Disposal Mummy

Creature — Zombie Jackal

When Disposal Mummy enters the battlefield, exile target card from an opponent's graveyard.

Legality

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

Discussion (6)

legendofa on The more I think about …

1 week ago

TypicalTimmy I agree with your points about why the mummies should be considered survivors. My issue is that the story pretty much never mentions them except as servant background extras, and the cards don't help. Do they fight? (Maybe, Unconventional Tactics.) Do they just keep working? (Yes, Dutiful Servants and Disposal Mummy.) Do they have any autonomy? (I guess so, loosely hinted at Mummy Paramount and confirmed in Aetherdrift Guide.) What do they do during the Phyrexian Invasion? (No idea.) Do they have any consistent description at all? (Not really.)

So now, they pretty clearly count as survivors. Before the Aetherdrift Guide, there was no real indication they had any more "survivor-ness" than simple machines; they were just another type of mindless zombie. Also, there's absolutely no description of how many mummies were destroyed in either conflict. And that's one of the things that bothers me. The number of survivors, living and mummy, is exactly "enough to make the story happen."

plakjekaas I had thought about that a little bit, but I don't know what the reproductive rates and maturity ages of the equivalent animals are, or if that's a meaningful comparison. Let's dig into this line. There are explicitly no old people in Amonkhet at any point, so nobody dies of old age. And attrition is definitely a thing, especially pre-HoD. So birth rates are presumably high just to meet replacement rate, but time spent in late pregnancy is time spent not training. On the other hand, the city of Naktamun was probably pretty close to resource capacity, even assuming the mummies don't consume any resources, so the living population was close to, if not actually, being maxed out, and HoD would push the resource cap down by a lot. As with other planes, humans seem to be the majority. Khenra are almost always birthed as twins. Humans presumably are usually going to be single birth. So that's a lot of time the human women are going to be reducing their activity (no full-contact sparring in the third trimester), and it's probably similar with the other mammal-based people. Since nagas and aven are not the majority populace of the plane, they either also have 1-2 births at a time or an extremely high mortality rate. Would a minotaur or khenra born between the wars be mature enough to fight the Phyrexians, and would one born after the Phyrexian Invasion be mature enough to help prepare a racetrack? Even if a child has been learning how to fight since they could walk, the Phyrexians were ostensibly fanatical, merciless, versatile, and physically much stronger and tougher, more than a match for an army of six-year-old humans, jackals, and cattle. Or maybe the naga and aven population is currently exploding--high birthrate, rapid maturity, low mortality--and they're going to be the majority in the future, outpopulating the mammals.

legendofa on The more I think about …

1 week ago

Dragging this back out to obsess about it some more with the release of the Planeswalker's Guide to Aetherdrift, Part 2. The city is being rebuilt with outside help, and it seems like enough living people and mummies survived to facilitate that. That answers two of my questions, but I still have no idea what the population numbers are. Either the city of Naktamun was much bigger than I assumed, the death toll of two wars was much lower than I assumed, or both.

---

Point 1: What counts as a survivor? Are only living people counted as survivors, or are mummies included? Grisly Survivor, Resolute Survivors, and Survivors' Encampment don’t provide many useful hints. There’s also Disposal Mummy, Dutiful Servants, Mummy Paramount, and Unraveling Mummy as the Amonkheti mummies in the Hour of Devastation set. In the 2017 online stories, there’s almost no mention of the mummies once the Hour of Devastation starts, and they don’t show up in the card art unless they’re the focus, so the number of mummies after the Hours is a complete unknown.

As a side point, there’s no real indication that the mummies of Amonkhet are independent, or even sentient, before the Aetherdrift Guide. In fact, cards like Dutiful Servants carry the implication that they are very much not self-aware, but Unconventional Tactics make that more ambiguous. In the Aetherdrift Guide, though, they suddenly demand independence and partnership, and have opinions and desires. This is the sort of detail I would have loved to see in the Amonkhet stories (and I was reading them as they came out). Even just a couple of paragraphs from a mummy’s point of view would flesh out the world that much more.

The March of the Machine story doesn’t offer anything else. The Amonkhet cards in March of the Machine are Blossoming Sands, Djeru and Hazoret, Injector Crocodile, Invasion of Amonkhet  ^Flip, Khenra Spellspear  ^Flip, Ruins Recluse, Sandstalker Moloch, Swamp, and Unseal the Necropolis, none of which offer too much insight.

