative costs.
What about Poppet stitcher? When you have 3 tokens turn it to factory, all tokens are now base 3/3 and no longer have decayed. I also expected wand of Orcus.
If you use ghouls night out you can use ghouldcaller gisa to sac for a ton of zombies and if you got death triggers you gain stuff on top of that for them dying.
I really enjoyed this episode, 1 thing that i dont agree with however is cutting gleaming overseer. There a quite a few effects that can bring back creatures as zombie tokens and when you pick gleaming overseer, its gonna give itself hexproof and menace too which makes it a pain to remove.
Rooftop Storm only changes the amount you pay, the CMC of the card is unchanged so you'll still have to pay the life with Bolas' Citadel as it says you pay life equal to the CMC of that card to cast the spell. Unless I missed something.
Endless ranks of the dead correct me if I'm wrong but a board wipe with some decay making creatures in play would give you decayed dorks from the board wipe which endless ranks will check for zombies and start rebuilding your board with legit zombies.
If you have wilhelt and non decay zombies you are correct. They’ll all get replaced with decayed and the endless ranks will see them and help rebuild with legit non decay zombies.
This exact thing happened to me the other day. My buddy had Wilhelt and a bunch of zombies out. Got board wiped, made decayed zombies and then got regular ones off of ERotD. It was brutal. We scooped after that lol
@@jordanking4834 yeah I was kinda being a smartass lol , I know this works just funny how they didn't think to mention it in this ep. And kinda downplayed endless ranks as a win more card with big downside to board wipes , in this deck it's pretty great.
I played this deck right out of the box with my commander group and ghouls night outed an Elesh Norn... You shuddered in the video but I can confirm, it works very well. Also got a Nyxbloom ancient so all in all it was a very impactful card.
Now Wilhelt makes a great Zombie Tribal commander but I think where his real strength lies is in an Aristocrats strategy focused on sacrificing zombies for value.
For some reason I haven't really enjoyed this precon. Its the only precon I've gotten for myself. Maybe I've had bad draws or perhaps I haven't used wilhelts sacrifice ability enough to get the value out of it. Its sort of hit or miss for me. I tried playing with Gisa and Geralf as the commander and I probably had the most fun with the deck! Though that probably has a lot to do with having Forgotten Creation on the field so I was able to just discard my whole hand and draw a new hand while still being able to play the zombies from the graveyard! Awesome little combo there.
well, glad I ordered this before this video came out and ratcheted up the price. Some cards I added: Blood Artist, Plumb the Forbidden, Havengul Lich, Necrotic Hex, Wand of Orcus, Port of Karfell, Tainted Adversary, Witch's Cottage I kept Gleaming Overseer for this combo option: (My group is pretty casual so...) Ashnod's Altar + Gleaming Overseer + Havengul Lich + Rooftop Storm Alternatively, you also can do some other infinites: Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Plague Belcher Desecrated Tomb + Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar If you're going to Bolas Citadel, a pricey but fun combo is; Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top
I know its not budget by any means, but Tombstone Stairwell would be so fun in this deck. Also just a card I've had forever and never been able to justify in a deck. UNTIL NOW!
Poppet Stitcher/Factory + Wilhelt + free sac outlet is infinite so long as you can transform Stitcher before you start. All your tokens lose their abilities, INCLUDING DECAYED, so Wilhelt’s tokens don’t have decayed so they create more tokens when they die.
Instead of kels fight fixer I went with smothering abomination. It’s a 2c2b (2 colorless and 2 black) eldrazi that is devoid, flying, 4/3 with “at the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice a creature” and “when you sacrifice a creature, draw a card.” Really good value for not having to pay to draw the cards and you can immediately double your commanders value at end of turn. Combos nicely with other cards as well. Can also sacrifice to himself if you don’t want to get rid of anything else.
Also poppet stitcher (midnight hunt card) goes infinite (on his flip side) with your commander (wilhelt) and any free sac outlet. Cause poppet removes abilities your tokens have (so decay), so when wilhelt looks at what you sacrifice none of it will have decay and he replaces all sacrificed creatures so you go infinite there as well
With a lot of discard/sacrifice effects in a typical zombie deck, this precon included, what are some great options for recurring your non-zombie/non-creature cards so they arent lost to the bin for the game?
