Here we go! I freakin' love Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, so naturally I had to build a deck for him. Since he's a Zombie Cleric, I decided to go the route of Zombie tribal (Clerics are cool and all, but their tribal support is rather lacking). So, first of all, the decklist:
When I first saw Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, I absolutely knew I wanted to use him, but I wasn't sure where exactly. Then, I had an urge to build Zombies, and he seemed like a great fit. Undying to all the creatures in the deck, besides Mike himself, is also pretty neat.
You should use Mikaeus, the Unhallowed if:
- You like Zombies.
- You like having an army that's hard to kill.
- You think Zombie Clerics are totally hot.
- You enjoy having the ability to "combo out", while not making it your goal.
You should NOT use Mikaeus if:
- You hate mono-black.
- You hate being seen as a threat. Believe me, you'll be hated out gloriously.
- You hate winning.
Card-by-Card Breakdown:
Gravecrawler: Man, what a great support Zombie. Repeatable recursion, as long as I control a Zombie? Yes, please. Good for Skullclamp, Attrition, and more.
Withered Wretch: This guy does a great job of demolishing everyone else's graveyard -- setting up for the Living Death finish later.
Lord of the Undead: Zombie lord, and Zombie to hand is obviously very good.
Death Baron: Skeleton/Zombie lord, and deathtouch for all of them is just icing on the cake.
Cemetery Reaper: Zombie lord, graveyard hate, [b]and[/b] token generator! The Reaper pulls its weight very well.
Zombie Master: While not a true lord, how can I leave out a literal "Zombie Master"? Also, sick evasion with a) the abundance of players that play black, and b) Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Unbreathing Horde: This guy can get pretty big, and I like its Phantom-like resilience. Too bad it'll never work with undying, though.
Coffin Queen: Steal a creature from any graveyard? Yes, have some.
Fleshbag Marauder: As if this guy isn't good enough already, it becomes completely busted with all the recursion I've got.
Undead Warchief: Yet [b]another[/b] Zombie lord! Life is good. As a bonus, makes further Zombies cheaper -- likely helping ol' Mikey show up earlier.
Soulless One: Huge Zombie, most of the time. One of those creatures that'll often force a chump block...at least, prior to giving it evasion.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade: Gotta give it up to my man Korlash, as he was my first mono-black General. Also, built-in regeneration and scaling power/toughness make him a house.
Gravedigger: More recursion is always nice, and nicer still that it's not limited to Zombies.
Order of Yawgmoth: Evasive, and hand-disrupting? It's also on a small body, but it's nothing a couple lords can't fix.
Unliving Psychopath: Crazy. Usually he'd only be able to kill a creature with 2 power or less, but thanks to all the pumps, it can definitely do much better than that.
Graveborn Muse: Unholy hell, this is insane card draw. It can also be insane life loss, so use prudently.
Noxious Ghoul: Okay, so...this guy's just mean once you start pumping out those tokens and whatnot. Which makes him awesome in my book!
Corpse Harvester: Reusable tutor, and sac outlet? Niiice.
Helldozer: I'd feel really bad about using him, except my playgroup uses some real degenerate nonbasics.
Gravespawn Sovereign: More recursion from any graveyard is always welcome -- though the cost is admittedly pretty steep. Shouldn't be a problem with the various token generators, though.
Viscera Seer: Sac outlet, and scrying leads to better card selection.
Reassembling Skeleton: Sac/Skullclamp abuse, and a chump blocker.
Adaptive Automaton: The last Zombie lord, and a good one at that.
Dimir House Guard: When this guy isn't acting as a decent sac outlet, he does good work transmuting into: Grave Pact, Damnation, and a host of other cards. One of my favorite cards as of late.
Puppeteer Clique: Monstrious, absolutely monstrous. Like it's not already good enough on its own: with Mikaeus and a sac outlet, rip [b]all[/b] of the creatures out from your opponent's graveyards. If the assault doesn't kill them, simply let the stolen creatures become exiled at the end of the turn. I was going to suggest that you sac them to steal again -- but then I remembered that those stolen creatures, unless they're Human, will come back under their owner's control thanks to undying.
[In case you need an explanation: Clique's own persist brings it back the first time. Then, Mikaeus's undying brings it back the second time. Rinse and repeat. :D]
Grave Titan: It's unfortunate that he's not a Zombie himself, but he brings his Zombie friends along for the ride.
Rune-Scarred Demon: 6/6 flying body that comes with a tutor? That's enough to keep it already, but with recursion it's even better.
Solemn Simulacrum: I need mana ramp, and the Simulacrum provides. Also, recursion makes it better (as with everything, of course).
Steel Hellkite: This helps get rid of certain pesky Enchantments/Artifacts that mono-black otherwise can't deal with. 5/5 flying body is also great.
Duplicant: Exiling is a great way to deal with any non-shroud/hexproof creature. Doing it more than once is even better.
Triskelion: While it's not at all the goal of this deck, it's nice to be able to combo out as a safety measure. Fairly easy to pull off, given the amount of tutors and sac outlets (EDIT: D'oh, it somehow totally slipped my mind that Trisk could just damage itself with its last counter) available to me.
Sol Ring: Standard mana ramp, needed for speed.
Sensei's Divining Top: Masterful library manipulation, as usual. The inclusion of the fetchlands + Crucible makes this almost too good.
Skullclamp: Simply insane card advantage. Most often will be used with Skeleton/Gravecrawler, though sac outlets make it possible with any creature.
Nihil Spellbomb: For those special moments when you just need an entire graveyard gone in one shot. Self-replacement as a bonus!
Lightning Greaves: Helps protect Mikaeus, and hasty-shroud is good for most creatures as well.
Nim Deathmantle: Helps keep more of my creatures coming back again and again -- useful to reset the counters on a creature as well.
Altar of Dementia: One of the most elegant sac outlets around, and can probably outright win the game given certain situations.
Oblivion Stone: When "softer" board resets just don't cut it.
Crucible of Worlds: Grants near-broken reusability of fetchlands, as well as Wasteland/Strip Mine/Dust Bowl. Pretty gross.
Cauldron of Souls: This is just...words can't describe how happy Mikaeus and Cauldron on the board makes me. If it was hard enough to kill the horde before, now it's nigh-impossible. Probably a high-priority tutor target, but I haven't tested it enough just yet.
Caged Sun: Mono-color ramp artifact. 'Nuff said.
Phyrexian Arena: Simply top of the line card draw. Auto-include in most of my black decks.
Attrition: Sac outlet, as well as creature destruction. I couldn't add this one in fast enough!
Grave Pact: Ah, Grave Pact, you fickle beast. I absolutely hate seeing one on the other side of the table, but having one of my own is great. Helps keep your opponent's field empty of creatures, and keeps them angry at ya too. =/
Tombstone Stairwell: This is such a sweet card. The 2/2 tokens that you get are almost always going to be buffed up and bigger than your opponent's. Also, given the graveyard hate, I'll probably end up with more tokens anyway.
Endless Ranks of the Dead: Seems innocent enough at first. If left unchecked, however, your Zombie army will grow to ridiculous proportions.
Call to the Grave: Yet another thing that makes your opponents sacrifice. You won't often have to sacrifice your own, although even when you do, it won't hurt you as badly.
Diabolic Intent: It's Demonic Tutor, with a "drawback"! Except that you'll have a creature to sacrifice almost all of the time. This could be a bad topdeck late in the game, although a Reassembling Skeleton in the bin works wonders with this.
Demonic Tutor: Speaking of DTutor, it's still as solid as ever. This can help you build up your army early on, or secure a win in the mid-late stages.
Exsanguinate: The only source of life gain in this deck, and it's a doozy. Especially great in bigger multiplayer games, Exsanguinate has almost never let me down.
Damnation: Simple, honest creature destruction. Ideally, you'll have the biggest swarm, but things won't always go according to plan. It doesn't get much more efficient.
Living Death: This card pulls double-duty as a board sweeper, a win condition, or possibly both! If you've hated out their graveyard enough, whatever they get back should hardly be a threat when you play this.
Army of the Damned: This...is a beautiful card. 13 2/2 Zombie tokens are enough cause for concern as-is, but flashback to get 13 more? Also, Zombie lords help you end someone shortly after playing this.
Not many Instants to speak of here, but the ones I have should be enough:
Tragic Slip: Simply incredible. The power to kill off Blightsteel Colossus, Ulamog, and just about anything else? And all I have to do is fulfill the morbid requirement? Such a great removal spell, but especially in this deck.
Vampiric Tutor: Even more tutoring fun! This is arguably black's best tutor, so in it goes.
Cruel Revival: Creature kill, and Zombie to hand? So cool.
Ah, finally -- the reanimators. I love every one of these, especially in this deck.
Reanimate: The original, and still probably best. The life loss is largely irrelevant compared to the tempo gain you get, especially when planted early on.
Animate Dead: Nice and cheap recursion, with barely any drawback. If you're primarily using this for ETB abilities, then you really have nothing to worry about at all.
Necromancy: Sweet lord, Necromancy is the nuts. 3 mana to get back a creature from *any* graveyard is great. Doing so at instant speed is downright incredible, drawback be damned. Can easily win you some games, if timed right.
Dread Return: Just awesome. The flashback cost should also be really easy to fulfill, methinks.
Beacon of Unrest: Artifact/creature reanimation that comes back to you sooner or later. Much love.
Probably the most boring part, but let's push through!
Swamps: Need 'em to play the deck. Relevant for Korlash, Lake of the Dead, and so on.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Helpful with Cabal Coffers. Also, sick with swampwalking Zombies (thanks again, Zombie Master!)
Cabal Coffers: Generates a ton of black mana, for various degenerate needs.
Leechridden Swamp: It should be easy to keep 2 black permanents on the table, and it gives me something to do if I've got nothing else to play. Adds an extra little "clock" for my opponents, albeit a sloooow one.
Bojuka Bog: Graveyard haters, unite! A no-brainer at this point. Can abuse this with Dust Bowl + Crucible in play.
Unholy Grotto: Oh look, it's a Volrath's Stronghold for Zombies that doesn't cost $15+! Yeah, this is rad.
Lake of the Dead: Obviously, this is a poor play in the first few turns of a game. Later on, though, it's amazing and essentially a reusable Dark Ritual. It's definitely a bummer that it weakens Coffers a bit. On the other hand, it hurts way less with Crucible out.
Phyrexian Tower: Pile on the sac outlets! Generating {BB} for my trouble is cool, too.
Miren, the Moaning Well: Life gaining sac outlet! Definitely great, but the activation cost is a bit much.
Fetchlands: Great with Crucible, allows for better selction with Top activations.
Wasteland/Strip Mine/Dust Bowl: Standard answers for troublesome lands. It's also pretty disgusting with Crucible in play, but I reserve that kind of degenerate play for only the most dire of moments. Or, if I feel like screwing someone over. :3
Okay, so that's all the card breakdowns...I think I filled my quota for the month! Now, some combos:
There are definitely a ton of different little interactions and whatnot in the deck. I'll try to list them all eventually, but for now I'll stick with the most obvious ones:
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion: Instant win. The combo that everyone hates already. I won't try to actively shoot for this, but it's nice to have it as a possible out.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Puppeteer Clique + Sac outlet: I mentioned this above, but it's just so inhumane I feel I should reiterate it. Thanks to Puppeteer Clique's inherent persist, you can keep bringing him back to empty out your opponent's graveyards.
The way it works, again: when the Clique first dies, use its own persist trigger to bring it back with a -1/-1 counter. The next time it dies, bring it back via undying with a +1/+1 counter. Continue until your opponents either lose, hate you, or both.
This is pretty convoluted, but with Grave Pact out as well you can get really degenerate: even though undying will cause stolen creatures to come back under their owner's control, this won't stop you. Just continue to sac Puppeteer Clique until those creatures are back in the graveyard where they belong -- then repeats again and again (with Altar of Dementia out, this leads to victory. It's a 4-card combo, but it's also not an active goal anyway.)
Actually, those are the two biggest combos that come to mind. If you notice anything else noteworthy, please let me know and I'll put it up!
There you have it. This is my first attempt at a Zombie Tribal deck, and certainly my first Mikaeus deck. How did I do? Suggestions? I definitely appreciate any and all feedback. I haven't extensively tested this thing out yet, but it looks like a ton of fun to play. I'm fully aware that Zombie Tribal isn't very strong normally, so hopefully the addition of as much efficiency as possible helps quite a bit. Oh, and one other thing:
Here's a short list of cards that didn't make the list, but that I may consider for future revisions:
Hex Parasite: Awesome utility. It can either hate out planeswalkers, other counters in general, or be used to keep +1/+1 counters off my creatures for more undying shenanigans. Pretty solid, I think.
Nirkana Revenant: Another mana doubler, and possibly necessary for redundancy purposes. Only more playtesting and time will tell on this one.
Mindless Automaton: Frankly, I don't think I need more card draw. But, this is an option.
Workhorse: Meh...Having Triskelion alone is already pushing it; I'd hate for the deck to primarily look like a combo deck.
[c]Strands of Night[/b]: This looks amazing, and is certainly helped out by Crucible. Though, I wonder whether I have too much recursion already, or if such a thing is even possible. Thoughts?
I honestly don't think you have enough token generation/throw-away creatures for attrition to work well consistently but that's just my experience with it in my zombie deck which is a bit different than yours. Also totally forgot about Korlash, definitely going to add him to my deck haha.
I honestly don't think you have enough token generation/throw-away creatures for attrition to work well consistently but that's just my experience with it in my zombie deck which is a bit different than yours. Also totally forgot about Korlash, definitely going to add him to my deck haha.
If all of your creatures have undying sacrificing them isn't a huge deal.
Triskelion doesn't require a sac outlet to go infinite, it can deal some damage to itself, then to something else, then it dies, comes back, etc.
Unless the scry ability helps that much, wouldn't Carrion Feeder be a better choice than Viscera Seer? The Feeder ups your zombie count and gets bigger if you need a beatstick.
Also, you might try Profane Command. If anything, I feel like this deck would want to choose reanimate a big guy and alpha-strike in with a bunch of dudes.
I'm not really sold on the scrying of Viscera Seer all that much myself, so Carrion Feeder is probably the better choice here.
As for Profane Command: I'm going to admit here, the list above is not 100% cards that I own just yet. Since I'm missing 4-5 of the cards I listed above, Profane Command is actually currentlly in the deck as one of the placeholders (though, honestly, it deserves a permenant slot as it's that good).
What is your opinion of Deathrender? Lets you put out your creatures even faster and for free. Especially with the sac outlets. Then you could save your mana for spells. Opinions?
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~Standard~
RDW
:symb::symg::symw: Harvester Pod :symw::symg::symb:
~EDH/Commander~
:symb::symg::symw: Teneb, the Harvester :symw::symg::symb:
:symw::symb::symr: Kaalia of the Vast :symr::symb::symw:
:symw::symb: Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter :symb::symw:
:symg::symw::symu: Rafiq of the Many :symu::symw::symg:
:symw::symu: Sygg, River Guide :symu::symw:
Definitely going to build Mikaeus next! My question is, why you haven't included Zombie Apocalypse!You know, just in case they somehow do manage to off a few of your guys with Mikaeus not out. Also, Geth, Lord of the Vault might give you interesting interactions with Puppeteer Clique. Carnifex Demon and undying creatures get along really well too. Very awesome deck you have going here.
