Tobias, Doomed ConquerorTobias, Doomed Conqueror | art by Dmitry Burmak

Welcome back to Bottom of the Barrel! This is a series where we pick a theme from EDHREC and look at the “bottom of the barrel.” This means that we look at the least played color-combination and pick a commander in those colors to brew a spicy new deck around!

It’s likely that this commander has not been considered for this theme before, and that’s the point! This allows us to play around with themes that we enjoy while keeping our decks unique and interesting.

For today's edition, we're switching things up a bit. Usually we focus on a particular theme, but today we're focusing on a type: Zombies.

This theme is very common in Dimir (black and blue), with the most popular "Zombies" commander coming from an Innistrad: Midnight Hunt preconstructed Commander deck. According to EDHREC, there is one thing that Zombie commander decks have in common: the color black.

But what would happen if we replaced black with another color?

According to EDHREC, Azorius (white and blue) is on the "bottom of the barrel" for Zombie decks, with only 15 decks to its identity. Seeing only 15 decks, we have a winner! Looking into possible commanders, there was one that stood out above the rest: Tobias, Doomed ConquerorTobias, Doomed Conqueror.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Wait, isn't Tobias a human? Isn't this supposed to be a Zombie deck??"

Allow me to explain...

Category #1: Death Triggers

Looking at Tobias, his ability to make Zombies cares about the amount nontoken creatures that can die in one turn. With this mind, our game plan will need to revolve around 1 huge turn of sacrificing our creatures for value. That being said, Tobias is also an amazing piece of board wipe protection, and can generate huge value if we keep the mana open to flash him in during critical points in the game.

Since our creatures need to die, it make sense to add creatures that want to die: Inga, Rune-Eyes can be a great source of card draw if enough creatures die; Surveilling SpriteSurveilling Sprite, Palace FamiliarPalace Familiar, Outlaw Medic,Outlaw Medic, and Malcator's WatcherMalcator's Watcher generate card advantage and are the perfect blockers; and Ao, the Dawn SkyAo, the Dawn Sky can grant us crazy value when he dies.

Category #2: Sacrifice

Since we want our creatures to die, sacrifice outlets are crucial: Ravenous Amulet is a great piece of new tech that does it all; Martyr's Cause can save us against any huge attackers; and Spawning Pit can help us create more tokens outside of the Zombies that Tobias makes.

If we can't draw our sacrifice outlets, we still need ways to ensure that our creatures can die on our own terms. For this need, we can add creatures that sacrifice themselves to provide an effect.

For example: Bounty Agent can kill a commander or another "legendary" threat; Cathar Commando can remove a problem artifact or enchantment; Glen Elendra Archmage can counter any pesky noncreature spells that could put us in trouble (I'm looking at you, Expropriate!); and Benevolent Bodyguard can protect any of our creatures from any targeted action (as long as the source has a color).

Category #3: Recursion

With any strategy that relies on our own creatures dying, it's important that we have enough recursion pieces to keep our engine moving. My decklist has a whopping 12 pieces of recursion, but that is necessary for our game plan to succeed.

I won't list all 12 here, but here are a few of the highlights: God-Pharoah's Gift goes from former standard all star to arguably our best piece of recursion (not to mention, it turns the creatures into Zombies!); Enduring Renewal has a bit of a downside, but getting our creatures back to our hand when they die is incredibly powerful; and Starfall Invocation acts as both a board wipe and a reanimation spell - what's not to love!

Category #4: The "Secret Zombie Spice"

I'm sure by now you may have forgotten that this deck is a Zombie deck, but have no fear! We have plenty of sneaky ways to ensure that our "Zombie plan" is fulfilled! The first, and most obvious, card is Maskwood Nexus, as it turns all of our creatures into Zombies, and this will allow us to copy any creature on our board with a card like Cleaver Skaab.

God-Eternal Oketra creates 4/4 Zombies whenever we cast a creature spell, which is amazing on its own, but can get really ridiculous with things like Aven Wind Guide.

Stitcher Geralf gets a nod in this deck as well, as he is able to creature a huge Zombie token while removing resources from our opponents. When we have our Zombies, either from Tobias or otherwise, Hordewing Skaab can help close out the game by granting our undead friends flying.

For today's deck, we also have a "secret spice MVP", and that is Geralf, Visionary Stitcher.

Geralf does everything this decks wants: sacrifices creatures AND makes Zombies. Turning our value creatures into flying Zombies can create problems our opponents will struggle to handle.

Overall, this deck was an absolute blast to build and playtest, and I hope you'll feel inspired to give this lesser-played commander a chance!

This brings us to the end of our third edition of Bottom of the Barrel! I hope you enjoyed exploring a lesser-played color-combination in the world of Zombies, and hope you’ll take my ideas to brew your own craziness!

Check out my decklist below!

Nick Benstead

Nick is a full-time educator of America's youth, teaching them to love stories, and write for expression. Outside of teaching, his life is steeped in Magic the Gathering, whether it be through playing commander with his fiancee, or coming up with wacky brews to take to Friday Night Magic at his local game store.