Over the last few months, Modern has flourished, boasting a diverse metagame with plenty of viable options. To showcase this, The Magic Spotlight: The Hobbit Main Event at SCG Con Dallas, held this past weekend, featured a whopping 921 players and highlighted all kinds of decks. Some players even found success bringing new brews, none more exciting than Rakdos Zombie Typal, which finished with a 10-5 record.
Sacrifice Theme with a Typal Approach
At its core, this Rakdos deck is designed to consistently sacrifice creatures for value, using
Gravecrawler
Gravecrawler
This creature can't block.
You may cast this card from your graveyard as long as you control a Zombie.
as a card that can be repeatedly cast from the graveyard. When paired with
Goblin Bombardment
Goblin Bombardment
Sacrifice a creature: This enchantment deals 1 damage to any target.
, you have the luxury of pinging down opposing creatures or slowly whittling away at the opponent’s life total. Alternatively, you can sacrifice Gravecrawler to
Carrion Feeder
Carrion Feeder
This creature can't block.
Sacrifice a creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
and repeatedly grow your one-drop.
Of course, for Gravecrawler to be recurred, you need another Zombie in play, which this deck fully leans into.
Champion of the Perished
Champion of the Perished
Whenever another Zombie you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
is the strongest of the bunch, threatening to grow out of control with all your other Typal one-drops. In slower games,
Cryptbreaker
Cryptbreaker
{1}{B}, {T}, Discard a card: Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Tap three untapped Zombies you control: You draw a card and lose 1 life.
can generate card advantage to keep things rolling. Should your Gravecrawler get exiled,
Rotten Reunion
Rotten Reunion
Exile up to one target card from a graveyard. Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed. (It can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.)
Flashback {1}{B} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
and
Shambling Ghast
Shambling Ghast
When this creature dies, choose one —
• Target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
• Create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
offer lots of backup fodder to keep your game plan going.
With lots of fodder available,
Flare of Malice
Flare of Malice
You may sacrifice a nontoken black creature rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Each opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker with the greatest mana value among creatures and planeswalkers they control.
makes for excellent interaction, taking down massive threats like
Kappa Cannoneer
Kappa Cannoneer
Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
Ward {4}
Whenever this creature or another artifact you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature. It can't be blocked this turn.
for free. In conjunction with
Force of Despair
Force of Despair
If it's not your turn, you may exile a black card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Destroy all creatures that entered this turn.
, you’re well-suited to disrupt opposing creature decks while still advancing your game plan.
From there, you just need ways to turn the corner, and
Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER
Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER
Whenever Sephiroth enters or attacks, you may sacrifice another creature. If you do, draw a card.
Whenever another creature dies, target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. If this is the fourth time this ability has resolved this turn, transform Sephiroth.
accomplishes this task nicely. On top of offering a nasty Blood Artist effect, transforming Sephiroth is trivial thanks to your recurrable sacrifice fodder. After triggering Sephiroth a bunch, you can even increase your combat damage output via
Spymaster’s Vault
Spymaster’s Vault
This land enters tapped unless you control a Swamp.
{T}: Add {B}.
{B}, {T}: Target creature you control connives X, where X is the number of creatures that died this turn. (Draw X cards, then discard X cards. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.)
. While this helps create a focused game plan, its linearity comes at a cost.
Extreme Matchup Variance
While Rakdos Zombies is far from a top-tier archetype, there are at least some factors that help it compete in Modern’s current state, particularly its strong creature deck matchup. Shambling Ghast and Goblin Bombardment make Boros Energy’s threats, and Devoted Druid’s mana dorks look foolish. At the same time, explosive
Slickshot Show-Off
Slickshot Show-Off
Flying, haste
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Plot {1}{R} (You may pay {1}{R} and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
draws from Izzet Prowess risk getting blown out by your zero-mana kill spells.
Given how popular these decks are, there’s certainly some appeal to this archetype, but if you run into a combo deck, you’re essentially giving an opponent a free win. This deck’s clock simply isn’t fast enough to race decks like Ruby Storm or
Song of Creation
Song of Creation
You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
Whenever you cast a spell, draw two cards.
At the beginning of your end step, discard your hand.
Combo, and you have no discard spells in the main deck. While Rotten Reunion can, in theory, help cheese the Esper Goryo matchup, the
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
+
Ephemerate
Ephemerate
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
package is still brutal.
This high level of matchup variance ultimately means that Rakdos Zombies is more a fun choice than a competitive one. Still, a 10-5 record in an event of this size is rather impressive for such a rogue archetype. Consider surprising your friends by bringing this deck to your next Modern FNM.
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