Gravedigger is a zombie that brings cards back to your hand. Liliana, Waker of the Dead's ultimate gets you a creature each turn (including your opponent's creatures!) Reanimate is a classic, highly efficient card.
@@BWintJack thank you! I run. Varina, Lich Queen as my commander for my zombie deck and I havent had problems with creature recursion, it's more the non-creature cards I struggle to get back if I've discarded them. I've experimented with cards like Recall and Library of Leng (to top deck cards that I dont want binned), but there have been times when a much needed board wipe, or some other non-creature spell was needed, but I couldnt dig it out of the bin.
My add list is as follows: Wonder, Poppet stitcher (How did you miss this? It infinite combos with Wilhelt & a sac outlet.), Rot Hulk (or Grave Titan, if you prefer tokens to reanimation), Haunting Voyage, Zombie Master or Undead Warchief, Scourge of Nel Toth, God Eternal Kenfet, God Eternal Bontu, Murderous Rider, Never//Return, Victim of Night, From Under The Floorboards, Necromantic Selection, Corpse Cobble, Obsessive Stitcher, Grimgrin Corpse-born, The Scarab God. Didn't make my list, but worth checking out: Vizer of the Scorpion, Lich Lord of Unx, Noosegraf Mob, Phyrexian Crusader, Zombie Outlander, Graf Harvest, Pontiff of Blight, Bontu's Monument, Desecrated Tomb, Crypt of Agadeem, Westvale Abby.
I had Varina that helmed my zombie deck. TBH Endless Ranks can go out of control really quick.. esp when you run veld. orrery and you drop it on the turn before and you end up with 6 2/2s one time. Game ended that turn :D
Unbreathing horde and relentless dead perfect fits for this it's what I ran with most of this list not long ago lost my deck right before this was announced
Am I wrong in thinking if i have the Poppet Factory out, that makes all tokens 3/3 without decayed, that I could sacrifice a zombie to Something that gives me 1 life and opponents lose 1 life as an infinite loop? Because it would come back with decayed, lose it to Poppet allowing you to sacrifice to Wilhelt again. Am I correct?
So it's kind of a janky combo but a transformed poppet stitcher+ Wilhelt+ any free sac outlet goes infinite. Im thinking viscera seer for free tutors, but you could use an alter and cast exanguinate or torment of hailfire too, for game.
you can tell Gaurav Gulati is a sadist because his favorite colour is blue, he loves to counter peoples stuff and watch them cry :) hehe just kidding. always nice to finally meed all the people behind the scenes too. I disagree on the 90% inclusion, I'm already switching out 29 of these cards, so thats 29% of the deck switched out. Poppet sticher / Poppet Factory = MVP. not putting that in there is a huge mistake. the Poppet factory makes Willhelt make regular 2/2 zombies without decayed :) it's so good and its from the new set so slam dunk putting it in there. I can't say I'm a fan of this upgrade guide. Usually these guides are very solid, I've bought many of the upgrades for the precons after your list, but not this time. some of the cards were ok, in fact 6 of the 10 cards I had already and for me, the only addition I would consider is Carrion feeder. sure, the Bolas's citadel and rooftop storm combo is cute, but it stops as soon as you stop hitting a creature.
Jimmy must’ve forgotten but aura curses can be put on yourself and this deck cares about what’s in the graveyard so it would be a free creature and free mill each upkeep
Would be cool to get a "Gary, head of the merchant guild" or "Charles, chief tax collector of asphodel" legend that cares about devotion and life loss and/or lifegain.
I am surprised that rise of the dread marn was not included as a add to rebound from a board wipe. I have it in my esper zombie deck and it does work especially with this new commander.
![Undead Unleashed Upgrades | Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver [Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Precon] Budget & Bling](/img/n.gif)
Full list of changes:
IN:
Plague Belcher
Bastion of Remembrance
Kels, FIght Fixer
Carrion Feeder
Gravecrawler
Master of Death
Liliana's Standard Bearer
Noxious Ghoul
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Bolas's Citadel
OUT:
Curse of Unbinding
Eater of Hope
Gleaming Overseer
Havengul Runebinder
Liliana's Devotee
Ruthless Deathfang
Spark Reaper
Hour of Eternity
Overseer of the Damned
Stitcher Geralf
A true hero
You're a godsend dude
Thanks, mate
Thank you my dude
Thank you ❤
Really enjoyed Gaurav on this episode! You could really see the emotion when talking about losing his star mummy in the End Step
I was SO bummed when he died. Final turn of the game and I was like "Well I'm not going to win this game, but maybe I can kill someone on the other team!" Then I basically rolled snake-eyes into a critical fail. ;_;
Wilhelt’s story is interesting, he rose from the grave by himself, and then raised an army of zombies to impress Gisa, cause he has a crush on her
Is there a link to lore like that? I'm interested in learning more.
