Brewed up this janky Sultai Zombies and graveyard abuse Modern deck in a sort of roundabout way, starting with my love for Lotleth Troll (ironically, since he's the least-expensive card in the deck). I don't know the landscape of Modern all that well but I love the cards available to you in the format and I want to get into playing it competitively. I feel this deck has enough flexibility to get around or deal with a host of different strategies, but as any good Magic tournament player knows, your main board generally only provides you half the protection you need in any given situation, the other half provided by a good sideboard which, with a little help from people in-the-know on the make-up of the Modern scene, I still need to build. Anyone willing to help out is more than welcome to leave any comments or suggestions!
I'll break it down card-by-card to telegraph the thought process and strategy that went into each selection:
- Bloodghast: Probably the coolest of the graveyard-trickery creatures, Bloodghast provides an amazing target for discarding demanded by Lotleth Troll and Liliana, and pulls Prized Amalgam out of the graveyard with it. They only get cooler as you keep pegging away at your opponent too.
- Gravecrawler: Bloodghast-lite, providing a lot of the same benefits of Bloodghast, the difference being Bloodghast needs a land card to drop to get out of the graveyard, and all Gravecrawler needs is an undead buddy on the battlefield.
- Lotleth Troll: What's not to love? 2/1 two-drop with trample and one black mana to regen, AND he gets bigger when you voluntarily throw a creature in the graveyard, which this deck doesn't mind doing. It's a zombie to boot, so it's a-okay for those Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead targets. This guy is a champion for this deck.
- Prized Amalgam: A three-drop zombie for three CMC that Gravecrawler and Bloodghast can pull out of the graveyard. I'm excited about trying this guy out.
- Cryptbreaker: A beautiful zombie card through and through. This deck doesn't mind discarding, and with him I get a dude to help the fight as a bonus. Then when I have enough brains munchers, I can tap three to draw a card. See? Beautiful.
- Snapcaster Mage: I doubt I need to explain why this is awesome, but I mean, who wouldn't want to cast Abrupt Decay, Dismember, Remand or Damnation a second time and still get a dude out of it? In extreme cases he could provide flash-speed chump blocking or a discard target for Lotleth Troll or Liliana, but I'd be sad inside if I had to make one of those decisions.
- Damnation: Blow up the creatures, after which I can (hopefully) bring my creatures back. I own two so one in the sideboard is completely doable.
- Abrupt Decay: Destroys plenty of good stuff and can't be countered. A must for any deck including both green and black.
- Dismember: A flexible destory creatures instant that takes care of most threats. Could be sideboarded out for narrower-scoped targeted removal too.
- Remand: If you have blue, you need some counter, and this is my pick of the litter. Beautifully disrupts tempo while providing you a card to boot. Kind sucks they get the card back but hopefully it'll help you get ahead of the curve enough to not have to worry. Could be sideboarded for better situational counter spells too.
- Garruk Wildspeaker: Another late addition, but I feel it's an important one. When you cast him you can instantly open yourself to casting a creature or instant by untapping two lands. Then you can continue doing that, or make yourself a 3/3 dude (but you probably won't do that often as it kind of disrupts his tempo), OR you get an Overrun for your zombos to charge in for the brains-splattered kill. He alone provides serious win potential.
- Liliana of the Veil: Not a staple of the deck by any means, but a) she provides good utility with her first two abilities, and a hateful ultimate should you get to use it, and b) I own three copies of this bitch and want to use them finally! Plus, Planeswalkers are great distractions.
- Bloodstained Mire, Polluted Delta and Verdant Catacombs: Kind of a patchwork of fetch lands I have available to this deck, but I wanted six in here, hence the addition of Bloodstained Mire. I'm a little worried about having zero basic lands for these to target, but I feel those would make me too sad too often. Definitely hoping they don't bury me too much. Urborg can turn them into Swamps at least. Putting one on the battlefield doesn't mean you have to crack it either, and Bloodghast is totally cool with that.
- Drowned Catacombs and Woodland Cemetery: Goldfishing helped me to settle on six, with the four for Cemetery balancing out the blue and black of Creeping Tar Pit.
- Overgrown Tomb and Watery Grave: Shock lands are great, especially when targeted by fetch lands. Goldfishing helped me settle on six.
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Threw them in so fetch lands can still be useful late-game without hurting my health. Two is the limit with a card like this.
- Creeping Tar Pit: Saved the best for last! The best of the creature lands in my opinion, this boss could potentially win me games with that sweet, sweet unblockable ability. Settled on three in goldfishing. That entering tapped drawback might hurt occasionally, but probably not that often. Love the idea of swinging in with this with Garruk's Overrun too. I can't wait to do it!