Duskmourn: House of Horror is just around the corner, and Standard players are bracing for impact. Elsewhere in Magic, however, other spooky innovations are taking place. As the horrors of Duskmourn rise, a new Zombie Typal deck has shown up in the MTG Modern format.
It’s unusual for such decks to break into the big leagues, especially at a time like this where the format seems relatively settled. That’s exactly what appears to have happened, however, as this deck pulled off a crushing performance in a recent Modern Challenge. This isn’t enough to solidify the deck as a top player, but it’s certainly enough to put it on the radar.
Zombie Typal In MTG Modern?
This new brew comes to us from kePs, who piloted it to a 10-0 finish in the MTGO Modern Challenge on September 15th. While they referred to it as a Zombies list in their Twitter post celebrating their victory, it goes by ‘Soultrader’ on MTG Decks. Whatever you call it, this is a Golgari combo deck with a solid central core of Zombie creatures.
The primary win condition here is the Gravecrawler/Warren Soultrader combo. With both of these cards in play, you can sacrifice Gravecrawler, make a Treasure, use it to recast Gravecrawler from the yard, then rinse and repeat. Throw in a Marionette Apprentice or Zulaport Cutthroat and you win on the spot. This isn’t a new combo by any means, and players have tried to make it work since Modern Horizons 3 released. Based on these early results, kePs may finally be the one to do it.
Like many combo decks, much of this deck revolves around its core combo. Stitcher’s Supplier, for example, is another great Zombie which sets up your graveyard with pieces to reclaim later. Said reclamation is facilitated by Unearth and Chthonian Nightmare, both of which can recur any of your core combo pieces for very little mana.
To round things out, kePs also threw in some solid black value cards to help prolong the game. Orcish Bowmasters is a certified super-staple by now, and can remove many pesky early threats. Bloodghast, meanwhile, plays great with the deck’s graveyard synergies, and makes great sacrifice fodder for cards like Chthonian Nightmare and Flare of Malice.
Unsung Heroes
Speaking of those two gems, they highlight one of the most interesting aspects of kePs’ deck: its use of overlooked Modern Horizons 3 cards. The set introduced a ton of extremely powerful cards, so it was inevitable that some would fly under the radar. In the case of Chthonian Nightmare, this was more an issue of finding the right deck than an issue of power. For Flare of Malice and Birthing Ritual, however, they haven’t received much hype or play until now.
That’s a crying shame on both counts, but especially for Birthing Ritual. A cheaper but more limited version of Birthing Pod sounds great on the surface, but it’s struggled to find a home so far. After all, not many decks have both disposable creatures and a need to dig for specific pieces. Zombie Typal, however, has both of those things, making it the ideal Modern deck for this MTG powerhouse. Sacrificing your turn one Gravecrawler or Stitcher’s Supplier and grabbing a Marionette Apprentice puts you very close to completing your combo, and you can also sacrifice a Bloodghast to grab a Warren Soultrader.
Flare of Malice capitalizes on the expendable nature of your creatures too, giving you an instant-speed answer to big threats like Scion of Draco and Phlage. The deck overall is extremely Modern Horizons heavy. 25 of its 60 cards come from Modern Horizons 3, and there’s one copy of Chatterfang from Modern Horizons 1 thrown in for good measure. This seems like an odd inclusion at first, but it actually provides an alternate win condition for the combo if you don’t draw your Gravecrawler. It’s also cheap enough to grab with Birthing Ritual or recur with your reanimation pieces.
A New Meta Player?
KePs’ Zombie Typal deck is very well-constructed, and clearly something new to consider for the MTG Modern format. How well will it fare as a meta player long-term, however? That’s a difficult question to answer right now. Modern is a tough format right now, so this 10-0 success could well be a flash in the pan.
Looking at the matchup data in this case isn’t hugely useful, but it could give some indication as to the deck’s weak points. kePs dropped three games in total during the event. One to Reanimator, one to UR Lutri, and one to Storm. Based on this, we can expect decks like these to be Zombie Typal’s main problems in the meta. In the case of Reanimator and Storm, these are decks that have similar potential to just go way over the top, so when Zombie Typal doesn’t combo off, they can sneak in a win.
UR Lutri is more interesting. You’d think an inherently inconsistent deck like this would struggle against a lean combo brew like Zombies, but not so much. The deck is absolutely packed with disruption, however, which can stop the combo from going off, as well as a very solid creature base to race with. UR Lutri is hardly a meta player itself, but its success against Zombies could mean similar decks like Jeskai Control could be good counters as well.
Overall this is a very cool new deck to see topping a tournament, and one that gives you a use for some of those forgotten MH3 cards. It may not win the Pro Tour, but it can certainly put up a fight in the current meta.
Read More: MTG Head Designer Confirms New Archetype Should Emerge in Duskmourn Standard