He was a douchebag in life and a douchebag still in death but I can say one thing about him: he's dedicated lol. His literal desire brought his ass back to life and he's just carving up the countryside for her affection. And Giza can't even be bothered to remember his name, she cares so little lol.
Definitely an oddball story but it's one of my favorite in recent memory. I can just imagine Geralf giving her shit when he shows up with an army on his doorstep.
King Simp in the Unflesh. Awesome commander though 🤗
Sounds like comic Thanos.
My man simping even after death
With Rooftop Storm and Bolas's Citadel on the bf, you still have to pay life equal to the cmc to cast zombos from the top of the library. You can't combine alternate costs.
Pretty sure rooftop storm in Bolas’s citadel do not work together. Because you can’t choose multiple alternate costs to cast something.
They do not work together.
I thought the same thing.
That is correct, they do not work together. (judge)
Future Sight / Magus of the Future* would work with it though.
Yeah that was a head scratcher.
Poppet Sticher is just very good value for this deck. When you flip it, it turns all your zombies into 3/3s without decayed.
Also Altar of Dementia is just another sac outlet for you to turn your decayed zombies into mill after they attack.
Extra bonus of going infinite if you have them both with your commander
Yeah this is one of the things I changed with my deck. It works really well.
Mix it with the blue zombie that makes a zombie every time a creature gets milled and you may have infinite mill and enough creatures to block with
Gaurav has a really easy to listen to voice and great banter! I think he should get featured more!
Agreed, I wouldn't hate a rotating schedule if various hosts
I'm so hyped about this deck ! Here are some other ideas :
- Teferi's veil (prevents your unblocked decayed zombies from dying - stack the effects so that TF triggers first)
- Stitcher's supplier
- Bloodline pretender can become crazy fast with the zombie + tokens
- Crow of dark tidings : flying zombie + mill
- Murderous rider is a great removal candidate
- Bone dancer : fun zombie, specially with flying/menace/deathtouch
- Phyrexian ghoul : another free sac outlet on a zombie
- Draugr necromancer : graveyard hate + shenanigans with snow lands
- Endling : awesome flexible zombie
- Gravedigger : I was surprised this one wasn't in the deck
- Liliana's reaver : great zombie too
- Species specialist : yummy card draw
- Tormod the desecrator
- Undead warchief : sweet lord
- Elvish dreadlord : zombie b. wipe
- Fallen shinobi for shenanigans
- The Scarab God : OP
- Geth, Lord of the Vault / Grave Titan / Pontiff of blight : for lategame
- Lazotep plating : awesome card, even more in a zombie tribal
- Sudden substitution : I take your awesome spell and give you a decayed zombie
- Enter the god eternals : kinda janky but on theme
- Necrotic hex : pricey "b. wipe" but added value
- Bad Moon : for the flavor :D
- Tombstone stairwell : broken in many yard decks... even more here
- Eldrazi monument
Enjoy your zombies tribal decks, folks !
@Olivier Debilde Great suggestions there mate
And Minions’s Murmurs for card draw!
I forgot Zombie Master for the flavor :D
That's a great list of suggestions.
I think Havengul Lich is just superb added value, enabling that relentless strategy. Another card I’d consider is Fact or Fiction which may as well read “draw 5” because opponents may not have any good choices. Songs of the Damned may be a bursty ramp option when you need lots of mana, and Dictate of Erebos will ensure your opponents can’t maintain a creature presence. And she’s not a zombie but the aristocrat function of Ayara is difficult to ignore.
MORE GAURAV! Absolutely crushed it. I would love to see him play some commander!
You may get your wish VERY soon. Stay tuned!
I thought that was my friend gurauv sharma he liked magic in HS and was also indian ....?