So the number of mummies helping clear rubble and replant farms and construct a racetrack is a giant question mark. They’re simply there when they need to be and not there when they don’t. Do they count as survivors? I honestly have no idea, and that bugs me.

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Point 2: How many survivors are there? The current population of Amonkhet is apparently enough to have "crowds lining the route and packing the grandstands", which to me suggests more than a few hundred, or even a few thousand. I would take this as at least tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand, going off typical capacities for major motor sports stadiums. This probably includes mummies as well as living people, but the total is still several orders of magnitude larger than what I would have expected.

Incidentally, I would expect the mummies—who explicitly failed the trials, usually with a major injury—to be the first ones to die. I don’t pretend to know much about invading, but cutting off supply lines seems to be pretty popular, and neither Nicol Bolas or Elesh Norn seem to have thought of that. Nicol Bolas even made sure that the people of Naktamun were entirely reliant on mummy labor, and he doesn't take advantage of that. So much for masterminds and tactical geniuses... Mummies are explicitly said to massively outnumber the living in the Aetherdrift Guide, so either Amonkhet was like 75% mummy for the Hour of Reckoning (not especially borne out by the story or cards), or they had a very low casualty rate across two invasions.

The Aetherdrift Guide includes the sentences "The Phyrexian invasion saw the deaths of tens of thousands of Amonkheti. Newly risen under the Walking Curse, these fresh undead were not eager to submit to the old order of servile mummification." I'm getting two inferences from this. First, the Phyrexians did not process, convert, or utilize tens of thousands of dead Amonkheti for whatever reason--were they immediately coated in lazotep as soon as they died?. Second, the living population of Naktamun after Hour of Devastation was at least in the tens of thousands.

So after the Accounting of Hours, there were enough living people for tens of thousands to die against Phyrexia. After Phyrexia, there were still enough survivors (probably including both living people and mummies) to form crowds of significant size to watch the Aetherdrift rally. So we’re blowing way past the 30,000 population of ancient Memphis, the most populated city in the world at its height and a major inspriastion for Naktamun. I’m not going to fault a city in a fantasy story being unrealistically big, but I would like to at least have an idea on how unrealistically big it is, besides just “big enough to support the story”.

---

Time to start headcanoning some numbers.

Starting with what I would consider at the upper edge of realistic, put the living and mummy population of Naktamun at 30,000 each, for a total of 60,000. Let's then assume a devastating, plane-threatening 80% mortality rate for each group, each conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 6,000 living and 6,000 mummies for a total population of 12,000. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,200 living people and 1,200 mummies, for a total of 2,400. That could probably serve as a base to rebuild from, but it doesn't capture grandstands full of cheering crowds or Phyrexians killing tens of thousands of people.

Try some different numbers. Now, the initial total population of Naktamun is 3,000,000. Of that, let's say 2,000,000 were mummy servants and 1,000,000 were living soldiers in constant training. (This is still very high, given the apparent technology and appearance of the city.) Let's further say that there was a 50% casualty rate among the living and 25% casualty rate among the mummies for each major conflict. After the Accounting of Hours, there would be 1,500,000 mummies and 500,000 living. After the Phyrexian Invasion, there would be 1,125,000 mummies and 250,000 living. That feels too high for a city struggling to keep itself alive.

Tweaking numbers until I'm happy. 400,000 mummies; 150,000 living; 550,000 total. 60% casualty rate for both groups, each conflict. After HoD, there would be 160,000 mummies and 60,000 living survivors. After Phyrexia, there would be 64,000 mummies and 24,000 living survivors. That feels pretty okay to me. Mummies outnumber the living by about a 3:1 ratio, the Phyrexians could have killed tens of thousands of people, and there's still enough for crowds to fill grandstands and line racetracks, assuming it's mostly mummies.

---

On other notes from the previous discussion, there’s still no real word on where Crested Sunmare came from, which is interesting, and the “Death Race” set does go through Amonkhet.

