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Balthor the Defiled
Legendary Creature — Zombie Dwarf
Minion creatures get +1/+1. {B}{B}{B}, Exile Balthor: Each player returns all black and all red creature cards from their graveyard to the battlefield.
2 / 2
$12.18Buy on TCGPlayer
“Graveyard recursion lord that mass-reanimates black and red creatures”
Midrange
Intermediate
Combat damage, Tokens swarm
Reanimator, Sacrifice, Tokens
Strategy
Balthor the Defiled is a graveyard-focused commander that turns your discard pile into an army. The core gameplan is filling your graveyard with black and red creatures through self-mill, discard outlets, and normal play, then activating Balthor's ability to flash them all back at once. This creates a massive board presence that can swing for lethal or set up follow-up plays. You're essentially playing a reanimator deck where the payoff is singular but explosive.
The deck wants cheap creatures and sacrifice outlets to maximize value. Minion creatures like Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and token generators benefit from the lord effect while also fueling your graveyard strategy. Cards that recur from the graveyard or trigger on death are perfect—they abuse the reanimation plan twice. You can also include red creatures to get more bodies back with Balthor's ability, turning it into a two-color graveyard deck that rewards you for playing creatures naturally.
Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.
Key Synergies
Budget Build
Swap expensive tutors like Demonic Tutor for budget mill like Stitcher's Supplier and Crawling Barrens; use signets over Sol Ring alternatives.
Most-Played Cards
Buried Alive
Stitcher's Supplier
Songs of the Damned
Stinkweed Imp
Living Death
Crypt of Agadeem
Doom Whisperer
Vile Entomber
Ripples of Undeath
Undead Butler
Entomb
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Inclusion = % of Balthor the Defiled decks running this card. +lift = percentage-point boost over the format average.
Community Decks
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Art Variants
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