Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Ghoulcaller Gisa!

Gisa is a five mana 3/4 that for a black, tap, and sacrifice another creature we create X 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.

A simple effect for a Zombie Commander, but with Zombies the number is the most important thing because we want as many Zombies as we can in order to deal as much damage with the Zombie horde. Gisa helps us in getting a lot of Zombies by making use of some big creatures, which we can get in a variety of ways.

The game plan thus is simple, do a bit of set up with some utility creatures, get a couple of big creatures on the battlefield that we may or may not have cheated in, sacrifice them to get a bunch of Zombies in play, and swing wide with the Zombie horde.

The first thing we need are the utility creatures, which make some of our Zombies cheaper and or stronger.

Undead Warchief is among one of the better ones, which is why it commands a slightly higher price tag, because it makes Zombie spells we control cost one mana less and gives Zombies we control +2/+1, which can be a massive boost and can make our other utility Zombies cheaper to cast as well.

Lord of the Accursed can give other Zombies we control +1/+1 and for two mana and tap can give all Zombies menace until end of turn, Death Baron can give Skeletons and other Zombies we control +1/+1 and deathtouch, and Cemetery Reaper can give other Zombies we control +1/+1 and for three mana and tap we can exile a creature card from a graveyard to make a 2/2 Zombie token.

Zombie Master can be a blast from the past as the original Zombie lord because it gives all Zombies the ability to pay a black to regenerate itself and gives them Swampwalk as well, which if you happen to have an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth you can make all of your Zombies basically unblockable.

Lost Monarch of Ifnir is also a great card to have because it has afflict 3, which means that when this creature becomes blocked the defending player loses 3 life, gives our other Zombies afflict 3, and at the beginning of our second main phase if a player was dealt combat damage by a Zombie, then we mill three cards and return a creature from the our graveyard to our hand.

The next thing we need are creatures that we want to sacrifice to Gisa in order to get a bunch of Zombies.

Scourge of Nel Toth is perfect for this because while being a seven mana 6/6 with flying is not the best normally, we can cast it from our graveyard by paying two mana and sacrificing two creatures rather than paying its mana cost. This means we have a decently recursive way to get a bunch of Zombies for really cheap.

Ebondeath, Dracolich is an interesting creature for this deck because it has flash and flying, enters tapped, is a 5/2, but can also be cast from the graveyard if a creature not named Ebondeath, Dracolich died this turn, meaning that we can bring it back on an opponents turn if they had a creature died or we sacrificed a different creature to Gisa in order to have another recursive creature we can sacrifice.

If we just want decently cheap creatures to cast that happen to have a high power, Rotting Regisaur works because it is a 7/6 for three mana and at the beginning of our upkeep we discard a card, Gravecrawler as a one mana 2/1 we can cast from our graveyard as long as we control a Zombie, and Bygone Colossus which is normally a nine mana 9/9 but we can cast for its Warp cost of three mana.

With the, ideally, massive number of Zombie we have coming into play we can also take advantage of that with Champion of the Perished, which gets a +1/+1 counter whenever another Zombie enters the battlefield under our Zombies when it gets big enough.

There is also Unbreathing Horde, which when it enters it gets a +1/+1 counter for each other Zombie we control and each Zombie in our graveyard and if it would be dealt damage, we instead prevent that damage and remove a +1/+1 counter from it.

We can also make use of our Zombies that can’t attack to get some creatures back into play by using Gravespawn Sovereign which let’s us tap five untapped Zombies we control to put target creature from a graveyard onto the battlefield under our control, which we can use to get a big creature from any graveyard and sacrifice it to make even more Zombies.

While our massive horde of Zombies should be able to do a decent enough job, we should have some backup ways to win the game.

Venegful Dead is a great card in this instance if we happen to have a massive board because whenever it or another Zombie dies, each opponent loses 1 life, which for our deck it is not hard for us to get a bunch of Zombies in play and use a board wipe to deal a ton of damage, especially if we are restricted in our attacks somehow.

We can make use of these cheeky aristocrat strategies to gain a benefit from us sacrificing our creatures. Bastion of Remembrance comes to mind because whenever a creature we control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and we gain 1 life, while also making a 1/1 Human Soldier, which we can sacrifice to a Zombie.

Plague Belcher is another great card for this deck, one because it is a three mana 5/4 with the only downside is putting two -1/-1 counters on a creature we control, which if we have a couple of Zombies is no big deal because whenever another Zombie we control dies then each opponent loses 1 life.

But if we just want tons and tons and tons of Zombies, then there is cards like Endless Ranks of the Dead which at the beginning of our upkeep let’s us make X 2/2 Zombies where X is half the number of Zombies we control rounded down, Army of the Damned to make thirteen tapped 2/2 Zombie tokens with a Flashback of ten mana, and Dread Summons to have each player mill X cards and we make a tapped 2/2 Zombie for each creature milled this way.

Just make sure that when you are ready for your big attack, clear the board with something like In Garruk’s Wake which destroys all creatures and all Planeswalkers we don’t control, or Crippling Fear to give creature that aren’t the chosen type -3/-3 until end of turn, or Necrotic Hex to have each player sacrifice six creatures and we make six tapped 2/2 Zombie tokens.

Gisa is a pure Zombie value engine, in which our deck is built to get as many Zombies into play as we can, while also having plenty of cards to boost our Zombies and even have a couple of additional ways we can turn our Zombies into a win via some minor aristocrat strategies.

The issues come with Gisa being five mana, needing to survive for turn in order to make us some Zombies, and for us to having the right creatures to sacrifice in order to start piling up Zombies. While we can manage some board wipes with our aristocrat payoffs, we are not well suited against mass exile based removal.

Gisa is solid choice for a Zombie typal Commander, and if you wanted to introduce a good starting Commander for a new player, especially if they love Zombies, and can be a great deck to trick out and modify as time goes on.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual