All 48 Zombie Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 5, 2023

Nekusar, the Mindrazer | Illustration by Mark Winters

Like a horde of zombies themselves, zombie creatures in Magic just keep coming. It’s a popular creature type, so it’s very unlikely they’ll ever stop being printed. There’s always a nice boom of them when we visit planes like Innistrad.

You have a good number of options to consider when searching for a zombie to run as your commander. A healthy amount of these come as mono-black commanders, but you might be surprised how many colors care about zombies. Some of these zombie commanders are great options for a zombie tribal deck, while others have unique abilities that you can build around instead.

Let’s take a look at all the zombie commanders Magic has to offer and decide which are the most powerful!

What Are Zombie Commanders in MTG?

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed | Illustration by Chris Rahn

Zombie commanders are any legendary creature that has the “zombie” creature type on their type line. While these commanders are all zombies themselves, some are more focused on zombies as a tribe than others.

Best White Zombie Commander

#1. God-Eternal Oketra

God-Eternal Oketra has a few very good qualities for a commander. The ability to create extra tokens for you can be very effective, especially if you’re running a lot of cheap creature cards. Including token doublers like Anointed Procession can give this deck a nice boost. Oketra has double strike, so it’s a pretty threatening attacker that you can use to threaten players with commander damage. Any equipment you include is especially effective on Oketra, and white’s a good color for equipment support.

Best Blue Zombie Commander

#1. God-Eternal Kefnet

God-Eternal Kefnet is one of the better God-Eternal commanders because it has an effect that isn’t just an ETB. Kefnet can also help you cast some big spells a few turns early with its ability while still having another copy to hold onto for later. Kefnet is a good choice for a spell slinger deck.

Best Black Zombie Commanders

#14. Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

While Haakon, Stromgald Scourge can technically be your commander, you can’t actually play this card from the command zone. Per its rules text, this card can only be played from your graveyard. Haakon is a pretty poor choice for a commander, although this card is definitely useful in the 99 of Mardu knight decks.

#13. Josu Vess, Lich Knight

Josu Vess, Lich Knight is a relatively powerful creature for its mana value, but it usually isn’t much more than that. Even if you manage to cast it with its kicker ability, it’s more of a one-time benefit. I tend to stray away from commanders that only have an ETB effect, but I think you could try to make Josu Vess work if you want to go a Voltron route. It’s got good power and toughness, and menace can help with blockers.

#12. Gorex, the Tombshell

Gorex, the Tombshell is an interesting zombie commander. It provides you with an option to get your cards back from the graveyard, although in a roundabout way. The main downside with this commander is that it’s pretty expensive, even with its cost reduction. That said, its unique effect could be interesting to try to build around, and its cost-reduction ability could be a good way to combat commander tax, otherwise crippling for an expensive commander like this.

#11. Balthor the Defiled

Minion is a creature type that doesn’t really get printed all that much anymore, but if you’re looking to try making a deck around it Balthor the Defiled could be a good option for you. I could also see building a mono-black good stuff deck with Balthor and using its ability to bring back your creatures when they die. You have to be careful when you use Balthor’s activated ability because you may end up benefitting your opponents more than yourself. Although, this could be an interesting political strategy.

#10. God-Eternal Bontu

God-Eternal Bontu, like all God-Eternals, has a sort of workaround for commander tax by allowing you to put it back into the deck when it’s destroyed or exiled. This is a “may” ability, so if you feel it’s more efficient to just pay the extra mana, you can do that too. Bontu’s ETB can be pretty effective and pairs well with death or sacrifice triggers. I’d personally try to build in ways to draw extra cards, like Phyrexian Arena, to make it more efficient to return Bontu to your deck.

#9. Geth, Thane of Contracts

Geth, Thane of Contracts offers some good options. The ability to grab any creature out of your graveyard for a low cost is definitely a huge benefit, but the stipulation about exiling it softens how powerful this version of Geth is. Still, I think you could make a solid reanimator deck surrounding this commander, especially if you’re utilizing powerful ETB effects like that of Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

#8. Ebondeath, Dracolich

I think Ebondeath, Dracolich could be a fun choice for a commander. Flashing it in on someone else’s turn can help mitigate the fact that it enters the battlefield tapped. In Commander, it’s very likely that a creature dies on a given turn, allowing you to easily cast Ebondeath from your graveyard and avoid paying commander tax when it’s destroyed. It doesn’t have any great ongoing effects while on the battlefield, but it’s still a flier with good power, making it almost like a throwback to EDH when commanders were just big dragons.

#7. Acererak the Archlich

Acererak the Archlich is definitely a unique zombie commander. It takes a few times casting it before you can actually keep Acererak on the field, but you’ll get some benefits from the Tomb of Annihilation dungeon along the way. You could also take this deck another route and build in a lot of cost reduction like Bontu's Monument, trying to make Acererak easier to cast. Then you can simply use its ability to cycle through other dungeons instead of Tomb of Annihilation.

#6. Korlash, Heir to Blackblade

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade loses one of its abilities when playing it in a singleton format. That said, it can still be a pretty powerful commander. Including other ways to buff Korlash, Blackblade Reforged is thematic and can make it a serious threat in terms of commander damage. Its regenerate ability will also help keep it alive longer, which is always good in a commander damage strategy.

#5. Sidisi, Undead Vizier

While not the most powerful commander, Sidisi, Undead Vizier could be nice to have in a deck where you’re looking to set up a specific combo. Having what’s essentially a tutor in your command zone can make your game more consistent, even if Sidisi is more expensive than your typical tutor spell.

#4. Vogar, Necropolis Tyrant

Using Vogar, Necropolis Tyrant in a sacrifice-focused deck could be an interesting build. You’d be able to get it big by sacrificing your other creatures, and you’d also have the freedom to sacrifice it and draw lots of cards once it’s been buffed up. This build focuses more on what you put in the 99, but I could definitely see Vogar being a useful tool for this kind of deck.

#3. Tormod, the Desecrator

When evaluating Tormod, the Desecrator as a commander, you can’t look at this card in isolation. Instead, you should evaluate it alongside some potential partners. Tormod pairs well with commanders that can help you retrieve cards from your graveyard like Ravos, Soultender or Ghost of Ramirez DePietro. Using these commanders together allows you to make lots of zombie tokens with Tormod’s triggered ability, and you can build in some reanimation tactics to make it even more effective.

#2. Geth, Lord of the Vault

Geth, Lord of the Vault is a fun commander because it allows you to play with lots of your opponents' cards, which always makes for more variation from game to game. If you like to mix things up without having to make several different decks, this version of Geth is a good choice. I’d personally run a good amount of removal essentially to shop for new creatures from what’s on the battlefield. Forced discard cards could also work well in this deck. Liliana of the Veil is good for both of those and is a solid pick for the 99 here.

#1. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a great mono-black aristocrats commander thanks to its ability to grant undying to your creatures. You can sacrifice creatures and still get them back onto your battlefield! If you’re sacrificing a weak creature, it may just die again immediately, allowing you to double up on any beneficial death triggers. Mikaeus can also easily go infinite with cards like Walking Ballista or Triskelion, making it a good choice for a combo deck if you enjoy winning the game that way.

Best Red Zombie Commanders

#2. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion

Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion’s ability to let you cycle through your hand and add mana while you do it is an incredibly powerful one. The main downside is that you have to do combat damage to be able to use it. I’d make sure to build in evasion with cards like Whispersilk Cloak or Rogue's Passage in this deck.

#1. Neheb, the Eternal

In a vacuum, I’d take Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion’s ability over Neheb, the Eternal. Still, you’ll have a lot more consistent opportunities to benefit from this version of Neheb. Afflict helps to ensure you do some damage, but you can also use direct damage spells to help you get extra mana.

This turns cards like Lightning Bolt and Shock into mana-producing spells while also allowing you to do some damage to your opponents directly. You also don’t need to have cards in your hand to discard for additional mana, so there’s less of an upper limit on how much you can produce with this Neheb.

Best Green Zombie Commander

#1. God-Eternal Rhonas

God-Eternal Rhonas has a solid ETB effect, but unfortunately that almost makes you want to avoid casting it until you have something set up to capitalize on it. It isn’t awful to have a creature like this handy when you need it, but there are definitely more impactful commanders that can help you throughout the game rather than providing a one or two time buff.

Best Multicolored Zombie Commanders

Honorable Mention: Grusilda, Monster Masher

Unfortunately, Grusilda, Monster Masher is a silver-bordered card, so you’ll need to check with any playgroups to make sure everyone’s okay with it. It’s a shame too because Grusilda is both a powerful and very unique type of commander thanks to its ability to combine creatures from graveyards. That said, it’s easy to see how his deck could get out of hand, so it’s understandable why this wouldn’t be printed in a black-bordered set.

#26. Boris Devilboon

Boris Devilboon is a pretty underwhelming commander, likely due to the fact that it was printed long before Wizards was explicitly creating creatures with the format in mind. Still, paying four mana and tapping your creature is way too expensive to create a 1/1 creature, as is paying five mana for this 2/2 commander.

