Shepherd of Rot

Creature — Zombie Cleric

Tap: Each player loses 1 life for each Zombie on the battlefield.

Discussion (50)

MindAblaze on How many counters do I …

6 months ago

Player A is attacking with an 0/4 with five +1/+1 counters on it. They also control an Odric, Master Tactician, Orzhov Advokist, Archangel of Thune and an Abzan Battle Priest, none of which are attacking.

Player B (the attacked played) controls an Undead Alchemist, a Shepherd of Rot, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver a decayed zombie token and a normal 2/2 zombie token, all untapped.

Say Player B chooses to block, how many counters would player A’s creatures get if the attacking creature dies to combat damage, with no other shenanigans going on?

Asmoeus on Night of the Dead

6 months ago

Potential budget swaps for:

Rhystic Study,Relentless Dead,The Scarab God

Vizier of the Scorpion,Shepherd of Rot,Necromantic Selection

Zuacamole on

6 months ago

I would suggest cutting some lands for some more mana rocks. 41 lands is to many in my opinion. You could use Dimir Signet Talisman of Dominance Fellwar Stone Bontu's Monument

Also you can run counterspells Counterspell Negate Mana Drain Pact of Negation to protect your zombie hoard.

Black as gotten some good removal recently Infernal Grasp Murderous Rider maybe even Ravenform

You should have Wand of Orcus this card is a powerhouse in my zombie deck. The Scarab God can be fun in the 99 although I use him as my commander personally.

Phyrexian Altar to go infinite with Gravecrawler

Liliana, Dreadhorde General in the best Lilly for zombies in my opinion.

Living Death to clear the board. Just sacrifice your own stuff before you cast it for maximum profit.

Noxious Ghoul is another amazing way to clear the board

Shepherd of Rot can be good early or late game and does a ton of damage to everyone with enough zombies in play

Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is insane ramp the. Throw down Zombie Master and everything you control is unblockable.

Here’s the link to my list if you want to check it out. It’s a little more competitive but still very casual to play if you ignore the combos. Scarab God and his undead apostles

multimedia on Zombie

7 months ago

Hey, well done for first deck on a budget, nice Demonic Tutor. You've definitely done research into the better budget cards for Varina and adding win condition combos. Liquimetal Torque + Binding Mummy is interesting tech.

I see Wonder which is great with Varina, but it's going to be difficult to consistently activate Wonder needing an Island land with only 4 Islands + Wilds/Expanse for a total of only 6 Island sources. There's several dual lands here that could be replaced by budget Island dual lands to help Wonder and make Marsh Flats better.

Some budget land upgrades to consider:

• Command Tower --> Rupture Spire
• Exotic Orchard --> Crumbling Vestige
• Esper Panorama --> Orzhov Guildgate
• Sunken Hollow --> Dimir Guildgate
• Prairie Stream --> Azorius Guildgate
• Ice Tunnel --> Dismal Backwater
• Irrigated Farmland --> Tranquil Cove
• Glacial Floodplain --> Meandering River
• Caves of Koilos --> Forsaken Sanctuary
• Tainted Isle --> Dimir Aqueduct
• Tainted Field --> Orzhov Basilica
• Choked Estuary --> Scoured Barrens

Command Tower and Exotic Orchard are two staple rainbow lands. By adding Sunken Hollow and Prairie Stream then Marsh Flats has an Island dual land to search for that can potentially ETB untapped.

---

Graveborn Muse is amazing repeatable draw with Zombies and the life lose doesn't matter much because of Varina. Muse can repeatedly refill your hand at the beginning of your turn giving you lots of choices for looting with Varina. Vile Entomber can tutor for Wonder or Gravecrawler and put it right into your graveyard. Patriarch's Bidding is another spell for mass reanimation of your Zombies.

Shepherd of Rot can wreck opponents life totals, who don't have life gain and it doesn't hurt you as much because you have a lot of life gain with Varina. If you're trying to win with Rooftop Storm then Lazotep Plating is excellent instant protection. Hordewing Skaab is a Zombie upgrade for Eternal Skylord to give all Zombies you control flying not just tokens.

• Graveborn Muse --> Corpse Augur
• Vile Entomber --> Tymaret Calls the Dead
• Patriarch's Bidding --> Necromancer's Covenant
• Shepherd of Rot --> Cemetery Recruitment
• Lazotep Plating --> In Oketra's Name
• Hordewing Skaab --> Eternal Skylord

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on The horde

8 months ago

Hey, well done so far on a budget.