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02 Gravecrawler
03 Withered Wretch
04 Lord of the Undead
05 Death Baron
06 Cemetary Reaper
07 Zombie Master
08 Unbreathing Horde
09 Coffin Queen
10 Fleshbag Marauder
11 Undead Warchief
12 Soulless One
13 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
14 Gravedigger
15 Order of Yawgmoth
16 Unliving Psychopath
17 Graveborn Muse
18 Noxious Ghoul
19 Corpse Harvester
20 Helldozer
21 Gravespawn Sovereign
22 Viscera Seer
23 Reassembling Skeleton
24 Adaptive Automaton
25 Dimir House Guard
26 Puppeteer Clique
27 Grave Titan
28 Rune-Scarred Demon
29 Solemn Simulacrum
30 Steel Hellkite
31 Duplicant
32 Triskelion
34 Sensei's Divining Top
35 Skullclamp
36 Nihil Spellbomb
37 Lightning Greaves
38 Nim Deathmantle
39 Altar of Dementia
40 Oblivion Stone
41 Crucible of Worlds
42 Cauldron of Souls
43 Caged Sun
44 Phyrexian Arena
45 Attrition
46 Grave Pact
47 Tombstone Stairwell
48 Endless Ranks of the Dead
49 Call to the Grave
50 Diabolic Intent
51 Demonic Tutor
52 Exsanguinate
53 Damnation
54 Living Death
55 Army of the Damned
56 Vampiric Tutor
57 Tragic Slip
58 Cruel Revival
60 Animate Dead
61 Necromancy
62 Dread Return
63 Beacon of Unrest
64-84 Swamp
85 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
86 Cabal Coffers
87 Leechridden Swamp
88 Bojuka Bog
89 Unholy Grotto
90 Lake of the Dead
91 Phyrexian Tower
92 Miren, the Moaning Well
93 Verdant Catacombs
94 Bloodstained Mire
95 Polluted Delta
96 Marsh Flats
97 Reliquary Tower
98 Wasteland
99 Strip Mine
100 Dust Bowl
[b]Why Mikaeus?[/b]
You should use Mikaeus, the Unhallowed if:
- You like Zombies.
- You like having an army that's hard to kill.
- You think Zombie Clerics are totally hot.
- You enjoy having the ability to "combo out", while not making it your goal.
You should NOT use Mikaeus if:
- You hate mono-black.
- You hate being seen as a threat. Believe me, you'll be hated out gloriously.
- You hate winning.
Gravecrawler: Man, what a great support Zombie. Repeatable recursion, as long as I control a Zombie? Yes, please. Good for Skullclamp, Attrition, and more.
Withered Wretch: This guy does a great job of demolishing everyone else's graveyard -- setting up for the Living Death finish later.
Lord of the Undead: Zombie lord, and Zombie to hand is obviously very good.
Death Baron: Skeleton/Zombie lord, and deathtouch for all of them is just icing on the cake.
Cemetery Reaper: Zombie lord, graveyard hate, [b]and[/b] token generator! The Reaper pulls its weight very well.
Zombie Master: While not a true lord, how can I leave out a literal "Zombie Master"? Also, sick evasion with a) the abundance of players that play black, and b) Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
Unbreathing Horde: This guy can get pretty big, and I like its Phantom-like resilience. Too bad it'll never work with undying, though.
Coffin Queen: Steal a creature from any graveyard? Yes, have some.
Fleshbag Marauder: As if this guy isn't good enough already, it becomes completely busted with all the recursion I've got.
Undead Warchief: Yet [b]another[/b] Zombie lord! Life is good. As a bonus, makes further Zombies cheaper -- likely helping ol' Mikey show up earlier.
Soulless One: Huge Zombie, most of the time. One of those creatures that'll often force a chump block...at least, prior to giving it evasion.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade: Gotta give it up to my man Korlash, as he was my first mono-black General. Also, built-in regeneration and scaling power/toughness make him a house.
Gravedigger: More recursion is always nice, and nicer still that it's not limited to Zombies.
Order of Yawgmoth: Evasive, and hand-disrupting? It's also on a small body, but it's nothing a couple lords can't fix.
Unliving Psychopath: Crazy. Usually he'd only be able to kill a creature with 2 power or less, but thanks to all the pumps, it can definitely do much better than that.
Graveborn Muse: Unholy hell, this is insane card draw. It can also be insane life loss, so use prudently.
Noxious Ghoul: Okay, so...this guy's just mean once you start pumping out those tokens and whatnot. Which makes him awesome in my book!
Corpse Harvester: Reusable tutor, and sac outlet? Niiice.
Helldozer: I'd feel really bad about using him, except my playgroup uses some real degenerate nonbasics.