#25. Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost

Attractions are relatively new to Magic, and if you’re looking to play around them, Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost can be a good support for that archetype. However, I personally prefer a commander with a steadier turn to turn gameplan as opposed to relying on dice rolls. If you’re okay building around this level of uncertainty, I think it could be fun. It’s just not for me.

#24. Glissa Sunslayer

Commanders like Glissa Sunslayer that need to do combat damage to activate their abilities can be tough to make work consistently. Glissa does a good job of discouraging blockers thanks to having deathtouch and first strike, but I still don’t think the payoff is worth risking your commander each turn by swinging. I can see this Glissa working well in the 99, but there are definitely better commander options.

#23. Bladewing the Risen

Bladewing the Risen is a very expensive commander, but if built correctly there are ways to offset its cost.  Since you’re getting a free creature from your graveyard when you cast Bladewing, including ways to load your graveyard with big dragons can be helpful. The main drawback with this commander is that Rakdos is a little restrictive for a dragon deck, which usually thrives when you have all five colors at your disposal.

#22. Dralnu, Lich Lord

Dralnu, Lich Lord is a rather risky card to play. It’s undoubtedly very powerful to be able to give any of your instants and sorceries flashback, but a bad matchup with Dralnu could mean you’re sacrificing all your lands before you have the chance to play anything.

#21. Storrev, Devkarin Lich

Though Storrev, Devkarin Lich has the combat damage issue I mentioned before, it’s somewhat lessened by the fact that it also has trample. It also helps that you can do damage to a planeswalker and still trigger Storrev’s abilities. Players might be less protective of their walkers than they are of their life totals when it comes to taking commander damage.

#20. Venser, Corpse Puppet

Venser, Corpse Puppet is very cheap and easy to get out for a commander, but I just don’t think it does enough on the battlefield to be worth building around. It’ll occasionally make you a creature token or allow a creature to fly and have lifelink, but this isn’t going to advance you in the game much.

#19. Glissa, the Traitor

Glissa the Traitor has a pretty helpful effect, and its first strike and deathtouch can help it to easily take out some of your opponents’ creatures. You want to build around artifacts like Portal to Phyrexia that have good ETB effects or cards like Ichor Wellspring that gives you benefits when they enter or leave the battlefield.

#18. Lord of Tresserhorn

Lord of Tresserhorn doesn’t have any super exciting abilities, but its regeneration can be very helpful. However, it’s a pretty big creature for not a lot of mana. If you enjoy winning with commander damage, this could be a good choice for you. Including some ways to grant evasion or powerful equipment like Embercleave would be a good route to go.

#17. Glissa, Herald of Predation

I’m still reserving judgment on how well incubate is as a mechanic, but I think Glissa, Herald of Predation is a good commander regardless. It can turn all your Phyrexians into very deadly attackers, but it also makes you a good number of tokens. Adding token doublers into this deck and +1/+1 counter doublers make Glissa’s triggered ability even more potent. You can also include more incubate cards and not worry about the cost to transform your tokens because Glissa can do it for free.

#16. Tymaret, the Murder King

Tymaret, the Murder King is a nice and cheap Sacdos commander. It gives you a relatively cheap way to sacrifice your creatures, and it can also be easily returned from the graveyard to your hand to help you avoid some commander tax. It’s also nice to be able to do direct damage with its sacrifice ability, which can be used as removal or to eat away at your opponents’ life.

#15. Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is another great commander for a sacrifice theme. Grimgrin’s sacrifice ability won’t cost you any mana, allowing you to cash in on as many death triggers as you want each turn. This also buffs up Grimgrin, possibly making it big enough to start taking out your opponents with commander damage.

#14. Thraximundar

Thraximundar is a bit expensive, but you’re definitely getting a good creature out of its cost. This commander also serves as a good counter to any aristocrats deck because you’ll get to buff it more each time your opponent uses a sacrifice effect. Its attack trigger can also be very effective when players have just a few big creatures instead of a wide board.

#13. Ludevic, Necrogenius / Olag, Ludevic’s Hubris

Ludevic, Necrogenius doesn’t technically start out as a zombie, but when it becomes when you transform it into Olag, Ludevic's Hubris. Ludevic, like many of Innistrad’s mad inventors, focuses on filling your graveyard with materials to use. When you’re ready, you can transform Ludevic into a copy of one of them and staple some others on for a bonus. This transform cost is somewhat pricey, but if you include enough big creatures in your deck, you’ll likely get more value out of it than you put in. You may also want to include other ways to fill your graveyard to speed up the process.

#12. Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus

Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus is a good creature for its mana value. Flying and haste often let you do some direct damage right away if you want to, and its static ability is likely to draw you a few cards each trip around the table once players have an established mana base. You can also partner Kraum with another commander, so there are a lot of great possibilities with this zombie.

