The air is filled the rancid smell of rotting flesh.  The unholy moans of the Damned, and the screams of the living assault your ears.  That’s right folks it is time for the tribal Zombie Commander deck time.  And the man with the plan is Grimgrin, Corpse-Born! While there has been a lot of steam around the inter-webs about why Thraximundar should be used over Grimgrin.  To all that say this; I say “That you are doing it wrong”.  ‘Cause real zombies eat other zombies for breakfast, because zombies make you stronger.  On a slightly more serious note.  While Thraximundar does give you access to Red, and therefore has access to more cards, and therefore can do more shiny and cool things, and not to mention Thrax has haste, and Thrax is not targeted…… BLAH BLAH BLAH.  What it really boils down to is from flavor aspect a Red zombie just doesn’t make sense.  Actually a Red zombie is just plain loco.  Red being the color for Fire and Flames; and last time checked zombies really really do not like fire.  I am pretty sure Pyroclasm reads “Quell target Zombie Apocalypse”.  Honestly Zombies should be rotting and all soggy.  Not burnt and crispy.  Wait did I say that I was going to be serious?  Never mind.  Don’t get me wrong Thrax is very good, and possibly is better that GrimGrin.  But GrimGrin fills a niche that Thrax can not fill.  Thrax is an amazing Vol-Tron style commander, but GrimGrin is Vol-Tron and is a combo piece at the same time.

Combo?  That’s right my friends combo, and GrimGrin has some crazy combo’s that will leave the entire table groaning like a hoard of zombies.  Aside from the obvious Heavy Arbalest and Viridian Longbow.  There are some real fun tribal zombie based combos.  Let’s start off by playing Noxious Ghoul and follow it up by playing Tombstone Stairwell.  Take a minute read Tombstone Stairwell, very carefully.  Wait for it.  Yes, you read that correctly.  During each upkeep, each player puts a zombie token into play for each creature in his/her graveyard.  Then Noxious Ghoul triggers when ever a zombie comes into play; regardless of who controls it.  So after one upkeep of this the board should cleared.  If not on second upkeep the board will be cleared with out a doubt.  Yes, I know Damnation costs just 4 mana, and requires just one card, and just one turn to clear the board.  But this is just so much fun to pull off.  Besides combos like these are the kind that people laugh about when they are killed by them.  Ridiculousness, having a good time, and silliness is what Commander is all about right?  Also I should point out another power house card the synergies with the rest of the deck is Dire Undercurrents.  This card is bonkers at controlling the table and placing everybody in top deck mode.  Especially if you have a good token generator online like Army of the Damned, Endless Ranks of the Dead, and the aforementioned Tombstone Stairwell

The great thing about tribal Zombies (or most tribal decks for that matter) is that they are like pencils.  Meaning if you take one pencil you can easily snap it in half.  But it you try to snap two dozen pencils in half at the same time it is much harder to deal with.  Running champ zombies like: Lich Lord of Unx, Death Baron, Lord of the Undead, and Undead Warchief with turn your average 2/2 token into monster to be reckoned with.

In closing this is a fun deck to play.  At the very least in the early game you get to turn guys sideways and moan “Zombie Apocalypse” or even better “MMMM Brains!!!!”.  Your friends will laugh, and it will be all fun and games until you use kill one player withHeavy Arbalest, then in the same turn attack the other player with lethal General damage with a 30/30 GrimGrin.  Until next, keep tapping that cardboard.

EDIT- So the Deck List widget does not like me, and refuses to work like it is suppose to.  I am going to continue to try and figure out how to make it work.  Until then my list for this deck can be found at:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zombie-apocalypse-39/