Living Death helped define the era it was printed in. It made decks like Sliving Death (Living Death and bunch of Slivers that sacrificed for various effects) possible. Combined with Fluctuator, it allowed you to cheaply Cycle Creatures to your graveyard and return them all to play.

With its power level and pedigree, it still sees play in Casual formats like Commander. So, today we're looking at the Top Commanders that combo well with the sweeper/mass reanimation all-in-one, Living Death.

For five mana (), Living Death has each player exile all Creatures from their graveyard. Then, they sacrifice all Creatures they control, and put the cards they exiled onto the battlefield. Effectively, Living Death swaps all Creatures on the battlefield with Creatures in the graveyard.

If you're prepared, and you should be if you're playing Living Death in your deck, it turns a losing board state into a winning one. It gets arounds Indestructible and sets up for huge value plays with Enters-the-battlefield triggers. You should be running this card in more decks.

The power of this Black Sorcery is undeniable, so let's take a look at some of the best Commanders to pair with it.

The Best Living Death Commanders

5. Imotekh the Stormlord

Imokhet the Stormlord is four mana () for a 3/3 Artifact Creature with two abilities. His Phaeron ability creates two 2/2 Black Necron Warrior Artifact Creature tokens when one or more Artifacts leave our graveyard.

The second Grand Strategist ability triggers at the beginning of combat on our turn. He grants another target Artifact Creature we control +2/+2 and Menace until the end of the turn.

Living Death exile all of the Creatures (including Artifact Creatures) from your graveyard. If Imotekh is in play when you resolve it, he'll see all of those Creatures leave. Once Living Death finishes resolving, you'll end up creating a whole host of additional 2/2s from Imotekh's delayed triggers. That's a pretty big upside.

4. Sidisi, Brood Tyrant

Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is four mana () 3/3 that Mills three cards when she enters or attacks. If a Creature is put into your graveyard from your library, you also create a 2/2 Zombie Creature token.

Sidisi fills up your graveyard with ease three cards at a time, which makes her an incredible set up Commander for an eventual Living Death. She also provides additional blockers to help keep you alive while you stock your graveyard for a backbreaking mass reanimation later in the game. Just make sure you stock ways to get Living Death back if you accidently Mill it.

3. Syr Konrad, the Grim

Next up we have Syr Konrad, the Grim. He is a five-mana () 5/4 with an ability that triggers under three conditions. It triggers whenever another Creature dies, a Creature is put into a graveyard from anywhere, or a Creature leaves your graveyard. Whenever any of those three things occur, Syr Konrad deals one damage to each opponent.

If being a super Blood Artist wasn't enough, he also has a second activated ability for that has each player Mill a card.

Syr Konrad basically benefits from every part of Living Death. He triggers from exiling the Creatures in your graveyard and from every Creature (besides himself) that is sacrificed. That should be a huge hit to your opponents' life totals. He also sets up for Living Death really well with his mill ability, but be careful not to Mill too many Creatures into your opponents' graveyards.

2. Sauron, Lord of the Rings

For eight mana () you get Sauron, Lord of the Rings, a Grixis 9/9 with Trample. When you cast him, you Amass Orcs 5, and Mill five cards. Then you get to return a Creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. That's a reanimated Creature and a big Orc Army token plus several new cards in the graveyard.

He also has an ability where the Ring Tempts You if one of your opponents' Commanders die. When you eventually cast Living Death, Sauron has put in some good work on helping fill your graveyard. He might also get a couple of Tempt triggers off of it.

1. Teval, the Balanced Scale

Finally, we have Teval, the Balanced Scale. This four-drop Sultai colored 4/4 Spirit Dragon with Flying has an attack trigger to Mill three and then return a Land from the graveyard to the battlefield tapped. Then whenever on or more of our cards leave the graveyard, we create a 2/2 Zombie Druid Creature token.

Teval is very similar to Sidisi in that he's great at filling up our graveyard. Where he outshines Sidisi is in the fact that he has Flying, ramps us, and leaves us a parting gift when we eventually cast Living Death. This is honestly everything you want in a Living Death Commander.

Honorable Mentions

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death clocks in as a three-drop Mardu 3/2 with First Strike. She has an attack trigger for two / Hybrid mana to return a Creature with power two or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

She works great with Living Death since we'll be filling our graveyard anyway to feed her attack trigger. She is a little limited since she mostly cares about Creatures with low power, but there are quite a few value options that fall under those criteria. Solemn Simulacrum is just the tip of the iceberg.

Varina, Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen is a four-drop Esper 4/4 Zombie Wizard. She cares about attacking with Zombies, drawing us cards and discarding cards equal to the number of Zombies that attacked. Oh, and she gains us life.

Being forced to draw and discard is great for setting up a Living Death. The only downside is that she relies on having a few other Zombies in play to really get that engine going.

She also has an ability for to exile two cards from our graveyard to make a tapped 2/2 Zombie Creature. That's a great way to make use of the noncreature cards that end up in the graveyard while setting up Living Death.

Indominus Rex, Alpha

Indominus Rex, Alpha is next, and it's a five-drop 6/6 with a whole lot of text. It has an enters trigger to discard any number of Creature cards. It gets ability counters if the Creatures discarded had certain abilities. These include Flying, First Strike, Double Strike, Deathtouch, Hexproof, Haste, Indestructible, Lifelink, Menace, Reach, Trample, and Vigilance. Oh, and it draws a card for each counter on it.

Not only is Indominus Rex a huge threat on its own, it also is great at filling the graveyard for a future Living End. If they ever deal with our dino, we can just bring everything back.

Garna, the Bloodflame

Garna, the Bloodflame costs five mana () for a 3/3 with Flash. When she Enters, we return to our hand all Creatures in our graveyard that were put there from anywhere this turn. She also gives all of your Creatures Haste.

It doesn't matter if they were killed, discarded, Milled, or sacrificed, they all come back to your hand. That's a pretty good follow-up to Living Death if you have the mana to cast both in the same turn.

Henzie, "Toolbox" Torres

Henzie "Toolbox" Torre is a three-drop 3/3 in Jund . He gives each Creature you cast with a mana value four or greater a Blitz cost equal to their mana cost. He also reduces Blitz costs by for every time you've cast your Commander from the Command Zone this game.

Paying a Blitz cost puts the Creature into play with Haste, and then it gets sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step. You also draw a card when it dies.

Henzie is great at filling up the graveyard, all while drawing cards and getting in for damage. Later, you should have plenty of powerhouses ready to bring back with Living Death thanks to Henzie.

Conclusion

Living Death remains one of my favorite cards to this day. The combination of mass removal and mass reanimation is powerful and game-ending, and people never seem to expect it.

For any deck looking to fill its graveyard, Living Death should always be a consideration.