Gravespawn Sovereign: More recursion from any graveyard is always welcome -- though the cost is admittedly pretty steep. Shouldn't be a problem with the various token generators, though.
Viscera Seer: Sac outlet, and scrying leads to better card selection.
Reassembling Skeleton: Sac/Skullclamp abuse, and a chump blocker.
Adaptive Automaton: The last Zombie lord, and a good one at that.
Dimir House Guard: When this guy isn't acting as a decent sac outlet, he does good work transmuting into: Grave Pact, Damnation, and a host of other cards. One of my favorite cards as of late.
Puppeteer Clique: Monstrious, absolutely monstrous. Like it's not already good enough on its own: with Mikaeus and a sac outlet, rip [b]all[/b] of the creatures out from your opponent's graveyards. If the assault doesn't kill them, simply let the stolen creatures become exiled at the end of the turn. I was going to suggest that you sac them to steal again -- but then I remembered that those stolen creatures, unless they're Human, will come back under their owner's control thanks to undying.
[In case you need an explanation: Clique's own persist brings it back the first time. Then, Mikaeus's undying brings it back the second time. Rinse and repeat. :D]
Grave Titan: It's unfortunate that he's not a Zombie himself, but he brings his Zombie friends along for the ride.
Rune-Scarred Demon: 6/6 flying body that comes with a tutor? That's enough to keep it already, but with recursion it's even better.
Solemn Simulacrum: I need mana ramp, and the Simulacrum provides. Also, recursion makes it better (as with everything, of course).
Steel Hellkite: This helps get rid of certain pesky Enchantments/Artifacts that mono-black otherwise can't deal with. 5/5 flying body is also great.
Duplicant: Exiling is a great way to deal with any non-shroud/hexproof creature. Doing it more than once is even better.
Triskelion: While it's not at all the goal of this deck, it's nice to be able to combo out as a safety measure. Fairly easy to pull off, given the amount of tutors
and sac outlets(EDIT: D'oh, it somehow totally slipped my mind that Trisk could just damage itself with its last counter) available to me.Sol Ring: Standard mana ramp, needed for speed.
Sensei's Divining Top: Masterful library manipulation, as usual. The inclusion of the fetchlands + Crucible makes this almost too good.
Skullclamp: Simply insane card advantage. Most often will be used with Skeleton/Gravecrawler, though sac outlets make it possible with any creature.
Nihil Spellbomb: For those special moments when you just need an entire graveyard gone in one shot. Self-replacement as a bonus!
Lightning Greaves: Helps protect Mikaeus, and hasty-shroud is good for most creatures as well.
Nim Deathmantle: Helps keep more of my creatures coming back again and again -- useful to reset the counters on a creature as well.
Altar of Dementia: One of the most elegant sac outlets around, and can probably outright win the game given certain situations.
Oblivion Stone: When "softer" board resets just don't cut it.
Crucible of Worlds: Grants near-broken reusability of fetchlands, as well as Wasteland/Strip Mine/Dust Bowl. Pretty gross.
Cauldron of Souls: This is just...words can't describe how happy Mikaeus and Cauldron on the board makes me. If it was hard enough to kill the horde before, now it's nigh-impossible. Probably a high-priority tutor target, but I haven't tested it enough just yet.
Caged Sun: Mono-color ramp artifact. 'Nuff said.
Phyrexian Arena: Simply top of the line card draw. Auto-include in most of my black decks.
Attrition: Sac outlet, as well as creature destruction. I couldn't add this one in fast enough!
Grave Pact: Ah, Grave Pact, you fickle beast. I absolutely hate seeing one on the other side of the table, but having one of my own is great. Helps keep your opponent's field empty of creatures, and keeps them angry at ya too. =/
Tombstone Stairwell: This is such a sweet card. The 2/2 tokens that you get are almost always going to be buffed up and bigger than your opponent's. Also, given the graveyard hate, I'll probably end up with more tokens anyway.
Endless Ranks of the Dead: Seems innocent enough at first. If left unchecked, however, your Zombie army will grow to ridiculous proportions.
