BlackLegendary Creature — Human WizardLim-Dûl the Necromancer
Mana value7Rank#19,030
The Commander
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, you may pay 
. If you do, return that card to the battlefield under your control. If it's a creature, it's a Zombie in addition to its other creature types.
: Regenerate target Zombie.
Guide
Gameplan
Lim-Dûl turns every opponent's dead creature into your own army by paying to reanimate it under your control as a Zombie. You play a mono-black control/removal shell that kills enemy creatures, steals them, and grinds value while protecting your board with the regeneration ability. Win by overwhelming the table with a stolen, growing horde or by leveraging aristocrats payoffs.
Strengths
- Converts opponents' removal targets and combat losses into your own board, generating huge card advantage
- Built-in regeneration keeps your stolen Zombies and key creatures alive through wraths and combat
- Mono-black gives access to the best targeted removal, tutors, and recursion in the format
- Punishes go-wide and creature-heavy tables harder the more bodies are dying
Weaknesses
- Reanimation costs per creature, so you can be mana-strapped during big board swings
- Does nothing against noncreature strategies like spellslinger, artifacts, or control
- At seven mana the commander is slow and a removal magnet, and dies easily to exile
- Exile-based removal completely bypasses both his steal and regenerate abilities
Key Cards
- Grave Pact — Forces opponents to sacrifice creatures whenever yours die, feeding Lim-Dûl a steady stream of reanimation triggers.
- Dictate of Erebos — Another edict engine that constantly kills opponent creatures for you to steal.
- Cabal Coffers — Generates the heavy black mana you need to repeatedly pay the reanimation tax each turn.
- Black Market — Snowballs mana off all the dying creatures, fueling mass reanimation and removal.
- Bojuka Bog — Represents graveyard hate you want to suit up with, since Lim-Dûl competes with opponents' own reanimators—run it and the like to deny them.
- Ashnod's Altar — Sacrifice outlet that lets you kill stolen creatures for mana and trigger sac-based engines.
Upgrade Path
Add more forced-sacrifice engines (Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos, Butcher of Malakir) and aristocrats payoffs (Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat) to turn each death into damage. Ramp hard with Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, and rituals so you can afford repeated reanimations, and add tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor) plus a big mana sink like Torment of Hailfire to convert your advantage into a kill. Protect Lim-Dûl with Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots since he's central and removal-prone.
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
- ▸Overwhelm the table with a large army of stolen creatures turned Zombies
- ▸Drain life via aristocrats engines like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat as creatures die
- ▸Close with a mono-black finisher such as Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate fueled by big mana
Archetypes
- Reanimator/Theft — His ability literally steals every opponent creature that dies, turning their losses into your gains.
- Aristocrats — Edict effects and sacrifice payoffs kill opponent creatures so Lim-Dûl can recur them while draining the table.
- Control — Mono-black removal and recursion let you answer threats while building an inevitable board.
- Zombie Tribal — Everything you steal becomes a Zombie, supporting lords and Zombie payoffs.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (B), by popularity.