#11. Polukranos, Unchained

Polukranos, Unchained can be a powerful commander in a deck built around +1/+1 counters. Cards like Doubling Season or Hardened Scales can help it enter the battlefield with additional counters, making it a good source of removal or just an intimidating attacker. You can also build in some dredge elements if you want a full graveyard to help use Polukranos’ escape ability.

#10. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave

Skullbriar, the Walking Grave’s ability works very well when it’s your commander. Because you can always choose to return it to your command zone instead of anywhere else, you can ensure that it keeps its counters. Adding more ways to give it counters can make it a pretty massive creature over the course of the game, and there’s nothing your opponents can do to stop it from getting bigger.

#9. Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver gives you a lot of extra value out of your zombies. When one dies, you get a token to replace it, allowing you to sacrifice zombies as you wish to Wilhelt’s end-step ability or other cards and still have a body left over.

#8. Daxos the Returned

Running an enchantment deck with Daxos the Returned can be pretty effective because you can accrue quite a few experience counters. Because these counters go to you and not onto Daxos, even if it’s removed you can still recast it and create spirits as large as before. You don’t lose too much momentum. You’ll probably also want to build in enchantments-matter cards since your spirits also count as enchantments.

#7. Narfi, Betrayer King

Narfi, Betrayer King is a versatile commander, as you can build it to focus on snow or zombies. Narfi also has a handy way of getting around commander tax, making it a pretty resilient anthem for your zombies. Building in other zombie anthems and ways to generate a lot of zombie tokens could be a good route to take.

#6. Sedris, the Traitor King

Sedris, the Traitor King’s ability gives you lots of good options to play around with in your graveyard. You can cash in on ETB effects multiple times or just cheat out a big creature and swing with it. Grixis also has good options for just ending your turn, which allows you to keep any creatures you unearth.

#5. Varina, Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen is really good for cycling through cards and ensuring you have answers in your hand. It also does a good job filling your graveyard to fuel its own ability or give you options to build in other graveyard interaction.

#4. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is great for a Golgari aristocrats deck. It gets stronger each time you sacrifice something, but it can also essentially fling your creatures at every opponent at once. Building in ways to buff your creatures and including big creatures can be very effective in this deck. You can also avoid commander tax thanks to Jarad’s ability to return from the graveyard.

#3. Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg is an excellent card for a legends matter deck or an aristocrats deck where you run lots of legendary creatures. You can either use its ability to ensure you get to keep your important creatures on the field longer, or you can sacrifice them knowing you’ll still get a copy after.

#2. Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant

Having an at-will board wipe alone makes Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant an interesting choice for a commander. Add in some ways to flicker it or cards like Kaya's Ghostform and you can create a big zombie army while also clearing the field of opposing creatures.

#1. Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Nekusar, the Mindrazer is a very punishing commander. You essentially hurt your opponents each time they try to find an answer for your strategy, and you can also force them to draw and take more damage. Adding in cards like Howling Mine can be helpful for you and make your opponents lose even more life each turn.

Best Zombie Commander Payoffs

The best payoff is largely depends on the commander itself. While these commanders are all zombies, they don’t all have tribal abilities that make them focus too heavily on the creature type.

For those that do, cards that create lots of zombie tokens are a good inclusion. Planeswalkers that can consistently make them like Liliana, Dreadhorde General are good options. A lot of zombie cards also have ways to come back from the graveyard, so zombies can pair well with decks looking to sacrifice their own creatures.

Are Zombies Good in Commander?

Zombies can be pretty good in commander. Their resilience makes them great sacrifice fodder or good chump blockers if you can then return them to the battlefield. There are also lots of ways to make zombie tokens and a good number of zombie anthems like the effect seen on Narfi, Betrayer King. They can be one of the stronger token armies in the game that aren’t as likely to die to mass damage spells or things like The Meathook Massacre.

Is Wilhelt the Best Zombie Commander?

While Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver isn’t the best commander that’s a zombie, it’s one of the better ones for supporting a zombie-based strategy. I still wouldn’t say it’s the best for it. I think both Varina, Lich Queen and Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant are preferable because they can make you better zombie tokens. Decayed zombies are fine for fodder to sacrifice effects, but they can’t help to block and you only ever get one attack out of them.

Commanding Conclusion

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | Illustration by Chris Rallis

You have a lot of zombie commanders to choose from, many of which provide interesting abilities to build around. While some are more powerful than others, I think lots of these have the potential to make some fun decks.

Which zombie commander are you thinking of brewing with? What other tribes do you want to see us evaluate this way? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!