Adam Haggerty's Skeleton/zombies
 
Type: Deck Idea
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staStandard
Approx. Value:
$212.63
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Avg. CMC 3.82
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Edge of Eternities
releases on August 1, 2025!

Preorder now on CardKingdom Preorder now on TcgPlayer

Edge of Eternities
releases on August 1, 2025!

Preorder now on CardKingdom Preorder now on TcgPlayer
Main Deck - 77 cards, 22 distinct
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Name  Ed. Price Type Cost P T
Rarity Color
Creature (33)
4 Death Baron
$3.61 Creature - Zombie Wizard 2 2
4 Diregraf Ghoul
$0.04 Creature - Zombie 2 2
2 Doom Whisperer
$1.64 Creature - Nightmare Demon 6 6
4 Gutterbones
$0.39 Creature - Skeleton Warrior 2 1
1 Lotleth Giant
$0.17 Creature - Zombie Giant 6 5
4 Midnight Reaper
$0.28 Creature - Zombie Knight 3 2
2 Molderhulk
$0.13 Creature - Fungus Zombie 6 6
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods
$1.58 Creature - Human Cleric 1 2
4 Reassembling Skeleton
$0.14 Creature - Skeleton Warrior 1 1
4 Stitcher's Supplier
$0.35 Creature - Zombie 1 1
Instant (4)
2 Mausoleum Secrets
$0.70 Instant
2 Necrotic Wound
$0.06 Instant
Sorcery (12)
2 Awaken the Erstwhile
$0.36 Sorcery
4 Creeping Chill
$0.16 Sorcery
4 Discovery // Dispersal
$0.12 Sorcery // Instant //
2 Find // Finality
$0.09 Sorcery // Sorcery //
Planeswalker (4)
4 Liliana, Untouched by Death
$1.68 Legendary Planeswalker - Liliana
Land (24)
1 Memorial to Folly
$0.10 Land
4 Overgrown Tomb
$11.94 Land - Swamp Forest
13 Swamp
$0.10 Basic Land - Swamp
2 Watery Grave
$7.48 Land - Island Swamp
4 Woodland Cemetery
$0.69 Land
Sideboard - 94 cards, 72 distinct
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:
Name  Ed. Price Type Cost P T
Rarity Color
Creature (36)
4 Barrier of Bones
$0.08 Creature - Skeleton Wall 0 3
1 Blood Operative
$0.15 Creature - Vampire Assassin 3 1
1 Bone Dragon
$0.46 Creature - Dragon Skeleton 5 4
1 Demon of Catastrophes
$0.24 Creature - Demon 6 6
1 Demonlord Belzenlok
$0.31 Legendary Creature - Elder Demon 6 6
4 Dread Shade
$0.13 Creature - Shade 3 3
1 Glowspore Shaman
$0.05 Creature - Elf Shaman 3 1
1 Golgari Findbroker
$0.09 Creature - Elf Shaman 3 4
1 Golgari Raiders
$0.05 Creature - Elf Warrior 0 0
1 Gravedigger
$0.07 Creature - Zombie 2 2
1 Graveyard Marshal
$0.17 Creature - Zombie Soldier 3 2
1 Isareth the Awakener
$0.14 Legendary Creature - Human Wizard 3 3
1 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed
$0.24 Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman 2 3
1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
$0.29 Legendary Creature - Zombie Knight 4 5
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
$0.20 Legendary Creature - Human Shaman 2 2
1 Kitesail Freebooter
$0.10 Creature - Human Pirate 1 2
1 Knight of Malice
$0.15 Creature - Human Knight 2 2
1 Narcomoeba
$0.27 Creature - Illusion 1 1
1 Phylactery Lich
$0.16 Creature - Zombie 5 5
1 Plaguecrafter
$0.37 Creature - Human Shaman 3 2
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
$0.37 Creature - Beast Horror 2 2
1 Ruthless Knave
$0.26 Creature - Orc Pirate 3 2
1 Seekers' Squire
$0.03 Creature - Human Scout 1 2
1 Tattered Mummy
$0.09 Creature - Zombie Jackal 1 2
3 Tetzimoc, Primal Death
$0.54 Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur 6 6
1 The Haunt of Hightower
$2.26 Legendary Creature - Vampire 3 3
1 Underrealm Lich
$6.57 Creature - Zombie Elf Shaman 4 3
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
$0.16 Legendary Creature - Human Cleric 2 2
Instant (13)
1 Abnormal Endurance
$0.12 Instant
1 Assassin's Trophy
$2.21 Instant
1 Bedevil
$0.53 Instant
1 Carnival // Carnage
$0.06 Instant // Sorcery //
1 Cast Down
$0.24 Instant
1 Costly Plunder
$0.15 Instant
1 Dark Bargain
$0.03 Instant
1 Moment of Craving
$0.10 Instant
1 Murder
$0.03 Instant
1 Price of Fame
$0.11 Instant
1 Status // Statue
$0.08 Instant // Instant //
1 Vona's Hunger
$4.17 Instant
1 Vraska's Contempt
$0.33 Instant
Sorcery (24)
1 Bankrupt in Blood
$0.09 Sorcery
1 Divest
$0.07 Sorcery
3 Drill Bit
$0.12 Sorcery
4 Duress
$0.14 Sorcery
1 Enter the Unknown
$0.29 Sorcery
2 Golden Demise
$0.10 Sorcery
2 Gruesome Menagerie
$0.14 Sorcery
1 Liliana's Spoils
$0.30 Sorcery
1 Mastermind's Acquisition
$0.78 Sorcery
1 Recover
$0.06 Sorcery
1 Revival // Revenge
$0.34 Sorcery // Sorcery //
1 Rise from the Grave
$0.05 Sorcery
1 Ritual of Soot
$0.24 Sorcery
1 Severed Strands
$0.05 Sorcery
1 Vicious Rumors
$0.19 Sorcery
1 Walk the Plank
$0.10 Sorcery
1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
$0.32 Legendary Sorcery
Artifact (5)
1 Desecrated Tomb
$0.99 Artifact
4 Treasure Map // Treasure Cove
$0.42 Artifact // Land
Enchantment (11)
2 Arguel's Blood Fast // Temple of Aclazotz
$0.29 Legendary Enchantment // Legendary Land
1 Dead Weight
$0.04 Enchantment - Aura
1 Lich's Mastery
$0.48 Legendary Enchantment
1 Liliana's Contract
$1.99 Enchantment
1 Open the Graves
$0.44 Enchantment
1 Path of Discovery
$0.49 Enchantment
1 Phyrexian Scriptures
$0.78 Enchantment - Saga
1 Revel in Riches
$15.65 Enchantment
2 The Eldest Reborn
$0.31 Enchantment - Saga
Land (5)
1 Blood Crypt
$16.71 Land - Swamp Mountain
3 Cabal Stronghold
$12.24 Land
1 Dragonskull Summit
$0.90 Land