Call to the Grave: Yet another thing that makes your opponents sacrifice. You won't often have to sacrifice your own, although even when you do, it won't hurt you as badly.
Diabolic Intent: It's Demonic Tutor, with a "drawback"! Except that you'll have a creature to sacrifice almost all of the time. This could be a bad topdeck late in the game, although a Reassembling Skeleton in the bin works wonders with this.
Demonic Tutor: Speaking of DTutor, it's still as solid as ever. This can help you build up your army early on, or secure a win in the mid-late stages.
Exsanguinate: The only source of life gain in this deck, and it's a doozy. Especially great in bigger multiplayer games, Exsanguinate has almost never let me down.
Damnation: Simple, honest creature destruction. Ideally, you'll have the biggest swarm, but things won't always go according to plan. It doesn't get much more efficient.
Living Death: This card pulls double-duty as a board sweeper, a win condition, or possibly both! If you've hated out their graveyard enough, whatever they get back should hardly be a threat when you play this.
Army of the Damned: This...is a beautiful card. 13 2/2 Zombie tokens are enough cause for concern as-is, but flashback to get 13 more? Also, Zombie lords help you end someone shortly after playing this.
Not many Instants to speak of here, but the ones I have should be enough:
Tragic Slip: Simply incredible. The power to kill off Blightsteel Colossus, Ulamog, and just about anything else? And all I have to do is fulfill the morbid requirement? Such a great removal spell, but especially in this deck.
Vampiric Tutor: Even more tutoring fun! This is arguably black's best tutor, so in it goes.
Cruel Revival: Creature kill, and Zombie to hand? So cool.
Ah, finally -- the reanimators. I love every one of these, especially in this deck.
Reanimate: The original, and still probably best. The life loss is largely irrelevant compared to the tempo gain you get, especially when planted early on.
Animate Dead: Nice and cheap recursion, with barely any drawback. If you're primarily using this for ETB abilities, then you really have nothing to worry about at all.
Necromancy: Sweet lord, Necromancy is the nuts. 3 mana to get back a creature from *any* graveyard is great. Doing so at instant speed is downright incredible, drawback be damned. Can easily win you some games, if timed right.
Dread Return: Just awesome. The flashback cost should also be really easy to fulfill, methinks.
Beacon of Unrest: Artifact/creature reanimation that comes back to you sooner or later. Much love.
Probably the most boring part, but let's push through!
Swamps: Need 'em to play the deck. Relevant for Korlash, Lake of the Dead, and so on.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Helpful with Cabal Coffers. Also, sick with swampwalking Zombies (thanks again, Zombie Master!)
Cabal Coffers: Generates a ton of black mana, for various degenerate needs.
Leechridden Swamp: It should be easy to keep 2 black permanents on the table, and it gives me something to do if I've got nothing else to play. Adds an extra little "clock" for my opponents, albeit a sloooow one.
Bojuka Bog: Graveyard haters, unite! A no-brainer at this point. Can abuse this with Dust Bowl + Crucible in play.
Unholy Grotto: Oh look, it's a Volrath's Stronghold for Zombies that doesn't cost $15+! Yeah, this is rad.
Lake of the Dead: Obviously, this is a poor play in the first few turns of a game. Later on, though, it's amazing and essentially a reusable Dark Ritual. It's definitely a bummer that it weakens Coffers a bit. On the other hand, it hurts way less with Crucible out.
Phyrexian Tower: Pile on the sac outlets! Generating {BB} for my trouble is cool, too.
Miren, the Moaning Well: Life gaining sac outlet! Definitely great, but the activation cost is a bit much.
Fetchlands: Great with Crucible, allows for better selction with Top activations.
Wasteland/Strip Mine/Dust Bowl: Standard answers for troublesome lands. It's also pretty disgusting with Crucible in play, but I reserve that kind of degenerate play for only the most dire of moments. Or, if I feel like screwing someone over. :3
Okay, so that's all the card breakdowns...I think I filled my quota for the month! Now, some combos:
There are definitely a ton of different little interactions and whatnot in the deck. I'll try to list them all eventually, but for now I'll stick with the most obvious ones:
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion: Instant win. The combo that everyone hates already. I won't try to actively shoot for this, but it's nice to have it as a possible out.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Puppeteer Clique + Sac outlet: I mentioned this above, but it's just so inhumane I feel I should reiterate it. Thanks to Puppeteer Clique's inherent persist, you can keep bringing him back to empty out your opponent's graveyards.
