Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

Legendary Creature — Zombie Knight

You may play Haakon, Stromgald Scourge from your graveyard, but not from anywhere else.

As long as Haakon is in play, you may play Knight cards from your graveyard.

When Haakon is put into a graveyard from play, you lose 2 life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	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
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

Donvier on Can I play creatures with …

3 weeks ago

I've heard of a new rules change with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and Ashes of the Fallen which I don't totally understand but does this mean that Conspiracy doesn't work anymore either? To specify the idea is to play either type changing card and choose the Knight creature type to play any creature from my graveyard.

Just building a Hakkon EDH deck now and I'm quite sad about the idea that Maskwood Nexus is the only card in the game that can let me type change to make it work.

DreadKhan on EDH Merens Reanimator

3 months ago

If you're interested in playing fair, then you might like Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This can take a board full of utility creatures and make them very formidable very quickly. Hell's Caretaker is a card I find useful that doesn't go infinite with anything I know of, it just lets you sneak stuff in once per turn. If you don't include anything like Pitiless Plunderer you can set up repeatable sacrifice loops to generate XP for Meren, probably to reanimate a Protean Hulk or someting else juicy. For this you might use Gravecrawler or Haakon, Stromgald Scourge and probably a 1 drop Knight to have something you can keep killing over and over. Any card that cares about creatures dying will go off, so some stuff that draws on death might be nice, Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a versatile card that fits the bill.

In my experience, the best thing you can tutor up is usually Protean Hulk, Sidisi, or Razaketh, any of these tends to spiral out of control in a deck that can reanimate them on the end step or sooner. Hulk can find various creatures to solve whatever problems you have, but you probably need a sac outlet to ensure it dies right away, the others are more generous. Razaketh notoriously likes abusing Life / Death to set up a pretty quick win when you're ready, you can find stuff like rituals to generate enough mana to go off.

If you want another reanimator that isn't picky, there is Demon of Dark Schemes that helps clear the board of weenies, and as long as you don't have cards that generate mana the Demon won't go infinite with something like Mitotic Slime or Underworld Hermit, they'll just give you lots of triggers for your extra mana. Demon also likes Merciless Executioner type creatures, they can easily generate Energy. Another reanimator I often forget reanimates stuff is Liliana, Death's Majesty, this brings back stuff as a Zombie if you don't want the ultimate, and she survives some wipes as a PW that can make 2/2s while milling you. Some people don't like PWs so ymmv.

I suspect that if you're not sure if you need more wipes, you might want to try one or two more. In Black there is Make an Example that is very brutal as you always hit your priority target for each opponent. It won't clear the board, but it can help manage it, and you can follow it up with a bunch of forced sacrifice. One card that likes seeing a wipe happen (that makes running extra feel less problematic) is Ogre Slumlord, if you run enough 'pay life'effects you might want Sangromancer, and if you think you can kill enough of your opponent's permenants then Kothophed, Soul Hoarder might work out, that can turn a Damnation into a big draw spell.

If your deck is finding it hard to stay alive, you can use Dawnstrider to save you on needing to reanimate a Spore Frog, though I use both as I find Meren can be annoying to certain players.

If you like Phyrexian Arena and aren't using 'win on the spot combos', have you considered Protection Racket? This can draw plenty of non-land cards or deal damage to your opponents, both seem good as long as you don't care if you lose some random 1-3 drops. There is also Black Market Connections, this can provide various resources without being as busted/all-or-nothing as Necropotence.

Hope some of this is helpful! Any Commander that requires a lot of tutoring is very frustrating to learn to play, Commander is incredibly hard to master, but it's easy to get better with practice!

lhetrick13 on

5 months ago

zigail - Creature cheat is something {G} excels in...casting big stompy creatures for less or for free is a solid plan so your concept is not bad. All wallisface and I are saying is that this deck is not optimized for this strategy specifically for for Modern play because Modern is just such a harsh and angry format.

Essentially your whole deck hinges on your opening hand...you MUST have at least 2-3 lands in your opening hand, hope you draw 1-2 more in the next few turns, and hope you either start with or draw Treefolk Harbinger, Bosk Banneret, and Leaf-Crowned Elder within the first few turns...which wallisface has pointed out even if all that works out, Leaf-Crowned Elder has no built in protection and you have no ability to provide any. So this crucial lynchpin and all the setup can be complete undone by a simple removal spell, likely staling your deck entirely.

I run a deck that is "similar" to this concept of building around a single creature (Beyond the Grave (Abzan)) as it is built around Haakon, Stromgald Scourge's ability to reanimate knight creatures. Excluding the lands, the other creatures, and 4x copies of Haakon, the rest of the cards are usually focused around finding Haakon and getting him into play as soon as possible. This is done via cards like Collected Company, Eldritch Evolution, Finale of Devastation, Pyre of Heroes, Aether Vial, etc...The point I am making is that the deck has so many ways to fetch Haakon or any knight I may need really. Adding additional ways to "force" your strategy will help your deck be much more consistent. As it is right now, the ideal combo you mentioned in your comment will be pretty rare and most times, this deck will struggle to find a board presence.

