BlackLegendary Creature — Human WizardGisa, Glorious Resurrector
Mana value4Rank#2,622
The Commander
If a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put all creature cards exiled with Gisa onto the battlefield under your control. They gain decayed. (A creature with decayed can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.)
Guide
Gameplan
Gisa exiles your opponents' creatures as they die, then reanimates them all under your control each upkeep as decayed (attack-only, sacrifice-at-end) tokens. You leverage forced sacrifice, board wipes, and removal to feed Gisa, then weaponize the stolen army through aristocrats payoffs, removing the decayed downside, or swinging for lethal before they sacrifice.
Strengths
- Turns every opponent's dead creature into your resource, snowballing card and board advantage hard
- Punishes board wipes and sacrifice effects—you profit when creatures die anywhere
- Mono-black gives access to elite tutors, removal, and reanimation support
- Repeatable wide attacks and sacrifice fodder for aristocrats engines
Weaknesses
- Decayed creatures can't block and die after attacking, so the army is fragile without enablers
- Heavily reliant on opponents having creatures die—stalls against go-wide hate or noncreature decks
- Mono-black struggles with enchantment/artifact removal and resilient flyers
- Removing Gisa interrupts the exile-and-return loop, and exiled creatures are lost if she leaves before upkeep
Key Cards
- Grave Pact — Forces opponents to sacrifice creatures whenever yours die, feeding Gisa a steady stream of exiled bodies.
- Dictate of Erebos — Another edict engine that turns your decayed sacrifices into mass opponent death and more exile fuel.
- Anointed Procession — Doubles the decayed tokens entering, but more importantly pairs with token reanimation to flood the board.
- Toxic Deluge — A scalable wipe that kills opponents' creatures so Gisa exiles and steals the whole table's board.
- Blade of the Bloodchief — Counters pile up rapidly as decayed creatures and opponents' creatures die, building a giant threat.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure off every dying creature, ramping you and rewarding the constant deaths Gisa creates.
Upgrade Path
Add edict and forced-sacrifice pieces (Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Butcher of Malakir) so you control when creatures die rather than waiting on opponents. Layer in aristocrats drain (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, Bastion of Remembrance) plus Treasure/death payoffs like Pitiless Plunderer to convert sacrifices into ramp and damage. Tighten the manabase with fast mana (Dark Ritual, Jet Medallion), top-end tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor), and protection like Imp's Mischief or Heroic Intervention to keep Gisa online.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Drain the table with Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Bastion of Remembrance as stolen creatures die
- ▸Swing wide with a reanimated decayed army for combat damage
- ▸Remove the decayed downside via sacrifice-token doublers or anthem effects to keep a permanent stolen board
- ▸Combo finishes like Mikaeus/Triskelion or sac-loop drains assembled with cheap tutors
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — Decayed tokens and stolen creatures are endless sacrifice fodder for Blood Artist–style drain payoffs.
- Theft/Reanimator — Gisa is a recurring mass-steal engine, pulling opponents' best creatures onto your side every upkeep.
- Stax/Edicts — Forced-sacrifice effects feed Gisa while crippling opponents' boards simultaneously.
- Tokens — Decayed creatures arrive en masse and can be doubled or made permanent for go-wide aggression.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
