Noxious Ghoul

Creature — Zombie

Whenever Noxious Ghoul or another Zombie enters the battlefield, all non-Zombie creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.

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
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

SaberTech on Varina: Unalive in 2025

2 months ago

Well, I'll try picking some options to cut from different points in your curve so that I don't mess with the balance you are trying to go for too much.

• Changeling Outcast I don't think that this one is really worth it. It is an early drop that can net you some value off of Varina if attacks don't look great but I think that I would prefer to see a mana rock over that in my starting hand pretty much every time.

• Champion of the Perished, Shambling Ghast, and Lazotep Reaver are also pretty low value options that I would prefer to be a mana rock in my opening hand but they at least have a bit of potential scaling value. The Champion could get big enough to pressure opponents a bit even though it doesn't have trample, and both the Ghast and Reaver could potentially do something late game with the Liliana, Untouched By Death combo line. Still, I would consider any of those three to be cuttable for other stuff.

• Relentless Dead I think that this card is too mana hungry. Varina's card filtering lets the deck be pretty consistent in finding cards that it wants to cast, so it's a waste to leave mana untapped just so that you can make use of Relentless Dead's abilities if it dies. You have other ways of getting creatures back in the deck, and I think that Zul Ashur, Lich Lord already fills the role better.

• Headless Rider Preferably, you don't want to be trading away your utility zombies in combat if you can help it so the Rider becomes more of a backup to get some value if an opponent uses removal than a way of getting ahead on board. It can produce infinite tokens off of some of the decks combos, I'll give it that, but on its own it is trying to compete with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, which can also combo and draw you cards. If you are looking for an alternative to it, I've actually been very impressed with Geralf, the Fleshwright in my own list. Geralf also combos and his ability to pump your zombies can get pretty nuts.

• Priest of the Crossing is a card that I'm just uncertain of. It's more a suggestion to just watch how this card performs for you in practice to see if it's worth it. I think that how well it fits will come down to play style.

• Noxious Ghoul and Temmet, Naktamun's Will kind of play a similar role in the deck, but from different angles. They both ultimately make your creatures harder to block. The Ghoul removes creatures, synergizes well with cards like Cryptcaller Chariot, and can fit in with some of your combos. It's dependent on other cards working well for it to do more than clear some small creatures each turn though. Temmet is a better body for your mana and his looting effect helps to fuel both itself and other cards in the deck. With other cards in the deck like On Wings of Gold, Zombie Master, or Death Baron that also make it harder for the opponent to block you could decide which of them ends up doing more for you overall after some testing.

• Land Tax is a card that I like in my own deck but what I mainly use it for is a way to put a bunch of cards in my hand to loot away for something better. I don't put too much emphasis on it as a way to mana fix. With only 6 basics in your deck you only get a couple shots with it, but considering that it is only 1 mana that still could be enough value for what you spend. Just something to keep your eye on.

Doombeard1984 on Zombies Ate My Neighbors (Zul Ashur)

4 months ago

Love a pet deck lol.

So whilst your Commander does let you reanimate a few each turn, feel like some mass return would be a good idea maybe.

Phyrexian Delver, Balthor the Defiled, Zombie Apocalypse, Living Death. Patriarch's Bidding. will all likely give you a better outcome than any non typal based decks. And if you happen to have milled a Gray Merchant of Asphodel then it will see everything else also enter and will count their devotion too!

Also, Noxious Ghoul can be back breaking for other decks, especially if you are getting more than 1 Zomboi onto the battlefield each turn. With an Endless Ranks of the Dead can literally keep everyone off creatures, and your board safe and sound.

Kind of feel Call to the Grave would also be useful given that you only have 2 non Zomboi creatures.

+1, and thanks for sharing your deck

mrweaselman on Stumbly Boys (EDH)

1 year ago

Starting with mana, you only have 44 sources. I would recommend going around 47. Sapphire Medallion and Jet Medallion are a lot better than the monuments, although more expensive. You want to avoid 3 mana rocks like Dimir Locket and Commander's Sphere, you have better options in two mana ones. Add Coldsteel Heart, Fellwar Stone, Dimir Signet, Talisman of Dominance and at least one land.