Other than adding cards to help fetch Leaf-Crowned Elder more consistently, I think adding some ramp to help cast those big treefolk earlier or adding in additional ways to accelerate the deck by lowering the mana cost of those treefolk would go a long ways. An example of accelerating a deck built around big stompy creatures with mild ramp or lowering creature cost that I can provide is my dino themed deck Spared No Expense!!!. 8 cards lower the cost of dinosaurs and then I have 7 others that provide me some ramp making it so I can cast things like Regisaur Alpha or Trapjaw Tyrant on turn 3. This makes it so that despite having a >3.5 CMC, the deck is very consistent and fast. I know you mentioned you want to hit more on the creature cheat ability of Leaf-Crowned Elder but just food for thought on ways I feel the deck could potentially be improved.

Good luck and happy brewing, hope some of the material I mentioned was helpful!

DreadKhan on Mishra, Claimed by Gix

5 months ago

A few things that might help, I'm hoping I've understood what you're looking for!

Viscera Seer is among the best sac outlets ever printed at only B, but the most popular altars are all really pushed, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar and Altar of Dementia. Ashnod's is probably the best, but Phyrexian is still very good. Skullport Merchant is great on a budget, if you want a recursive body some of the better options are Gravecrawler, which only needs a Zombie and can easily go infinite with a lot of things, and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge who lets you recast any Knights, which also includes Changelings but most importantly lets you loop the same 1 drop Knight. These sorts of cards also like Pitiless Plunderer, Pawn of Ulamog and Sifter of Skulls, and any colourless sources can benefit from Bog Initiate. Nether Traitor can let you get an extra sacrifice for each Black mana you have to match a dying creature. If you usually have a cheap sacrifice outlet, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder can make a ton of bodies for you. Another recursive body that can offer some ongoing value is Silversmote Ghoul, you just want a way to gain a bit of life, so something like your Exquisite Blood or Whip of Erebos can help ensure you gain enough. Ogre Slumlord is a decent source of bodies if you have some ways to kill enemy creatures, the nice thing is that once the Slumlord gains some steam, you're pretty tough to attack on the ground. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs can make bodies that discourage people from swinging at you. Really bad in some ways, but Bloodsoaked Altar can make weenies into beefy demons, plays well with token generators obviously.

If you expect to have medium size creatures die, Mask of Griselbrand can draw a reasonable number of cards, it can also gain you decent life while offering evasion. There are very few downsides to running this card in my experience, even in a deck that doesn't run many creatures your Commander can wear it.

Blade of Selves would be funny if you ever get your Commander melded, when you swing you get a copy of your meld for each opponent (though you only get the ETBs before they die unfortunately).

War Room is a very good land to look at, maybe Bonders' Enclave if you think you can get a big enough body out consistently. Agitator Ant can help ensure you have a big enough body fwiw, the effect can get very out of hand though if you lack wipes.

lhetrick13 on Sucks to Suck (Damage Themed)

6 months ago

Drestlin - Good to hear! I am actually transitioning to playing paper from MTGO. Convinced a couple of my friends to pick it back up so hoping we can create some regular game nights. It is a lot more enjoyable in person but man...the cost!!!

This deck is pretty fun. I do not believe it is my best work but first take at vampires. Your mentioning of Evolutionary Leap is intriguing...not so much for this deck but its sister deck Sucks to Suck (Aristocrat) or my resurrection knight themed deck Beyond the Grave (Abzan). For the vampire deck I am envisioning sacrificing a vampire I can recast potentially for free to fetch me another vampire...for the knight deck, it would be a way to either look for Haakon, Stromgald Scourge if I need him or if he is in play, to search for a knight I need...Good stuff!

squiGGhetti on Beyond the Grave (Abzan)

8 months ago

lhetrick13,

I told you Pyre of Heroes is super good in tribal decks! lol

AHHHHHHHHHH now I get why you like Nameless Inversion so much! I didn't even think about it being a "knigt card."

If you go down to 3 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge you'll have room for that single copy of Knight of the Reliquary, and you can go down to 2 Aether Vials and go up to 3 Pyre of Heroes wink wink

On a serious note, after seeing the way Pyre of Heroes performs, do you intend on keeping Fiend Artisan or maybe using its slots for Pyre of Heroes and finding two more somethings? maybe... Unearth? or... ya know... whatever floats the boat better.

The more you play this deck, I'm certain you will see more weight behind my recomendations. lol I really don't want people to waste 3 years figuring out their decks/sideboards. Even if I only cut off a year, conversations like this are always welcome.

Thank you for finding my Cleric Tempo deck.

GLHF!

P.S. 20 lands, Knight of the Reliquary, and Life from the Loam. Just saying... even one copy of each is stronk.

squiGGhetti on Beyond the Grave (Abzan)

8 months ago

lhetrick13,

I'm not quite sure what you mean by using Nameless Inversion over and over again. It's a one time use spell. Sure you have a full playset, but... it only effects one creature, and even then only does a reduction of stats. Fatal Push destroys based of CMC. Could you explain?

