Headless Rider
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Brawl Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Headless Rider

Creature — Zombie

Whenever this or another nontoken Zombie you control dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

Zenntrox on Zombo Combo

4 months ago

Love the combo of this deck!

I've been tinkering with a zombie sacrifice deck myself and I got a few recommendations that might be helpful:

Ayara, First of Locthwain could probably be replaced with Blood Artist or Zulaport Cutthroat (the later being slightly worse, but also cheaper to buy irl). They all do functionally pretty much the same, but Ayara is more expensive with her 3 mana cost. So you might as well replace her unless you absolutely feel like you need that option to sac for her card draw or might have a reason to prefer the damage on creatures entering the battlefield rather than dying.

Headless Rider honestly doesn't feel like it's doing very much in this deck. As far as I understand it, the main wincons are either dealing damage through Ayara's ability or milling via the Altar of Dementia. Creating tokens just feels unnecessary and having more draw to get to your combo pieces faster is probably more useful. For example, Village Rites combos well with having disposable creatures and Undead Augur, effectively allowing you to draw 3 cards for 1 mana at instant speed.

If you don't mind your removal being sorcery speed, then you might want to give Bone Shards a try. It gives flexibility in either discarding or sacrificing for its cost and can also target plainswalkers. Finally, maybe 1 or 2 copies of Unearth could be useful as a failsafe in case important combo pieces end up in the graveyard. It can get you literally any creature from your deck back and that for just 1 mana.

wallisface on Modern Zombies

10 months ago

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is already a decent token generator - if you’re looking for more Headless Rider does a good job also.

I think the thing to keep in mind with zombies is that their strength is in their ability to play very aggressively - if a game goes long you’re in trouble. So try not to focus too much into the grindy options, as you’ll often lose those interactions.

nlidmaster on Mono-black zomboys

1 year ago

This deck looks really solid! One of my close friends has been running a blue and black zombie deck for a while. I think your deck would benefit a lot from Cryptbreaker. Can generate zombies and card draw. Foulmire Knight is also a solid option.

As much as I love Grave Titan, depending on how fast/competitive you want this deck to be, he is going to slow you down a lot. I think Diregraf Colossus could be a strong replacement.

Lord of the Accursed can also be a game winning zombie lord. Although Consume Spirit adds to the lifegain idea, you still need at least three mana to cast it, and even then its not doing much work for you. Murderous Rider can not only serve as removal, but is alternatively a zombie with lifelink.

Cards I'd take out to replace with the ones I receommended would be Consume Spirit, Grave Titan, Graf Harvest, Headless Rider, and Shambling Ghast.

These of course are personal suggestions, you do what makes you happy!

thefiresoflurve on Grimgrin - Needs your Help

1 year ago

Yylon Thanks for the info, graveyard dimir zombies sounds fun.

A few potential cuts, subject to your playtesting experience:

Dread Summons - sorcery speed, and the zombies come in tapped, so right away I'm not horribly impressed. I'd cut this unless your table runs incredibly heavy creature decks and you get upwards of 6 zombies from it consistently.

Similarly, Dark Salvation seems a bit too mana intensive for what it does, although I will admit I am biased because I like board wipes more than targeted removal (Esper gang).

All of your enchantments look really amazing. Open the Graves may be able to be cut, since it's a strictly worse version of Headless Rider in this deck.

Endless Ranks of the Dead is another maybe-cut, crazy as it sounds. I think this card is a bit win-more. It is really fun, though...

Similarly, Empty the Laboratory. If you have enough zombies on the field to make it impactful, you're probably already winning. It's also sorcery speed in a deck that sucks at giving haste.

Champion of the Perished can be cut. It isn't bad, but a vanilla 110/110 is just as easy to block as a 2/2.

All of this is, of course, barring any idiosyncrasies of your playgroups - maybe Champion of the Perished singlehandedly wins games for you. I think you have a really solid deck here, and just need to play some more and figure out what works in practice and what doesn't.

Happy building!

TheOfficialCreator on Dimir Zombie Tribal

1 year ago

If you throw in a Pitiless Plunderer then you can go infinite with Carrion Feeder and Gravecrawler ;)

Even besides that Plunderer is a good card

Headless Rider might also work decently in this deck.

sdtech58 on The Scarab God Zombie Tribal

1 year ago

Gray Merchant of Asphodel - life drain/gain. Bounce him a few times for maximum benefit

Havengul Lich - reanimation source. Has underperformed in games for me. Borderline

Headless Rider - tokens

Midnight Reaper - card draw

Murderous Rider - spot removal if needed. Versatile

Noxious Ghoul - one-sided board wipe potential

Plague Belcher - potential sac outlet, death trigger payoff

Relentless Dead - recurrence, reanimate

Shepherd of Rot - life drain. ALL players. Don't kill yourself...

Sidisi, Undead Vizier - tutor, sac outlet and big body

Undead Augur - card draw

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver - alternate commander. Tokens and sac outlet

Zombie Master - reanimation, swampwalk. Nice when Urborg is on the field!!

sdtech58 on I'm gonna cleave you

1 year ago

Need to get that overall CMC down and add more low-cost permanents. Gravecrawler, Relentless Dead, Cryptbreaker, Graveborn Muse, Headless Rider would be a few i'd recommend. I'd use Wonder instead of Eternal Skylord, as it will be easy to get Wonder to your graveyard. Ditch the high CMC Sorceries. If you're spending 5 or 6 mana on something, it needs to have the potential to significantly change the game. The only 2 cards you have at 5 CMC that I'd keep are Open the Graves and the Liliana walker. I'd try to get to 28 - 30 creatures. Consider Dimir Signet and Coldsteel Heart as additions for more ramp. Sorin doesn't fit the theme at all and he's high CMC.

Zarthalius on Zombo-Combo

1 year ago

I love zombie decks! It’s one of my favorite themes but I stayed mono-black with mine. But I know there are good black/blue zombie cards like one that will give all zombie tokens Hexproof I believe or another that gives them flying. Just use an Advanced Search on Scryfall.com to find them. When it comes to non-mono black, I just don’t prefer the “mill” theme that comes with blue; I love the reanimated swarm theme black focuses on. Anyways, here is the "zombie" I know:

For added consistency with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, you could consider Diregraf Colossus and Headless Rider. I know they don’t work nicely with the Death Tyrant + Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver combo but here is how all 3 of them are really nice:

As a Rooftop Storm backup, you may want to consider Liliana, Untouched By Death (-3 ability). Her with Shambling Ghast (Search the Body) plus a sac outlet; or, Her with Phyrexian Altar and any 1 drop zombie make a 1 turn infinite cycle fueling any ETB and death triggers. Liliana, Untouched By Death's -3 ability effectively turns any 1 drop zombie like Shambling Ghast, Carrion Feeder, Champion of the Perished, and Cryptbreaker -into- Gravecrawlers for 1 turn. Basically, she'll increase your consistency getting your combos rolling.

  • Champion of the Perished is really good when your constantly making zombies ETB.
  • Consider using Blasting Station as a sac outlet too. For example, any time you sac with the station during a combo, the combo will also do 1-dmg per cycle. And, if the combo is making zombies, the station will untap too.
  • Black Market can also get out of hand when doing sac combos. It can really help when the combo is not infinite. It also makes people think harder about the cost of boardwiping.

Anyways cool seeing the Death Tyrant + Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver combo; I hadn’t seen that one yet!

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