Wand of Orcus is such a good upgrade. Put it in a decayed Zombie and make new ones!
I actually have this deck. Even before it came out. With The Scarab God as my commander and 85% of the cards. Funny!
SAME!! It was one of the first commander decks I ever made. I saw the deck list spoiled and I was like no way. 😂
Fuck the same, u two are my zombie comrades
What if I told you I made a deck similar to this with Grimgrin at the helm!
@@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING hahaha same here this was my first commander deck I made on mtgo like three years ago
Yep! Scarab God deck owner here too!
Here's a fun interaction a lot of people have glossed over. When a decayed creature doesn't die after attacking, and it is sacrificed at end of combat, it is still considered an "attacking creature". Death tyrant replaces decayed zombies with healthy ones, regardless of if they're blocked
Wow, that's a really good upgrade!!!
I got this precon just for the value, tried it out, it's really good. Love some of the suggestions! Unexpectedly figured out what I want my Dimir deck to be!
"If you have Rooftop Storm and Bolas's Cidadel..."
Lordy... what was everyone playing against you doing?! Lol
Laughing at them and/or calling a judge for it doesn't work together.
They really need to put a judge on staff so they can avoid these embarrassing and irresponsible mistakes
@@marquisdcarabas Agreed!
Also the combo they mentioned didn't require Bolas Citadel at all, it was just graveyard recursion
@@marquisdcarabas they have one already (for during games).
Upgrade guide starts at 32:50
Holy shit I thought this was a joke... Over half an hour for the main topic lol
@@scarletrobin 😂😂😂
*YES!* i waited so long for a new episode of Bruce and Silas! 28:04
Great video! Another good inclusion to the deck would be wake the dead! Gets you enter, dies, and sacrifice triggers and a great combat trick that can blow people out
Great video, just because you ask if there's anything you missed, there weren't any prices for the cards/how much the adds were in total. Love the budget upgrades in general, always watch when I get a new precon!
Absolutely love the ads, well done!
Thank you!!
Cool Jimmy is one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen, everyone's reaction when he enters the room is hysterical 🤣
Thanks for the show guys. Great suggestions as always. I've been working on the deck this weekend and lowered the curve with a lot of festering type zombies. Added artifact ramp (even 3 mana cost rocks as they are still cheaper than the commander). My (extra) 2 cents for the 10 cards: graveborn muse, patriarch's bidding, stitcher's supplier, scourge of nel toth, ghoulcaller's chant, zombie infestation and last but not least Sidisi undead vizier to tutor for rooftop storm or any other win con. All very much on team, graveyard filling, card-drawing, recurring type-of-cards.
'on team' = 'on theme' lol #teamzombie!
I'm so glad I got this deck. I feel like ashnods altar is a good auto include to get those sac triggers
Loved Gaurav! Great addition to the team. Can't wait to see more from him in future content.
Yo Gaurav was absolutely perfect. I hope to see him on future episodes!!
I absolutely love your ads - you’re a master Sir!!
Appreciate the love! We work hard on them. :)
"Humans are just zombies that don't know it yet." LMAO 😂
Bought this as my first commander deck after playing online exclusively for the past couple years. Hope my lgs is friendly to new players, looking forward to upgrading this deck. Thank you for this video!
Fun fact, rooftop storm grants an alternate cost for casting zombies, and citadel grants an alternate casting cost... you cannot use rooftop storm's alternate while casting with citadel
Great video. Had no idea what I bought, just saw zombies and my favorite color blue (not to play, just the actual color, lol) and was like "Fuggit, I'll get it". Played Commander once or twice in the past with a kaldheim commander precon and did aight. Feel like this will be the one to fully pull me into Commander and get me engaged with it.
Them not talking about Acererack is a crime. True Infinite with Rooftop Storm that wins the game on the spot.
Probably because is just boring, imo.
Careful around these command zone folks, the words "infinite" and "combo" set a huge portion of them off
Yeah that's boring
And it's Acererak! Such cool flavor
@@Oopsall wym, what wrong with infinite combos?
46:15-47:03 the lower third says ‘Gleaming Overseer’ the whole time ‘Eater of Hope’ is on screen
I built Eloise as the commander and swapped out about 10 cards! Still very much a Zombie tribal, but I leaned more on sacrifice and tokens to get more investigating- so much fun! I can't wait to see this one played!