As far as your lands are concerened, I know what you mean when it comes to being on T2 or T3 and only having colorless mana. Never a good feeling. I also understand your hesitation with going down to 20. However, when you have consistent means of thining your deck with cards like Marsh Flats, Windswept Heath, and Pyre of Heroes (as you will later read, I'm gonna really push it) neither finding land nor creature becomes a problem. Which actually goes into why Unearth and Knight of the Reliquary are good for your deck. The dual use of Unearth allowing you to resurect a creature or cycle and draw a card is money. The ability of Knight of the Reliquary allowing you to search for any land (including fetch lands) is OP. Because of such I would even recommend removing any land that doesn't say forest or plains on it (with fetch lands being the obvious exception). Deck thinning/tutoring is HUGE! Effectively, your odds exponentially increase to draw cards you want by removing the cards you don't want to draw from the deck.

And now my case against Aether Vial lol

Considering how easy it would be to get Haakon, Stromgald Scourge onto the battlefield with Pyre of Heroes, I'm actually more curious as to why you aren't looking for more self discard/mill mechanics. Especially after the recent reprint of Liliana of the Veil. In all honesty, with something like her, you could change your removal spells to target more permanents with things like Assassin's Trophy, Despark, or Rite of Oblivion. That way you already have answeres for people who run graveyard hate in the sideboard, and you will run into them. Sure Aether Vial is great for getting out a creature from your hand for free, but let's say you're top decking and you draw a land. Three Pyre of Heroes would not care. They would only care about the creatures you have on the battlefield. Getting Haakon, Stromgald Scourge out is easy, and that land is more usefull to you than having three stagnant Aether Vials.

lhetrick13 on Beyond the Grave (Abzan)

8 months ago

squiGGhetti - Good stuff! Thanks for taking a look!

Hmmm...maybe I will drop the filter lands like Twilight Mire, Wooded Bastion, and Fetid Heath and double the shock lands I am currently running. I will say I have had games where I start with like 3 lands in my hand but they only can generate colorless mana which kills the hand. Adding the shock lands would give me more to fetch and still provides me the option to play fast or treat it as a tap land if speed is not of the essence. I am not sure on dropping it down to only 20 lands though, with an average CMC of 2.23, I want to hedge that bet. 21 lands is pretty optimal for starting with 2-3 lands in hand with good odds of drawing an additional land in the next three turns making it so the deck SHOULD be able to play anything by turn 4...should being the key word...

Two people now pushing for Unearth now huh? I do like the card as it provides a cheap return for a 3 CMC creature or provides you a draw if not needed but I am just not understanding why it seems like a good fit for this deck. Generally, I have a lot of ways to cheat or force Haakon, Stromgald Scourge to the field and at that point, as long as he is not exiled, I can continue to cast him or another as needed. Can you expand on why Unearth is a good fit?

You are not wrong that there are better removal spells out there than Nameless Inversion. I mean Dismember comes to mind for a similar card that is more effective and potentially less mana intensive to boot! However, what I LOVE about Nameless Inversion is its ability to be recast over and over. Bar Hexproof this can remove any creature from the board if I have the mana for it or I can remove multiple weaker creatures on the same turn. Trust me, if the game last more that 5-6 turns, Nameless Inversion will greatly outplay any other standard removal spell out there in this deck.

I do love Collected Company. I built my first tribal knight deck around it (For Honor and Glory!!!) and try to find a place for it where ever I can! I was running a full playset but dropped two copies to make room for Eldritch Evolution as I wanted to try that out to see how it faired. Now you have caused the dilemma of having to test drive Pyre of Heroes as well!

Agreed on Knight of Autumn. She is actually the only reason I created this Abzan version of the Haakon deck. The original was the Mardu version but I lover her versatility. Few things are more rewarding that watching my opponent cast a high CMC enchantment or artifact only to destroy it with Knight of Autumn!

On the debate of Pyre of Heroes vs Eldritch Evolution I think you may be right...I like the idea of being able to cast it T2 and use it on T3 with any creature I sacrifice being able to be resurrected whenever I desire. Definitely going to try it out over the next couple of weeks as it as merit. Not sure I would drop Aether Vial for it though, those free up my mana for dropping creatures and spells or just let me drop multiple creatures per turn if needed.

Two of the four honorary mentions you listed originally were in the deck. I dropped Knight of the Ebon Legion and Knight of the Reliquary as they just did not feel optimal in this deck. Murderous Rider is great but when he dies he gets shuffled into the library which is counter-productive for this deck but I do love that card. I have a similar relationship with Knights' Charge, love the card on principal but just seems so slow in practice. I do see your point though in terms of it having some merit in a aggro knight deck built around letting creatures die or be sacrificed...I will add that to the maybe list...liking it more as I think about the possibilities.

Sorry for the long comment but thanks for the feedback and suggestions! As I mentioned, good stuff!