Black and blue are my favorite colors, but for the longest time, I’ve had trouble finding commanders from that combination. Sure, there’s 24 previous ones, but most of them just don’t feel like good commanders. Well, fun commanders. The last of Bolas’s secret weapons, The Scarab God, just might work.

I guess the two basic ways of approaching this is a) a zombie tribal and b) a full-on control deck where this is the win condition. My head says the latter is better, but my heart says zombies, and this is the format to follow your heart, if there is one. Well, at least it should be.

So, zombies. First, how do we get a horde of them?

Next, we have lords:

… and we need a bunch of efficient zombies as well.

That’s already too many cards and there’s a problem with the curve. Also, we need cards besides the zombies in the deck. What can we cut? Rise from the Tides isn’t going to do much in this deck which has only 8 other spells, so that’s out. Some I can cut because they aren’t just powerful enough for the format, some I can cut for cost.

I decided to go with the following list, although I would have liked to cut a few more cards for a few more removal spells and some more utility cards, but I guess this will have to do.

commander (1) The Scarab God creatures (40) Blood Scrivener Bone Dancer Cemetery Reaper Coffin Queen Corpse Augur Cryptbreaker Death Baron Diregraf Captain Diregraf Colossus Dread Wanderer Fleshbag Marauder Forgotten Creation Ghoulcaller Gisa Ghoulraiser Gisa and Geralf Grave Titan Gravecrawler Gravedigger Havengul Runebinder Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet Lich Lord of Unx Liliana’s Reaver Lim-Dul the Necromancer Lord of the Accursed Lord of the Undead Plague Belcher Plaguebearer Prized Amalgam Relentless Dead Risen Executioner Servant of Tymaret Siren of the Silent Song Skinrender Soulless One Stitcher Geralf Undead Warchief Vengeful Dead Wight of Precinct Six Withered Wretch Zombie Master spells (20) Liliana, Death’s Majesty Endless Ranks of the Dead Graf Harvest Grave Betrayal Liliana’s Mastery Army of the Damned Dark Salvation From Under the Floorboards Midnight Ritual Syphon Flesh Zombie Apocalypse Armillary Sphere Dimir Cluestone Dimir Signet Talisman of Dominance Wayfarer’s Bauble Empty the Pits Go for the Throat Hero’s Downfall Vile Rebirth lands (39) Bojuka Bog Choked Estuary Command Tower Darkslick Shores Darkwater Catacombs Dimir Aqueduct Dreadship Reef Drowned Catacomb 8 Island Myriad Landscape Polluted Delta River of Tears Sunken Hollow Sunken Ruins 12 Swamp Tainted Isle Temple of Deceit Thawing Glaciers Underground River Volrath’s Stronghold Watery Grave