Greetings, readers! April 15th has come and gone, and as I promised, it's time to announce the winners of the Commander Contest! Twenty decks were entered, but only five people can win! My original plan was to announce one winner each day of this week, but Pojo.com won't be updating this Friday due to schedule conflicts among the admin. Friday's winner (and Card of the Day) will thus be announced on Thursday-- three days build up to the final two winners.

Let me thank everybody who entered-- narrowing the twenty down to five was no easy feat. I'd also like to remind everyone that the winners are in no particular order. There is no "first place"-- five people won and fifteen didn't. To those of you who were savvy and lucky enough to win, each winner, upon seeing your e-mail, will have to reply to me and send me your mailing address so your prize can be sent out to you.

Without further delay, here's the first of the five winners-- Dralnu, Lich Lord as Commander of the Zombies!
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This is my Commander deck entry for your contest.
Flavor:you are a powerful planeswalker adept in the arts of necromancy and mind magicks though you prefer to focus on your necromantic skills over your mind tricks,and now that youve learned a few new spells from innistrad youre ready to conquer the multiverse with your undead horde!

I call this deck Necromancy as an art form or NAAAF for short :P

Almost everything in this deck is recyclable!

Deck List.
1x Dralnu,lich lord (commander)

Other Creatures.
1xLim-dul necromancer
1xGrave titan
1xXathrid demon
1xSheoldred,the whispering one
1xGrave crawler
1xDiregraf captain
1xDeath baron
1xCemetary reaper
1xLord o the undead
1xLich lord of unx
1xZombie master
1xUnbreathing hoard
1xGeralf's messenger
1xUndead warchief
1xGempalm polluter
1xSkinrender
1xGraveborn muse
1xsoulless one
1xHavengul runbinder
1xHavengul lich
1xMikaeus,the unhallowed
1xHelldozer
1xVengeful pharaoh
1xGeth,lord of the vault

Total of 25 creatures

Sorceries
1xProfane command
1xConsuming vapors
1xDamnation
1xArmy of the damned
1xZombie apocalypse
1xMoan of the unhallowed
1xBlack sun's zenith
1xDecree of pain
1xExsanguinate
1xDemonic tutor
1xRecurring insight
1xDeath cloud
1xMutilate

Total of 13 sorceries

Instants
1xSnuff out
1xDoom blade
1xCounterspell
1xDeprive
1xDeath denied
1xGo for the throat
1xForce of will
1xMana drain
1xPact of negation
1xDissipate
1xCryptic command
1xSpell crumple

Total of 12 instants

Artifacts
1xElbrus,the binding blade
1xDoor of destinies
1xCellar door
1xSkullclamp
1xGrimoire of the dead

Total of 5 artifacts

Enchantments
1xTelepathy
1xCall to the grave
1xEndless ranks of the dead
1xLevitation
1xGrave pact
1xRooftop storm

Total of 6 enchantments

Planeswalkers
1xSorin markov
1xLiliana vess

Total of 2 planeswalkers

Land
1xUnholy grotto
1xCreeping tar pit
1xCabal coffers
1xDarkslick shores
1xDimir aqueduct
1xDreedship reef
1xUrborg,tomb of yawgmoth
1xDrowned catacomb
1xJwar isle refuge
1xLeechridden swamp
1xWatery grave
1xShizo,death's storehouse
1xBojuka bog
1xCommand tower
14xSwamp
9xIsland

Total of 37 lands

Alright so the purpose of this deck is to keep your opponents board's clear of creature threats by using and reusing this decks potent removal spells,while you amass a powerful army of the dead so swarm the field keep every ones board clear and hit them as hard as possible,and if that doesn't work then you have an alternate win condition in the form of Exsanguinate and Death cloud remember you can use all youre sorceries and instants twice thanks to your commander dralnu.And im not sure about this but it seems like youd be able to trigger an endless loop with dralnu's flashback ability and Consuming vapors rebound(correct me if im wrong lol) Now I havent actuly play tested this deck because I own less then half of these cards so its not possible for me to test it out,though early problems may be lack of lands im not sure if i added enough of them.And some awesome cards I wanted to ad to this deck but wasnt able to due to lack of room were Repay in kind(this card would be awsome to normalize everyones life points so you could hit them with a well pumped Exsanguinate for the win) Caged sun(not only does it give you more creature pump it doubles the amount of mana you can produce)I went through 10 different versions of this deck and still wasnt able to include them lol.Here is my deck list on mtg deckbuilder just incase you dont remember what one of the cards Im using in my deck is and dont want to look it up(im not sure if the link will work though XD)http://www.mtgdeckbuilder.net/Decks/EditDeck.And evan if Im not one of the contest winners id like your opinion of my deck.Untill April 15th peace out and happy planeswalking! :P

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Zombies have been around literally since Alpha block, and Zombie decks are almost as old. So why does this deck deserve to win? I'll be honest, I almost didn't pick it. For one, it suffers from a severe lack of Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. Choosing Dralnu as the general instead is a dicey decision. And not the "5d6, reflex save for half" kind of dicey, either-- more like the "how many fingers can I expect to lose in the attempt" kind. I was further put off to see that for a Dralnu deck, he's running awfully light on counterspells with which to protect Dralnu from a potentially board-destroying burn spell. But in a way, that gives the deck its charm. It takes chutzpah to run out Dralnu with a drawback like that-- you know every player is just going to forget everything they know about threat assessment and aim all their fireworks at Dralnu hoping to make you sack everything. But that creates high-adrenaline situations that really embody the spirit of Elder Dragon Highlander. It's not always about the tightest play, it's about the flashiest and the most memorable.

Furthermore, Dralnu can do something most generals can't. He can "reanimate" instants and sorceries. This ties in perfectly, both thematically and mechanically, with the reanimating abilities of his Zombie horde. Having to sacrifice seven permanents hurts less with a Mikaeus the Unhallowed-- you're really just getting to put +1/+1 counters on them. And getting double duty out of all your reanimation spells is a pretty slick way to ensure that the Zombies never run out of steam. Necromancy really is an art form for this deck, and that makes this a whole lot different than your typical monoblack Dawn of the Dead affair.

So congratulations to Nathan Moore, the architect-- or should I say necrosculptor?-- of our first winner of the week! We've still got four winners to announce, so keep checking back!