Although this may not be budget, I wonder what people would think about including poppet stitcher/factory and an ashnods altar in the deck as well. Can effectively go infinite and mill the whole table with Wilhelt out.
There's also a super jank idea that I've been dying to see happen in game: Zombie Master along with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth! All zombies (including enemies') have swampwalk and all lands are now also swamps!
Your "jank" idea isn't even jank! Regenerate is a strong ability on its own, so Zombie Master isn't a bad card to be playing even without Urborg. If you're spending the money for Urborg already, you should also grab Cabal Coffers. All those cards are good on their own, and if you can make your zombies unblockable, that's even better.
I added a few infinite combos to my Wilhelt deck. The deck already has Diregraf Captain, which combines with Poppet Stitcher and a sac outlet to ping infinitely. Blasting Station + Gravecrawler is a classic as well.
I added Sidisi, Undead Vizier w/ Dawn of the Dead. That can create a tutor engine that allows you to get your win condition out that you don’t have to reveal. Especially with Rooftop Storm. I also changed the land base to Snow-covered lands and incorporated Narfi Betrayer King in the deck to buff the zombies and provide more reanimation. Zombie Trailblazer w/ Blanket of night is useful because it allows you to use the decayed zombies to make the beefier zombies unblockable w/swampwalk
Rooftop Storm + Bolas's Citadel doesn't work the way you guys said here. Bolas's Citadel says you pay life equal to the Mana Value. Rooftop Storm doesn't change the MV of the cards, it just gives you an alternate casting cost of 0. Not that Citadel is bad, just doesn't work quite the way you guys said here.
Came here to say this. Thank you.
i personally added poppet stitcher because of its backside and i keep the gleaming overseer
@38:28 Dear Jimmy Wong, I may be tired and not catching stuff correctly but please explain me how phyrexian arena will go infinite with gravecrawler? Not to mention that you will be casting it from your graveyard not from your library. Phyrexian altar on the other hand will work with it allowing to go infinite. Please buy someone a cookie if it was mistake on your side. If I am in wrong please accept my humble appologies and apoint reasonable punishment :P
I miss seeing you on the Broken Pack D&D Saving Throw Show Gaurav!
Awww I miss doing it! But I'm so busy now that I definitely wouldn't be able to put 100% into it. I'm sure I'll be back on a D&D stream some day. :)
Thoughts on a budget build game knights?
Or any restriction, like pauper, penny, only one rarity, or maybe strict themes that are out of the box. Just don't know if the editors could do that, they already work a ton. It would have to be a less professional vid
@@grandogrando6505 why would it have to be a less professional video?
With the AFR decks, they did this kind of budget upgrades for each deck. Then they made an extra turns video in which the four upgraded decks played against each other
@@liamlyda2116 I mean it wouldn't have game knights level editing, because it would probably be in between real episodes
Poppet stitcher on the flip side gets rid of decayed and makes your tokens 3/3 instead of 2/2
Wouldn't you still take damage when using Bolas Citadel and Rooftop Storm together? It doesn't matter that Storm makes you able to cast them for free because you're still playing them using Citadel's ability
Not saying the card isn't a great include, just a bit confused by the statement that you can go "infinite"
No because Rooftop Storm changes the CMC to 0 so you are paying zero life
@@dubbsmt6128
Rooftop Storm doesn't change CMCs. It gives zombies an alternative cost of zero. Bolas' Citadel lets you cast cards from the top of your library and forces the alternative cost of paying life. You can't do both.
@@DemagogueBibleStudy this is correct when presented with multiple alternate casting costs such as cast it for free or cast it for overload you have to choose 1 of those alternate casting costs hence you cannot overload cyclonic rift off of something that says cast your next spell for 0 or Exile and cast for 0 if you choose the 0 cost mode you don't get the overload clause
Hate to break to you guys but Bolas Citidel and Rooftop storm doesn't work like that. Rooftop storm doesn't change the mana value of Zombies, it merely provides an alternate cost. Bolas Citidel still makes you pay life
That being said I'd still use it in this deck, you can get a lot of mileage out of this
Just seen this:
If you want to combine rooftop storm with bolas’s citadel then you can do so with a workaround.