The way it works, again: when the Clique first dies, use its own persist trigger to bring it back with a -1/-1 counter. The next time it dies, bring it back via undying with a +1/+1 counter. Continue until your opponents either lose, hate you, or both.
This is pretty convoluted, but with Grave Pact out as well you can get really degenerate: even though undying will cause stolen creatures to come back under their owner's control, this won't stop you. Just continue to sac Puppeteer Clique until those creatures are back in the graveyard where they belong -- then repeats again and again (with Altar of Dementia out, this leads to victory. It's a 4-card combo, but it's also not an active goal anyway.)
Actually, those are the two biggest combos that come to mind. If you notice anything else noteworthy, please let me know and I'll put it up!
There you have it. This is my first attempt at a Zombie Tribal deck, and certainly my first Mikaeus deck. How did I do? Suggestions? I definitely appreciate any and all feedback. I haven't extensively tested this thing out yet, but it looks like a ton of fun to play. I'm fully aware that Zombie Tribal isn't very strong normally, so hopefully the addition of as much efficiency as possible helps quite a bit. Oh, and one other thing:
Here's a short list of cards that didn't make the list, but that I may consider for future revisions:
Hex Parasite: Awesome utility. It can either hate out planeswalkers, other counters in general, or be used to keep +1/+1 counters off my creatures for more undying shenanigans. Pretty solid, I think.
Nirkana Revenant: Another mana doubler, and possibly necessary for redundancy purposes. Only more playtesting and time will tell on this one.
Mindless Automaton: Frankly, I don't think I need more card draw. But, this is an option.
Workhorse: Meh...Having Triskelion alone is already pushing it; I'd hate for the deck to primarily look like a combo deck.
[c]Strands of Night[/b]: This looks amazing, and is certainly helped out by Crucible. Though, I wonder whether I have too much recursion already, or if such a thing is even possible. Thoughts?
Commander/EDH Decks:
BRG The Blood of Jund - Kresh the Bloodbraided BRG
WR The Blades of Goldnight - Gisela, Blade of Goldnight WR
If all of your creatures have undying sacrificing them isn't a huge deal.
Triskelion doesn't require a sac outlet to go infinite, it can deal some damage to itself, then to something else, then it dies, comes back, etc.
I would consider including Bone Shredder and Shriekmaw.
GRRWHazezon Tamar (Valakut)GRRW
UKami of the Crescent Moon (
Group Hug)UUHeidar, Rimewind Master [Mini-Primer]U
WKemba, Kha Regent (Stax)W
GEzuri, Renegade Leader [Primer]G
Also, good call on the Bone Shredder/Shriekmaw front. I've actually got a BS on the way, so I'll have to try it out once it gets here.
Commander/EDH Decks:
BRG The Blood of Jund - Kresh the Bloodbraided BRG
WR The Blades of Goldnight - Gisela, Blade of Goldnight WR
Also, you might try Profane Command. If anything, I feel like this deck would want to choose reanimate a big guy and alpha-strike in with a bunch of dudes.
stuff
As for Profane Command: I'm going to admit here, the list above is not 100% cards that I own just yet. Since I'm missing 4-5 of the cards I listed above, Profane Command is actually currentlly in the deck as one of the placeholders (though, honestly, it deserves a permenant slot as it's that good).
Commander/EDH Decks:
BRG The Blood of Jund - Kresh the Bloodbraided BRG
WR The Blades of Goldnight - Gisela, Blade of Goldnight WR
RDW
:symb::symg::symw: Harvester Pod :symw::symg::symb:
~EDH/Commander~
:symb::symg::symw: Teneb, the Harvester :symw::symg::symb:
:symg::symw::symu: Rafiq of the Many :symu::symw::symg:
:symw::symu: Sygg, River Guide :symu::symw: