Dread Wanderer

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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
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Dread Wanderer

Creature — Zombie Jackal

Dread Wanderer enters the battlefield tapped.

: Return Dread Wanderer from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery and only if you have one or fewer cards in hand.

TheVectornaut on Dead of Night

9 months ago

I think the biggest weakness of this deck is that it's hard to curve out early with so many of the slots occupied by cards at 3 CMC or higher. The ideal play pattern is probably to slam down Champion of the Perished on turn 1 and then follow up with a zombie or 2 every following turn until finishing with a bomb. This is difficult to do with Relentless Dead as your only 2 drop, and if you don't draw Champion, the lack of 1 drops makes things even worse. I'd recommend adding something like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Cryptbreaker, or Dread Wanderer to provide early pressure in the absence of a champion. Then, on 2, I personally like Undead Augur for the draw, especially paired with a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder. Other 2s could be Waste Not with a discard package, Graveyard Marshal as a lordless Cemetery Reaper, or you could dedicate the slots to cheaper removal. Invoke Despair is very flashy but seldom as efficient as a Thoughtseize or Fatal Push. On 3, you have enough cards, although I would still offer Geralf's Messenger, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed as other options to consider. To make room, the most obvious place to start is the bloated 6-slot, and as much as I love using him in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest EDH deck, Champion of Stray Souls is very slow in 60-card formats. Helm of the Host, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Killing Wave (without a drain package with Gray Merchant of Asphodel) also seem underwhelming to me. It should be noted that I'm using modern as the basis for my evaluation. If your local casual meta is slow enough, running more big guys isn't as big of a problem, although I'd still try for more 1s and 2s just to avoid games where you're bricked until turn 3.

TheVectornaut on Mono-Black Budget

1 year ago

Based on the profile name, description, and seeming inaccuracy of the price stated, I'm guessing this is an AI-based account. Still, I do like budget black decks like this. On the off chance that a human reads this, I'll offer some advice from my experience. First, there's no real reason to be running Gravecrawler here with no other zombies. Something like Dread Wanderer, Bloodsoaked Champion, or Cult Conscript could serve a similar role for much cheaper. On the draw side, Necropotence could be Phyrexian Arena or Midnight Oil, but I really like Blood Scrivener and Asylum Visitor for refilling from empty. For removal, cards like Sinister Concoction and Bone Shards can take advantage of creatures that return from the grave while Bone Picker offers an evasive threat and answer for cheap. For finishers, I like Mogis's Marauder or Foul-Tongue Shriek for a lot of matchups and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for others.

multimedia on Black blue deck

1 year ago

Hey, I saw your forum topic asking for help. Fine start on a low budget, but do you want a Dimir Zombie deck or a control deck?

I ask because you're not playing a Zombie as 4x instead all the instants you're playing are 4x. If playing Champion of the Perished my advice is focus more on Zombies and less on control to better trigger Champion. Right now the core of your deck are instants, not Zombies which isn't helping Champion. Be more aggressive with Zombies and Champion, relying less on control? More control can go in your sideboard for certain matchups, but it doesn't have to be main deck.

Honestly, on a low budget you're better off playing mono black Zombies with all basic Swamps rather than having a less than ideal slow two color Dimir manabase with many lands that come into play tapped. The problem is all the blue spells that aren't Zombies. You can get enough blue sources for blue Zombies with tribal lands such as budget Unclaimed Territory, but it can't cast Counterspell.

You can get control from just black playing Legacy with main deck Hymn to Tourach. It's a powerful effect for two mana since your opponent has no choice over what they discard. 4x Duress in the sideboard is good for control on a budget. Hymn is better control with Zombies than Counterspell because it's black.


Consider 1x more Champion of the Perished? You want to have the most chances of having it turn one and it's the reason you're playing Zombies. Champion can benefit from more one drop and two drop Zombies which can increase the aggression to make Diregraf Captain pack more of a punch. Hordewing Skaab is more powerful when you have more Zombies. Dread Wanderer can reanimate itself and Diregraf Ghoul is fine on a budget as another one drop Zombie.Bladestitched Skaab is 2/3 two drop Zombie lord and it's a good reason to play blue with Zombies.

Don't be afraid to use your life as a resource for Undead Augur who can be repeatable draw when your Zombies die. The effect lets you keep swinging with Zombies and it's board wipe recovery. Graf Reaver is a 3/3 two drop Zombie who can pick off a Planeswalker if needed and it's good with Zombie lords.

Dark Ritual can help to have fast starts when playing more one drop and two drop black Zombies and it also lets you reduce the amount of lands since it's ramp. Turn one cast Ritual to cast up to three one drop Zombies or a one drop Zombie and Hymn to Tourach, etc. Ramp out Hordewing Skaab turn three with three lands after playing a Zombie turn one and turn two, etc.

Infernal Grasp is a better main deck creature removal than Doom Blade since Grasp can destroy any targetable creature. Doom is more of a sideboard card if played at all to bring in against mono green, white or red decks.

Tainted Isle is now a budget Dimir land that enters the battlefield untapped that cares about basic Swamps. Choked Estuary can enter the battlefield untapped if you reveal a basic Swamp from your hand. These dual lands are some budget upgrades to consider.


This is an example of a budget Zombie core to start with for Champion of the Perished:

If you're interested I'll continue with more advice in another comment including some cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.

KingKaz on Mono-Black Zombie Graveyard Horde

2 years ago

Saccox I thought about some grave retrieval, but with Gravecrawler and Dread Wanderer already being able to come back from the grave, I thought it was overkill. I think it's more beneficial to have the slots for removal or other zombies. Maybe if I had some bigger zombies that could not be cast from the graveyard?

lagotripha on budget mono-black aggro/devotion

2 years ago

I've played a bunch of mono black in modern. It is great for FNM, but will probs never put up tournament results.

The deck lives on sideboarding and the sheer variety of options available - your opponent has no idea if you are aggro, midrange grindy or combo until turn three or four. This means that published decklists and scouting in major tournaments strips away its biggest advantage.

Cards to mess around with;

Duress (and the million variants) - hitting a Life Goes On can be 'more damage' than any 1 drop.

Gifted Aetherborn - it completes the dire moon / nighthawk trio, and helps with tribal vampire options like Stromkirk Condemned or Captivating Vampire

Stromkirk Condemned and stuff like Zombie Infestation lets you play with discard synergies - pitching your hand then casting symetrical discard, or getting back demigod.

Lashwrithe If you want an equip in mono black on a budget, it is this. Its scary on its own, strapped to a nighthawk it boosts your life total to massive levels.

Ratchet Bomb used to be the only enchantment answer, but Feed the Swarm has really patched that hole and made the deck a lot more solid.

Sign in Blood - draw two is good. Two damage is good to finish an opponent sometimes too.

There are a bunch of 'return to the battlefield' 1 drops that can help create tempo by flooding the board and provide fodder for sacrifice effects - Bloodsoaked Champion, Dread Wanderer, Tenacious Dead etc.

If you want to do it the other way, effects like Unearth let you keep key creatures on the battlefield, while synergysing neatly with stuff like Profane Command to hit face.

Finally, play to mono-black's biggest advantage, reliability. Lots of decks focus on hands that can 'just win the game', mono black does an amazing job at getting a hand that is 'better than the opponent'. Not an incredible hand, but a little disruption and a lot of 'good cards', no chance of getting mana screwed, and far less need to mulligan.

mrweaselman on Walking Dead

3 years ago

Idk who this Willy is, but no you.

This deck is a really a mono black build that you happen to run blue for Diregraf Captain . The way I see it you can either keep with the build you're going for, which to me seems like mono black, or you can go a much different dimir amass path with cards like Vizier of the Scorpion , Gleaming Overseer , Lazotep Plating ,

Let's assume you do mono black, then let's start with creatures. Brain Gorgers and Stromgald Crusader are garbage, Tomebound Lich is mostly used in dedicated reanimator decks, and Extremely Slow Zombie is a card from a joke set, so take those all out, along with Diregraf Captain . That's 11 out. Add 2 Murderous Rider , 3 Liliana's Reaver , 2 Undead Augur , 3 Diregraf Ghoul .

For noncreature spells, take out Negate . The best mono black removal is probably Walk the Plank . So take out Go for the Throat and Ultimate Price for 3. Gravepurge and Return from Extinction can be replaced with 3 Call of the Death-Dweller . Take out Bontu's Monument for another copy of Liliana, Untouched By Death or vise-versa. Take out Necromancer's Stockpile , I just don't think it's that good. For a five drop $1-2 slot, Open the Graves is better than Call to the Grave .

If you followed all that you should have 6 slots left. Add one more Swamp so you're at 22. Then maybe 3 Dread Wanderer , 2 Fleshbag Marauder , and flex card like Risen Executioner or something fun.

RNR_Gaming on BBQuarry (Budget Black Quarry) BO1

3 years ago

So, the first card that came to my mind was Lurrus of the Dream-Den gives you a bit of recursion/card advantage. Rankle, Master of Pranks is wonderfully versatile. Thoughtseize is definitely worth a few wild cards as it sures up control match ups a bit more. Gutterbones and Dread Wanderer should also be up for consideration. Lastly, Murderous Rider and Eliminate to beef up your removal suite.

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