For interaction, you could add enchantment removal like Feed the Swarm. Bitter Triumph is new and may be better than Infernal Grasp here.

Since mill and discard can basically act as card draw, you can run cards like Mire Triton, Stitcher's Supplier, Undead Butler, Palantir of Orthanc, and Fact or Fiction, as well as sacrifice based card draw like Corrupted Conviction, Village Rites, and Deadly Dispute. There's also always all-stars Black Market Connections, Phyrexian Arena, and Rhystic Study if you want to go that direction.

Some card to protect your commander like Netherborn Altar, Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip, Zombie Master or Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots may be helpful if you rely on Gisa and it keeps getting removed.

There are certain cards I am not a fan of in this deck including Master of Death, Prized Amalgam, Scourge of Nel Toth, Tomebound Lich, Dead Revels, and Syphon Flesh.

Some other cards to consider include Cryptbreaker, Geralf, Visionary Stitcher, Ghoulcaller Gisa, Lord of the Undead, Noxious Ghoul, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, The Scarab God, Distant Melody, Buried Alive, Diabolic Intent, Liliana, Dreadhorde General. You could probably replace similar cards with these if they are better.

Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + Sac Outlet is infinite. I don't think you run many sac outlets. You could add Acererak the Archlich to go infinite with just Rooftop Storm.

Hypersayia9001 on Help make deck good

1 year ago

I would suggest Phyrexian Altar, which is admittedly pretty expensive but allows you to easily ramp up by sacing zombie tokens, but this also combos with Gravecrawler to give you infinite ETB and LTB triggers, which in turn goes well with the like of Noxious Ghoul, Butcher of Malakir, Champion of the Perished, Archghoul of Thraben, etc...

jarncards on Dead WOMan Walking

2 years ago

Fiend Artisan is green

I think Sidisi, Undead Vizier is awful unless you use a lot of reanimate effects, it's just so expensive to tutor. Geth, Lord of the Vault is crazy strong, but he's a totally different deck most of the time. I'd dump Liliana's Steward too. You and one other player go down a card, putting the rest of the table ahead of you by one card, but they also get to choose, so you're never going to get the card you want out of their hand.

Hobbling Zombie and other cards like it, like Putrid Goblin are excellent at keeping attacks away from you while you build up your board. and the pseudo revival effects let you abuse a lot of other zombie mechanics. Butcher Ghoul, and Geralf's Messenger or Doomed Dissenter are ok too. i wouldnt use Sightless Ghoul though. They are all better than Reassembling Skeleton though. Keep Relentless Dead. Im not sure if they make the cut, but they arent scary, but that means they are good at keeping a target off your back til youre readyfor one.

Magus of the Bridge is great for a non-zombie. Probably use it over Tainted Adversary, i feel like that one just costs way too much before its good. Dreadhorde Invasion is incredibly good, as is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. i'd put those in for sure.Tormod, the Desecrator is still really good. Zombie Trailblazer is devastating to the person sitting to your left in particular or anyone playing five colors/ not black. When you REALLY need someone to not cast a spell. make all their lands swamps during the upkeep. almost every board wipe is a sorcery.

I think you might want to dump Thought Vessel for Mind Stone or even Blood Pet. In many cases discarding is beneficial to zombies. If you want to keep infinite hand size, Zombie Infestation and discard at will cards are pretty helpful.

I think Noxious Ghoul is the single best zombie card in the game, in this deck it basically says, tap your commander, wipe everyone else's boards. Use it.

Sutured Ghoul is runner up. If you include it and other high power zombies like Rotting Regisaur you can put him out as a 20+/xx easily, and then get 2/2s. HE doesnt play nice with mass reanimate, but he's an alternate win condition on his own. also its a great tool since youre probably gonna sac the dino and Phyrexian Soulgorger pretty quickly. If you sacrifice him on the end step before your turn i think you will almost always have a game ending horde.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel is utterly stupid. The absolute best reanimate target you could hope for. and since your card draw is gonna cost a ton of life, hes always going to be valuable. Whip of Erebos is probably the only other reasonable lifegain choice.That one makes aggressive attacking suddenly super safe

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is really cheap at making zombies if you dont have any other sources of decayed zombs. they cant block, but you get so many death triggers

Graveborn Muse is great card draw.