The workaround only cost you 1 life per card.
You need a third piece called sensei’s divining top.
You can tap the top to draw the top card of the library then replace it with the top.
If the spell is applicable then you can cast it for free with rooftop storm.
Then you use bolas’s citadel to cast the top for 1 life, tap the top to repeat as needed.
Great build fellas. Love the content. Good luck on your endeavors to White Castle.
😂🤣
Ghoulcaller Gisa is a great add in. Sac a normal zombie token to make two more and a token with decay
32:20 cards to add
Hope to see more of Gaurav. Good episode!
And I hope to see more of you, friend. Thank you!
I got this thing for a precon league (five subs a week), and I am shoe-horning all the amass stuff from War Of The Spark into it. I have gotten Dreadhorde Invasion to pop off only ONCE at a FNM a week after the set came out; and I am chasing that dragon whenever I can.
Does Rooftop Storm works with Bolas's Citadel? Can you pay two alternative costs at the same time? Even if the zombies cost 0, their mana value it's still the one printed
You cannot pay 2 alternative casting costs.
It does NOT work. Citadel allows you to cast from top of library for its alternate cost - you CANNOT combine two alternate costs. Part of Rule 601.2b is "A player can't apply two alternative methods of casting or two alternative costs to a single spell."
@@ThreeOfNineteen sad
nope, it doesn't. the citadel mandates that you pay life for the card you cast rather than pay its mana cost. This means you can't pay alternative costs.
Sadly, it does not. It's still a decent card in the deck but it doesn't work the way I thought it did. My bad!
Endless Ranks of the Dead was original Innistrad, not a Commander product.
i think D&D Death Tyrant is a good include for this deck
What about Poppet stitcher? When you have 3 tokens turn it to factory, all tokens are now base 3/3 and no longer have decayed.
I also expected wand of Orcus.
If you use ghouls night out you can use ghouldcaller gisa to sac for a ton of zombies and if you got death triggers you gain stuff on top of that for them dying.
my inclusions: military intelligence, negate, eaten alive, viscera seer, polymorphist’s jest, loyal subordinate, heirloom blade, gruesome fate, fact or fiction, levitation, tamiyos epiphany, crypt ghast, josh vess, Lich knight, teferi’s ageless insight, arch fiend of depravity, fallen shinobi, ever after, treasure cruise, in Garrucks wake, and necrotic hex. Really focusing on swarming and dumping my hand.
YES KELS IVE BEEN WAITING, I bought this precon to upgrade my kels deck!!!
I really enjoyed this episode, 1 thing that i dont agree with however is cutting gleaming overseer. There a quite a few effects that can bring back creatures as zombie tokens and when you pick gleaming overseer, its gonna give itself hexproof and menace too which makes it a pain to remove.
Rooftop Storm only changes the amount you pay, the CMC of the card is unchanged so you'll still have to pay the life with Bolas' Citadel as it says you pay life equal to the CMC of that card to cast the spell. Unless I missed something.
Endless ranks of the dead correct me if I'm wrong but a board wipe with some decay making creatures in play would give you decayed dorks from the board wipe which endless ranks will check for zombies and start rebuilding your board with legit zombies.
If you have wilhelt and non decay zombies you are correct. They’ll all get replaced with decayed and the endless ranks will see them and help rebuild with legit non decay zombies.
This exact thing happened to me the other day. My buddy had Wilhelt and a bunch of zombies out. Got board wiped, made decayed zombies and then got regular ones off of ERotD. It was brutal. We scooped after that lol
@@jordanking4834 yeah I was kinda being a smartass lol , I know this works just funny how they didn't think to mention it in this ep. And kinda downplayed endless ranks as a win more card with big downside to board wipes , in this deck it's pretty great.
"Of yonder" is fine, but I think "of yore" is the best fit.
Either way, good word.
Gaurav was a fantastic cohost! Get him at the commander table for sure.
I played this deck right out of the box with my commander group and ghouls night outed an Elesh Norn... You shuddered in the video but I can confirm, it works very well. Also got a Nyxbloom ancient so all in all it was a very impactful card.
Now Wilhelt makes a great Zombie Tribal commander but I think where his real strength lies is in an Aristocrats strategy focused on sacrificing zombies for value.
