Shambling Swarm

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Shambling Swarm

Creature — Horror

When Shambling Swarm is put into a graveyard from play, distribute three -1/-1 counters among one, two, or three target creatures. For each -1/-1 counter you put on a creature this way, remove a -1/-1 counter from that creature at end of turn.

qwikster on May All My Problems Wither Away [Conquest]

5 years ago

DrukenReaps That's true. I agree that it's at least 5 snakes, if not more if Ammit Eternal survives by my turn, making it possibly a few more, compared to the guaranteed 3 from Shambling Swarm . I would say that at least Shambling allows for removal for a X/1, X/2, X/3 on the board, AND, making 3 snakes. But I will admit that it's a top pick for cutting. Especially when I found out Desolation exists, heh. Possibly Gate to Phyrexia if I come across a lot of artifacts.

DrukenReaps on May All My Problems Wither Away [Conquest]

5 years ago

I think you could swap Shambling Swarm for Ammit Eternal . There are maybe some other changes I'd make too but frankly your version looks meaner than mine, lol.

mortilus on Hapatra, the Withered

6 years ago

I was unable to find a tribe in your deck. There are some token generators, but few enough that a tribal card would be a dead draw most of the time. For those reasons, I'd recommend removing these:

  1. Cover of Darkness
  2. Coat of Arms
  3. Sosuke, Son of Seshiro


A lot of the utility of the deck comes from being able to massacre your tokens in the name of -1/-1 counters (e.g. Blowfly Infestation and any of Flourishing Defenses, Nest of Scarabs, or Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons herself. Add Blood Artist (or similar) and it's an infinite wincon). Any creature with 2+ toughness will not be killable from a single counter, so anything that buffs toughness without a major benefit just weakens the deck. For those reasons, I'd recommend cutting these:

  1. Spidersilk Armor
But at the same time, and for the same reason, I would add Skullclamp.


Various other cuttables:

  1. Spread the Sickness - sorcery speed kill is pretty "meh".
  2. Shambling Swarm - the counters go away at end of turn, and it's likely he'll die in a boardwipe (so there won't be anyone to put the counters on anyway), and he has 3 devotion.
  3. Soulstinger - similar to Shambling Swarm, it's likely he'll die in a boardwipe (so there won't be anyone to put the counters on). Also, you're getting a weak creature in the hopes of doing something useful with it - better to just get a good creature in the first place.
  4. Decimator Beetle - moves one counter, once per turn, and it has to attack to trigger.
  5. Essence Warden - the lifegain doesn't get you anything
  6. Fume Spitter - insufficient recursion to really get a benefit from him
  7. Wicker Warcrawler - why include a creature that just gets worse?
  8. Tower Above - i'm on the fence on this one. The CMC is a bit high, but the benefits could be large.
  9. Needle Specter - Also on the fence. I like it more than the spell though.
  10. Rendclaw Trow - a 2/2 with wither and nothing else. 2 damage will just be ignored on attack until he dies in a wipe, or manages to block and get you (at best) 3 tokens.


You need to have a minimum of 37 lands. You're also playing , the color whose greatest strength is the massive ramp it can accomplish. If you swap all the cards noted for lands and acceleration, i would expect the deck to play significantly better. Also, don't use rocks for the ramp, unless land-wipe is common in your meta. It's easy and common for artifacts to die, but (usually) much harder to kill a land. I'd recommend the standard ramp:

  1. Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  2. Kodama's Reach
  3. Cultivate
  4. Skyshroud Claim
  5. Explosive Vegetation
  6. etc

You could also likely benefit from more draw and recursion, such as Dark Prophecy/Phyrexian Arena, or Phyrexian Reclamation,

v0lrath on No step on snek

6 years ago

-1/-1 Counter Ideas:
- Blight Mamba (Snek!)
- Blight Sickle
- Cinderbones
- Cinderhaze Wretch (Combos with Melira)
- Core Prowler
- Deity of Scars
- Grafted Exoskeleton
- Grim Poppet (so good)
- Harbinger of Night (also amazing)
- Incremental Blight
- Lichenthrope
- Lockjaw Snapper
- Melira, Sylvok Outcast (Must have!!!!)
- Phyrexian Hydra
- Rendclaw Trow
- Ruthless Sniper (if going in the Archfiend of Ifnir/Cycling direction...)
- Serrated Arrows
- Serrated Biskelion
- Shambling Swarm
- Stinging Shot (Good with Archfiend...)
- Viridian Corrupter
- Garruk Wildspeaker

And then..Cards that do stuff after you have a bunch of snakes:
- Beastmaster Ascension
- Triumph of the Hordes
- Overrun
- Overwhelming Stampede

Random Good Stuff:
- Coat of Arms (Snake? Snake?!? SNAAAAAAKE!!!!)
- Patron of the Orochi (...)
- Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
- Seshiro the Anointed
- Shisato, Whispering Hunter
- Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
- Withering Boon

Draw_Wurm on House of Cards

7 years ago

Hey Flagellum. Mindslicer's interesting. Guess you'd need to make sure you were in a commanding board position. I had Myojin of Night's Reach in but never dropped it in a game.

Tyrant-Thanatos will just need to test a few of them! I can see a situation where Demon of Dark Schemes is able to generate a lot of energy when it hits the table in a four player pod. Again it would draw hate. Gonti, Lord of Luxury and Shambling Swarm would both be rattlesnake blockers. There might be an argument for dropping Phyrexian Obliterator for one of them as well, given we don't get value unless it connects.

hey McKz. I did have Mana Vault in, but took it out as wasn't sure we needed access to such 'fast' mana with the investment needed to untap it.

Tyrant-Thanatos on House of Cards

7 years ago

Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Shambling Swarm, or Vengeful Pharaoh are my top picks. Demon of Dark Schemes looks decent, but I've never actually used him in a game so I can't really report on his merit. Gonti and Pharaoh, on the other hand, I've had great success with in the past. And Shambling Swarm looks like a solid pick given how easily accessible Horobi is in a deck like this.

Draw_Wurm on House of Cards

7 years ago

Tyrant-Thanatos. Assuming we go creature for creature similar mana cost there's a few choices:

Duplicant: without Horobi exile one. With, murder without the ability.

Guiltfeeder: like it. Can't see it sticking and no ETB or death ability.

Shambling Swarm: chump with added Horobi synergy.

Archfiend of Depravity: helps manage the board state. Needs to stay in play to do so. Evasion.

Noxious Gearhulk: murder + a body with menace. Gets worse with Horobi.

Vengeful Pharaoh: death touch blocker. Probably not graveyard focused enough for it.

Ob Nixilis, the Fallen: probably needs more building around.

Chainer, Dementia Master: 8 cmc to get value. Fragile.

Demon of Dark Schemes: another demon wrath on ETB. + possible recursion.

Gonti, Lord of Luxury: unpredictable value. Could be fun.

Abhorrent Overlord: fits the devotion theme. Not sure we need the tokens.

AEther Snap: more anti-planes walker and tokens tech.

Hatred: probably doesn't fit deck style.

Thinking Archfiend of Depravity or Demon of Dark Schemes?

Draw_Wurm on House of Cards

7 years ago

Hey dlamars. Yeah I keep swapping Shambling Swarm in and out with Mogis's Marauder. At the minute running the marauder because it can be used offensively without Horobi and is an ETB wrath with Horobi out.

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