Legendary Creature — Zombie Warrior

Kotis, Sibsig Champion

Mana value3EDHREC#7,471

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The Commander

Once during each of your turns, you may cast a creature spell from your graveyard by exiling three other cards from your graveyard in addition to paying its other costs.

Whenever one or more creatures you control enter, if one or more of them entered from a graveyard or was cast from a graveyard, put two +1/+1 counters on Kotis.

Guide

Gameplan

Kotis turns your graveyard into a recurring toolbox, casting creatures from it each turn (exiling three cards) to both rebuild your board and grow Kotis with +1/+1 counters. You self-mill and reanimate to deploy threats faster than the table, then close with a swollen Kotis or a creature value-engine. The deck wants to fill its yard early, then convert that fuel into bodies and counters every single turn.

Strengths

Built-in recursion gives relentless card advantage and grindy resilience against removal
Kotis grows quickly, becoming a fast clock or commander-damage threat with evasion
Self-mill turns graveyard hate's target into your engine while filling fuel
Sultai colors offer the best ramp, tutors, and reanimation in the format

Weaknesses

Heavily graveyard-reliant, so Rest in Peace / Bojuka Bog can cripple the deck
The exile-three cost can starve your yard if you over-cast each turn
Kotis is low-power on cast and demands counter investment to threaten
Vulnerable to creature-light board wipes that reset your reanimated army

Key Cards

Eternal Witness — Recasting it from the yard each turn triggers Kotis and returns your best spell repeatedly.
Stitcher's Supplier — Cheap self-mill that loads the graveyard with creatures to recur and cards to exile.
Gravecrawler — A free recurring body whose graveyard recursion repeatedly grows Kotis with counters.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth — Adds a second reanimation engine that synergizes with Kotis's enter-from-graveyard triggers.
Buried Alive — Instantly stocks the yard with the exact creatures you want to recur.
Rogue's Passage — Pushes a counter-stacked Kotis through for lethal commander damage.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana and ramp (Sol Ring, Carpet of Flowers, signets) plus self-mill enablers (Stitcher's Supplier, Hermit Druid, Mesmeric Orb) to fuel the yard sooner. Lean into reanimation payoffs and tutors—Buried Alive, Entomb, Victimize—and protect Kotis with Lightning Greaves and Heroic Intervention. For the top end, include recursive value engines and a sacrifice loop or combo finisher to convert your graveyard advantage into a decisive win.

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

▸Connect with an evasive, counter-swollen Kotis for 21 commander damage
▸Grind out the table with recurring ETB value creatures and incremental advantage
▸Aristocrats drain via repeatedly sacrificing and recurring creatures like Gravecrawler
▸Reanimate a game-ending threat or assemble a creature-based combo loop

Archetypes

Reanimator — Casting creatures from the graveyard is Kotis's literal text, rewarding fat threats and self-mill.
Value/Midrange — Recurring ETB creatures every turn generates incremental card advantage and board presence.
Aristocrats — Recursive bodies like Gravecrawler pair with sacrifice outlets and drain effects.
Counters/Voltron — Kotis snowballs +1/+1 counters into a real commander-damage win with evasion.