Also eloise for some great combos, the only problem is that the are ZOMBIES! (My favorite tribal after cleric)
For some reason I haven't really enjoyed this precon. Its the only precon I've gotten for myself. Maybe I've had bad draws or perhaps I haven't used wilhelts sacrifice ability enough to get the value out of it. Its sort of hit or miss for me. I tried playing with Gisa and Geralf as the commander and I probably had the most fun with the deck! Though that probably has a lot to do with having Forgotten Creation on the field so I was able to just discard my whole hand and draw a new hand while still being able to play the zombies from the graveyard! Awesome little combo there.
Gisa and Gerald precon is fun indeed. I love it too
This really helped me build the deck with cards I already have and I made my own upgrades from your advice. Thanks!!
How did you go through a black (and blue) aristocrats (and zombies) deck without mentioning Syr Konrad!?
so why pump 8 mana into dread summons to create 9-12 zombies when you can spend 8 mana to create 13 guaranteed zombies with army of the damned?
I'm guessing they tried to limit what they addressed and that didn't make the cut.
+ the mill?
Because it mills you and you are going to absolutely want the self mill. You could self mill army of the damned then flash it back.
Never heard of these guys before but i loved it! So much fun, vibes for days!!
Anyone else like Ayara in this deck btw?
Guarav!!! Your ads are soo awesome and funny
Definitely itching to buy this and put Varina back together now. Great video as always guys!
Way to be with the Blood Bowl plug. Nice deck break down.
well, glad I ordered this before this video came out and ratcheted up the price.
Some cards I added: Blood Artist, Plumb the Forbidden, Havengul Lich, Necrotic Hex, Wand of Orcus, Port of Karfell, Tainted Adversary, Witch's Cottage
I kept Gleaming Overseer for this combo option: (My group is pretty casual so...)
Ashnod's Altar + Gleaming Overseer + Havengul Lich + Rooftop Storm
Alternatively, you also can do some other infinites:
Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Plague Belcher
Desecrated Tomb + Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar
If you're going to Bolas Citadel, a pricey but fun combo is; Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top
I know its not budget by any means, but Tombstone Stairwell would be so fun in this deck. Also just a card I've had forever and never been able to justify in a deck. UNTIL NOW!
Tombstone stairwell is also a powerhouse with Syr Konrad!
Gaurav! your ads are the best in the business
Oooh, Gaurav is excellent!! Love your suit/shirt too, bet that goes over well on date-night :D
Poppet Stitcher/Factory + Wilhelt + free sac outlet is infinite so long as you can transform Stitcher before you start. All your tokens lose their abilities, INCLUDING DECAYED, so Wilhelt’s tokens don’t have decayed so they create more tokens when they die.
Instead of kels fight fixer I went with smothering abomination. It’s a 2c2b (2 colorless and 2 black) eldrazi that is devoid, flying, 4/3 with “at the beginning of your upkeep sacrifice a creature” and “when you sacrifice a creature, draw a card.” Really good value for not having to pay to draw the cards and you can immediately double your commanders value at end of turn. Combos nicely with other cards as well. Can also sacrifice to himself if you don’t want to get rid of anything else.
Also poppet stitcher (midnight hunt card) goes infinite (on his flip side) with your commander (wilhelt) and any free sac outlet. Cause poppet removes abilities your tokens have (so decay), so when wilhelt looks at what you sacrifice none of it will have decay and he replaces all sacrificed creatures so you go infinite there as well
With a lot of discard/sacrifice effects in a typical zombie deck, this precon included, what are some great options for recurring your non-zombie/non-creature cards so they arent lost to the bin for the game?
Gravedigger is a zombie that brings cards back to your hand. Liliana, Waker of the Dead's ultimate gets you a creature each turn (including your opponent's creatures!) Reanimate is a classic, highly efficient card.
@@BWintJack thank you! I run. Varina, Lich Queen as my commander for my zombie deck and I havent had problems with creature recursion, it's more the non-creature cards I struggle to get back if I've discarded them. I've experimented with cards like Recall and Library of Leng (to top deck cards that I dont want binned), but there have been times when a much needed board wipe, or some other non-creature spell was needed, but I couldnt dig it out of the bin.
I'd throw a liliana, untouched by death in, seems like a good fit
Gourav seems like such a nice guy!