Hatred is usually better than Endless Scream

I think Gempalm Polluter is fantastic. its card draw, puts a big zombie into your graveyard, and hurts a player if things are going well.

I don't think Endless Ranks of the Dead is that great, but it certainly is cool. Wand of Orcus is really cool too. I'm not sure if its good though.

Board wipes will shut you down as you have things right now. Crowded Crypt and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, that way, even if there's a board wipe you still have a whole army of zombs to multiply even after everything is dead. Rise of the Dread Marn is another fantastic option that you can abuse if you run things like Carrion Feeder too. Run Carrion Feeder, period. It lets you loop gravecrawler and saves yourself from control magic and exile spells.

Consider Toxic Deluge and STRONGLY CONSIDER Nevinyrral's Disk. Single target removal like tragic slip is ok because you can choose when things die, but other cards like Malicious Affliction are going to miss a lot of key targets. And you absolutely need to have a way to clear artifacts and especially enchantments.

Dark Salvation is pretty cool. not sure if it is good enough, but i'd use it rather than some of your spot removal.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is really absurdly strong if you can get it out, and even if it dies the next turn you can draw a bunch off of it. Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip you already know is great.

If you diversify your black lands, Field of the Dead is the best land. its silly how good it is. I'll start you off with the autoinclude Unholy Grotto. Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip is too.

I'll see what you make and see if i find anything else. later

multimedia on Cards that buff zombie tribal?

2 years ago

Zombie Master and Filth don't buff, but instead they can make your Zombies unblockable. Noxious Ghoul can wreck your opponent's creatures since it triggers each time a Zombie token is created. This effect is essentially giving your Zombies evasion since it will clear away opponent blockers.

Zombies can have an advantage using your life as a resource for repeatable draw. Cryptbreaker, Graveborn Muse, Undead Augur is Zombie tribal draw using life. Bolas's Citadel is powerful black card that uses your life which can also be a sac outlet for 10 Zombie tokens.

Augur/Dark Prophecy/Erebos, Bleak-Hearted + Blood Artist/Bastion of Remembrance/Zulaport Cutthroat pairing these cards can be a draw engine with Zombie tokens.

Plague Belcher, Vengeful Dead are Zombie tribal aristocrats and with Zombie tokens they pair well with a free activation sac outlet such as Carrion Feeder, Phyrexian Altar, Viscera Seer, Blasting Station, Ashnod's Altar.

Gravecrawler is Zombie tribal repeatable sac fodder for Gisa. Skullclamp is nice draw with tokens, when you're sacing creatures and with Gravecrawler.

sdtech58 on Wilhelt Tribal

2 years 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!!

Rivel on

2 years ago

I never got around to buying the cards needed for this deck. I was worried it was not good enough and put this project on the back burner in case I changed my mind. Now today, after reviewing the deck, I decided that I did not have enough interaction and that some cards still feel a bit too expensive or slow. These changes should hopefully help rectify those issues.

Previous changes: -1. Aetherspouts - replaced with Noxious Ghoul. I determined that Noxious Ghoul did not have enough impact for its mana cost. Instead I shall be using Counterspell. -2. Eater of Hope - replaced with Corpse Harvester. I determined that Corpse Harvester was too expensive and too slow to make an impact, seeing as it needs to survive an entire turn in order to be used. I really liked it, but my deck needs more interaction. Instead I shall be using Arcane Denial.

Additional precon card swaps: 1. Gravespawn Sovereign - replaced with Negate. 2. Ravenous Rotbelly - replaced with Dispel. 3. Army of the Damned - replaced with Unwind This spell really hurt me to remove as I love it very much. Just too expensive and slow. 4. Dread Summons - replaced with Reality Shift. 5. Curse of the Restless Dead - replaced with Thought Vessel. 6. Swamp - replaced with Reliquary Tower (already owned one, figured, why not?)