Also... (spoilers) Show

There are apparently a bunch of really old dead guys about to start fighting over who controls Naktamun, so I expect the local population to drop even more. Survivors have also spent time exploring the Broken Lands and ruins outside of Naktamun, but don't appear to be finding much more than abandoned tombs containing hostile dead people. These ancient monarchs worship the Scarab and Locust Gods, and are warring among themselves over who has the right to control Naktamun. So there's potential for yet another conflict that will chop the survivors' numbers down again. But the people of Naktamun have two new gods on their side. Stay tuned, I guess.

gato91 on

4 years ago

Hi, I recommend you that take out Binding Mummy and Dreg Mangler, it's better to use the Dread Wanderer because recursion and Lord of the Accursed because pump you zombies and give them evasion. Another thing it's take out Corpse Knight and try Relentless Dead because can return itself and sometimes another threat.

For you mana base try the Kaladesh fastlands Blooming Marsh x4 + Concealed Courtyard x1 because your principal color is black, green and white are more like splash, and also your curve is low. Another land you must use it's Castle Locthwain x2, give you the black you need and if needed card draw. If you can use Mutavault x2 its another that also benefits of your Zombie Lords.

In your sideboard you can take out Disposal Mummy for Scavenging Ooze because potentially can remove more cards and also grow. Another big threat you can add it's Kaya, Orzhov Usurper and replace Storrev, Devkarin Lich, the reason are that it's more difficult to kill a planeswalker than a creature in the format, can giveyou sustain exiling cards, kill a threat from aggro decks with low curve like mono red, and eventually with Kaya's ultimate win matches.

JuQ on Brago Flicker

6 years ago

Unquestioned Authority instead of Holy Mantle (when brago flickers it, you draw a card)
Stonecloaker or Angel of Finality instead of Disposal Mummy
Chart a Course instead of Vision Skeins or basically any other decent draw spell.
Counterspell instead of Dream Fracture
Return to Dust instead of Disenchant
Pull from Tomorrow instead of Inspiration
Concentrate instead of Weave Fate
Scrivener instead of Call to Mind (you have few sorceries anyway)
Ghostway and Eerie Interlude instead of Acrobatic Maneuver and Cloudshift flickering until end of turn will make you avoid board wipes without having to counter it.
Whispersilk Cloak instead of Unbender Tine what's so important to untap anyway?
Cathars' Crusade and/or Call for Unity as finishers.
Duplicant, Deadeye Harpooner, Fiend Hunter (if this one leaves the battlefield when his first ability is still on the stack, he won't give anything back) and /or Phyrexian Ingester as removal.
Venser, the Sojourner because it's just awesome with Brago: You -1 to make all your stuff inblockable, then Brago flickers it and you +2 to flicker something. Rinse and repeat.

Argy on

7 years ago

These are changes I would make, to help this deck:

OUT

1x Angler Drake
2x Divine Verdict
1x Hour of Eternity
1x Inspiration
2x Island
4x Plains
2x Tricks of the Trade

IN

2x Ancient Crab
1x Disposal Mummy
2x Farm / Market
1x God-Pharaoh's Faithful
4x Irrigated Farmland OR Meandering River
1x Mummy Paramount
1x Stealer of Secrets
1x Tragic Lesson

Irrigated Farmland is better than Meandering River.

If you can afford four of each that is better still. Take out two more of each Island and Plains.

This deck might win one or two games at FNM. A more competitive option is to buy a Planeswalker Deck and tweak it.

NobleGhost117 on Black n White

7 years ago

Good concept right here! There's just a couple fine-tuning things to point out.

With only 17 lands, you're going to have a hard time casting some of your cards. Most of your cards are 3-cost, and with that few lands you won't be playing those cards until turn 4 if you're lucky. You're going to want at least 22 just based on the cards in your deck. Try moving a few of your matchup-specific cards to the sideboard. Things like Scarab Feast and Disposal Mummy are good cards, but only against decks that use the graveyard. If you put them in the sideboard, you can swap them out when you need them but not have to worry about using them when they aren't helpful.

The other thing to note is that a few of your cards have better versions that don't cost that much more money. Final Reward can be replaced with Hour of Glory, as it's a strictly better card that costs a couple cents more to buy. Cruel Reality could be replaced with Torment of Scarabs. While it is less punishing, the Torment comes out much earlier, so you'll net yourself more damaging effects if this thing comes down on turn 4 instead of the turn 8-10 when Cruel Reality will come out. Besides, the less time it sits in your hand, the fewer dead cards you'll be running.

Hope this helps!