Notes
 
This was kind of interesting musing. It's always good to revisit old themes at the 6 set mark. I think there is a collective idead that mon black is not good because it wasn't build able when m19 came out, but liliana does a lot of work if we have the right support. She self-mills with incidental value (needing about 22 zombies to be consistent), she can kill a creature, and she has an "ultimate" that is immediately available, which can "reanimate your graveyard" in the right build. To build around her we need cheap/ good zombies, self mill, and some other payoffs. Diregraf ghoul fits the bill, as does death baron. If we expand out to skeletons we gets barrier of bones (self mill), gutter bones, and reassembling skeleton. The skeleton's have their own reanimation clauses, so act as a fail safe for consistency. Awaken the erstwhile is a symetrical payoff that most players can't evaluate correctly. Sending everyone into topdeck mode is not a small ability, and if you can break the parity on the tokens it's advantageous. The nube way is just having more cards than your opponent. What's better is having graveyard based interactions and having better zombies. I can recur most of my discarded cards, and with a death baron in play my zombies are 3/3 death touch, which swing through and block their tokens just fine. All that's left is to build the deck to make this happen consistently, and top deck better than other decks.

There's a couple directions to take this at that point. There's a combo approach that utilizes cards like midnight reaper, priest of the forgotten gods, whisper, blood liturgist, desecrated tomb, and open the graves to grind out advantage and recover faster. Gutterbones and reassembling skeleton make these cards great. We can go straight mono black, which opens up cabal stronghold, dread shade, mastermind's acquisition, and Tetzimoc. We can splash red for Judith, carnival/carnage, and bedevil. We can splash green for molder hulk(best payoff), Izoni, find broker (and the back door loop), status/Statue, and assasin's trophy. Color splash comes with more damage and fail rate.

We should be able to develop an aggressive curve to present as a clocking deck, and then close out in the mid game(precluding a late game). A couple of issues are light card selection/advantage (will require deck consideration), self damage and limited recovery (can be built around but will weaken synergies), and a particular weakness to flyers which is a real liability in the current meta as we hope to trade some amount of zombies for their creatures. We do get to run the golden demise which helps this a bit. Should be an ineresting build. Priest of the forgotten gods seems like it can be truly busted in the right builds.

I'm exploring the mon-black build first, as it seems the most explosive and consistent.The gutter bones/reassembling skeleton+ Priest of the forgotten gods/midnight reaper package is powerful and cool, solves the card flow issue and get more value out of having the skeletons present. Using the priest, necrotic wound, duress, liliana, eldest reborn, tetzimoc, and gloden demise as our board control, siding in other options ofr the matchup as necessary. The sac effects couple with tetzimoc should maintain board control, and duress+erstwhile should be hand. Might need more hand d against control. Death Baron, Mausoleum secrets, and treasure map tie the room together. Not sure how many Lotleth giant, Bone dragon, doom whisperer, dread shade, Gruesome menagerie, Mastermind's acquisition, arguel's bloodfast, and memorial to folly we want. We need enough creatures to mill 4-6 early, and again we're trying to get to 22 zombies. Combined with undergrowth cards, I think we're looking at 26-28 creatures. We have a strange low and curve, and a lot of mana sinks, so it feels like we want to run 24 land. That leaves 8-10 non creature spots... shave a land, get down to 25 creatures and mill spells? Would give us 12 noncreature, which feels more so able.

The self-mill is almost there to be really good. Combo-ing priest, liliana, and creeping chill seems degenerate. It almost seems like you could bill a strong self mill engine with liliana, and have a tight combo and a strong tribal plan B. The question is there enough overlap where both can fit into the same deck without significant cost to either strategy and still have room for the in-between payoff cards that synergize with both strategies, such as creeping chill, narcomeoba, desecrated tomb, and awaken the erstwhile?

So cabal stronghold sucks mostly always. Mono black is less appelaing, which begs the question of which splash is worth it. I think it is easily molderhulk. The card should be a 2cmc 6/6 that synergizes with both zombies and self mill on the lilianna ultimate we can chain them from the graveyard. Makes memorial better, and it's an easy splash.
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