Guarav was great! Great job on the show!
Just wanted to point out that the crypt enchantment where you make zombie tokens, they don't have decayed so you can keep sacing them
Crypt enchantment?
@@brandonwhitsett2993 make X amount of 2/2 zombie creature tokens equal to half the amount of zombies you control rounded down
The thing about undead augur is that it is not a may ability so a boardwipe could kill you! Best paired with an instant speed sac outlet.
My add list is as follows:
Wonder, Poppet stitcher (How did you miss this? It infinite combos with Wilhelt & a sac outlet.), Rot Hulk (or Grave Titan, if you prefer tokens to reanimation), Haunting Voyage, Zombie Master or Undead Warchief, Scourge of Nel Toth, God Eternal Kenfet, God Eternal Bontu, Murderous Rider, Never//Return, Victim of Night, From Under The Floorboards, Necromantic Selection, Corpse Cobble, Obsessive Stitcher, Grimgrin Corpse-born, The Scarab God.
Didn't make my list, but worth checking out:
Vizer of the Scorpion, Lich Lord of Unx, Noosegraf Mob, Phyrexian Crusader, Zombie Outlander, Graf Harvest, Pontiff of Blight, Bontu's Monument, Desecrated Tomb, Crypt of Agadeem, Westvale Abby.
I had Varina that helmed my zombie deck. TBH Endless Ranks can go out of control really quick.. esp when you run veld. orrery and you drop it on the turn before and you end up with 6 2/2s one time. Game ended that turn :D
I need to get myself a scarab god, this deck is such a good base for zombie tribal
That commander on the 99 of a Nevinyrral deck though
I read it quick and thought you were asking who the commander is that has nevinyrral disc
@@anthonymarciano6050 lol
Thanks for releasing this the day after i got it :)
31:54 to skip the silly commercials
Guarav was a great host! Definitely want to see more of him.
Unbreathing horde and relentless dead perfect fits for this it's what I ran with most of this list not long ago lost my deck right before this was announced
Am I wrong in thinking if i have the Poppet Factory out, that makes all tokens 3/3 without decayed, that I could sacrifice a zombie to Something that gives me 1 life and opponents lose 1 life as an infinite loop? Because it would come back with decayed, lose it to Poppet allowing you to sacrifice to Wilhelt again. Am I correct?
Yep. That's how that works
@@FixerFour thanks mate. Sounded too easy haha
So it's kind of a janky combo but a transformed poppet stitcher+ Wilhelt+ any free sac outlet goes infinite. Im thinking viscera seer for free tutors, but you could use an alter and cast exanguinate or torment of hailfire too, for game.
I love the thought of a zombie Elesh Norn.
you can tell Gaurav Gulati is a sadist because his favorite colour is blue, he loves to counter peoples stuff and watch them cry :) hehe just kidding. always nice to finally meed all the people behind the scenes too.
I disagree on the 90% inclusion, I'm already switching out 29 of these cards, so thats 29% of the deck switched out.
Poppet sticher / Poppet Factory = MVP. not putting that in there is a huge mistake. the Poppet factory makes Willhelt make regular 2/2 zombies without decayed :) it's so good and its from the new set so slam dunk putting it in there.
I can't say I'm a fan of this upgrade guide. Usually these guides are very solid, I've bought many of the upgrades for the precons after your list, but not this time. some of the cards were ok, in fact 6 of the 10 cards I had already and for me, the only addition I would consider is Carrion feeder. sure, the Bolas's citadel and rooftop storm combo is cute, but it stops as soon as you stop hitting a creature.
Jimmy must’ve forgotten but aura curses can be put on yourself and this deck cares about what’s in the graveyard so it would be a free creature and free mill each upkeep
Is there a printed list of what the adds are and removes? I listen while I drive and hard to write it down.
Deathgreeter and Dross Harvester are amazing in decks like this.
Crazy how impactful Gary has been during his tenures in standard. It's almost like if we visit Theros again he needs to upgraded to legendary status.
Would be cool to get a "Gary, head of the merchant guild" or "Charles, chief tax collector of asphodel" legend that cares about devotion and life loss and/or lifegain.
I am surprised that rise of the dread marn was not included as a add to rebound from a board wipe. I have it in my esper zombie deck and it does work especially with this new commander.