Commander Magic Deck Of The Week: Temmet, Vizier Of Naktamun Zombie Typal

The world of Amonkhet brought us white Zombies, and while there is a Zombie legend that can be a commander for an Esper Zombie typal deck to play those Zombies in Varina, Lich Queen, I wondered if it was possible to make a fun Zombie deck without all the huge Zombie support available from black. Two questions presented themselves. First, are there enough Zombies and Zombie support in Azorius to fill out a typal deck? Turns out there are! Second, who should be the commander? 

I chose Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun. Even though the card itself isn’t a Zombie, if you use the embalm ability, you’ll get a Zombie version of Temmet to lead your Zombie horde. Plus, he’s from Amonkhet, so that’s a flavor win.

Let’s dig up what’s to be found in my deck crypt!

Create Token Zombies

Temmet makes a token creature unblockable, so I wanted to make sure I had ways to do just that. Necroduality and Reflections of Littjara are enchantments that generate token copies of Zombie cards, and they’ll often be more threatening than regular 2/2 Zombie tokens. I also like the 4/4 Zombie Warrior tokens made by God-Eternal Oketra. Speaking of God-Eternal Oketra, if you make a token copy of it with one of the blue enchantments, when the legend rule kicks, in you can put the actual card into your library to draw later and keep the token on the battlefield to attack with using Temmet’s unblockable ability.

Vizier of Many Faces isn’t a Zombie, but it could copy a Zombie, and the token created by the embalm copy is a Zombie, so I let it have a home in the deck, much like my commander.

It’s fun that Rise from the Tides and Field of the Dead can generate black Zombie token creatures, even though we don’t have black in the deck. I’m running half regular and half Snow-Covered basics to help turn on Field of the Dead as early as possible.

Zombies That Boost Zombies

Most of the Zombie-boosting Zombies are only available with black in your color identity, but Hordewing Skaab and Eternal Skylord can help out the team.

Other Zombies

To be honest, Zombies like Fan Bearer are a big reason why I wanted to build this deck. The flavor of the Amonkhet Zombies is just so, so cool!

I don’t have a ton of instant or sorcery spells that work with God-Eternal Kefnet, but it’s still a very resilient 4/5 flying Zombie, and occasionally it’ll give me an extra copy of Reality Shift or Crush Contraband. Overcharged Amalgam offers some awesome interaction at the cost of a creature to exploit.

Changelings

Unsettled Mariner steps in as an honorary Azorius Zombie that helps make your team harder to interact with via targeted spells or effects. The dream is to make a token copy of Shapesharer, use its ability to copy something huge that your opponent has, and then use Temmet to make it unblockable and smash some life totals.

Zombies Matter

It’s always fun to put Rooftop Storm in a deck, and with blue card draw, you can draw a bunch of cards and then deploy a bunch of Zombie cards to the battlefield for zero mana, cackling madly the whole time like you’re Dr. Frankenstein… or Stitcher Geralf!  Time to Reflect is a fun removal spell with flavor text from Temmet himself that you can read off while exiling the creature unfortunate enough to get into combat with one of your Zombies.

Tokens Matter

Anointed Procession is excellent in any deck that generates tokens, but I love that this is an Amonkhet card with flavor text from the story of that set. Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation isn’t a Zombie, but being a turbocharged version of Anointed Procession had me bend the rules a bit, and besides, Amonkhet was all about the Gods, and Ojer Taq is a God!

Removal

Most of these are to be expected as removal options in Azorius, but I have a few spicy choices. Deconstruction Hammer is an efficient piece of Equipment that can be cashed in later for a Disenchant effect if it’s needed. And with the ability to go somewhat “wide” with my token creatures, By Invitation Only can be a more surgical battlefield sweeper than Wrath of God – though if someone’s got dozens of token creatures, then you’re going to be in big, big trouble!

Card Draw

I’ve got “the big three” card-drawing X-spells – Pull from Tomorrow, Blue Sun’s Zenith and Sphinx’s Revelation – so when I need to refuel my hand, I should have one ready to go. Wizard Class offers an excellent burst of cards, and then when it’s Level 3, you can start piling counters on creatures you control each time you draw a card, and if it’s a token creature, it can become quite threatening with Temmet’s unblockable ability. A token copy of Eternal of Harsh Truths would be an excellent candidate for Temmet’s ability!

Interaction

I don’t often run more than one land that kills another land, but a Maze of Ith is such a counterplay to Temmet’s ability that I’m running both Field of Ruin and Tectonic Edge.

I’ve got just one hard counterspell with Negate just to keep people honest, though Rebuff the Wicked is a delicious card to pull out of your hat on occasion. In addition, I like the flexibility of Galadriel’s Dismissal, since it can save your creatures or phase out blockers. Rootborn Defenses saves your team from many battlefield sweeper effects while copying your best token creature with populate, and Akroma’s Will serves as your Craterhoof Behemoth, ending the game more often than not if you’ve got enough creatures and your commander on the battlefield.

Mana Ramp

While Karfell Harbinger isn’t a completely reliable source of mana, since it can only be used to foretell a card or cast an instant or sorcery, I couldn’t resist including it since it’s a pretty efficient Zombie otherwise. I don’t have a ton of other mana ramp in the deck because I’d rather just deploy Zombies and make land drops each turn instead of trying to ramp hard to get to my big spells. Besides, my commander is pretty cheap to cast, and if it ends up in the graveyard I’ll leave it there so I can use its embalm ability.

The Deck

Okay, here’s the full decklist!

Here are the deck stats from our friends at Archidekt:

I’m really looking forward to what new Azorius Zombies we might get in the inevitable return to the world of Amonkhet!

So, what other must-have cards might I have missed including here?  Do you have any typal decks you’ve built outside the usual color-scheme?

Talk to Me

Do me a solid and follow me on Twitter!  I run polls and start conversations about Commander all the time, so get in on the fun!  You can also find my LinkTree on my profile page there with links to all my content.

I’d also love it if you followed my Twitch channel TheCompleteCommander, where I do Commander, Brawl, and sometimes other Magic-related streams when I can.  If you can’t join me live, the videos are available on demand for a few weeks on Twitch, but I also upload them to my YouTube channel.  You can also find the lists for my paper decks over on Archidekt if you want to dig into how I put together my own decks and brews.  

And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.