Your deck doesn't have a Commander yet. If The Scarab God is the Commander then in the deck editor add the CMDR tag after The Scarab God text.

The Scarab God *CMDR*

When you save and reload the decklist Scarab will show as Commander with an image.

---

The 17 cards to consider cutting to get to 100:

• Submerged Boneyard
• Dimir Keyrune
• Dimir Cluestone
• Dimir Locket
• Wight of Precinct Six
• Hall of Triumph
• Price of Fame
• Drunau Corpse Trawler
• Brass Herald
• Geth, Lord of the Vault
• Ascendant Evincar
• Paragon of Open Graves
• Consuming Aberration
• Possessed Skaab
• Door of Destinies
• Caged Sun
• Gauntlet of Power

Several of these cuts to consider are high CMC cards, by cutting them you can reduce the mana curve which helps gameplay. The Scarab God is the high CMC creature you want to cast more than rest and you want an established battlefield of Zombies before you play Scarab. For five or six mana you want to cast Scarab or others Zombies not ramp.

Door of Destinies is an expensive price card that you don't really need. Door is too slow, you have better artifact anthem effects such as Coat of Arms. Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power are other expensive price cards for small anthem effects and ramp that are not needed. Endless Ranks of the Dead, Gravecrawler or Grave Titan, any of these for about the same price would do a lot more for Zombies.

---

Some other upgrades to consider (close to price matching):

• Arcane Signet --> Sky Diamond
• Cryptbreaker --> Adaptive Automaton
• Carrion Feeder --> Loyal Subordinate
• Wand of Orcus --> Risen Executioner
• Patriarch's Bidding --> From Under the Floorboards
• Shepherd of Rot --> Gempalm Polluter
• Murderous Rider --> Drag to the Underworld
• Dark Prophecy --> Corpse Augur
• Vile Entomber --> Corpse Connoisseur
• Windfall --> Tymaret Calls the Dead
• Negate --> Didn't Say Please
• Arcane Denial --> Sinister Sabotage
• Unclaimed Territory --> Swamp
• Choked Estuary --> Island
• Sunken Hollow --> Island
• Temple of Deceit --> Island

Try to reduce the amount of casting cost cards since these will be more difficult to cast with so many Swamps. Having much more black sources from lands in the manabase is better overall for Zombies.

---

There's a new Magic set releasing Sept 24 called Innistrad Midnight Hunt and Zombies are part of it. Cards that can create Zombie tokens is a theme in the set. All the cards in the set haven't been revealed yet, but these are some cards to keep an eye on:

• Champion of the Perished: hopefully he's in the Commander precon.
• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
• Infernal Grasp
• Siege Zombie
• Ghoulish Procession

Of these I think definitely Champion and Wilhelt as well as Grasp are upgrades. Poppet Stitcher  ^Flip and Tainted Adversary are Mythics in the set that would also be upgrades, are expensive prices right now, but watch hopefully their prices drop when the set releases. The new rare land cycle in the set is a good one for Commander. Shipwreck Marsh is the Dimir land, but it's unlikely the prices of these lands go down much more than $5 because they're going to be wanted in Standard.

Innistrad Midnight Hunt has two Commander precons that will release when the set releases. One of these precons is Undead Unleashed, it's Dimir colors, Zombies with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as Commander. We don't yet know the precon decklists, we will soon, but we do know the price point. These precons will cost $40 meaning there will be at least 15 new cards designed for Commander in them. There's going to be Zombie goodness in Wilhelt's precon including hopefully some good card reprints.

Good luck with your deck.

eyes2sky on Representation: List of Tribal Support in Pauper

8 months ago

Zombies: Gempalm Polluter, Ghoulcaller's Chant, Ghoulflesh, Ghoulraiser, Infernal Caretaker, Marauding Boneslasher, Shepherd of Rot, Vengeful Dead

arquistar on When The Violence Causes Silence - Zombie Prison

11 months ago

I like the prison/mill strategy. It really makes me miss my old Varina deck. Have you considered Shepherd of Rot or Lochmere Serpent ? I found them to be excellent includes in my previous build. The Shepherd can suddenly blow out opponents if your steadily increasing zombie hoard can't get through plus he sees your opponents' zombies and Varina's life-gain keeps your life total at reasonable levels. The Serpent is excellent discard fodder that you can recur for good effects.

Jonesbond49 on Zombie Tribal

1 year ago

I've decided to make more than one list but each one should be helpful to you in the future. Also, you don't need to put in all these cards. There are too many here for you to fit in the deck.

Liliana cards:

Liliana, Death's Majesty (can be a board wipe but don't count on it), Liliana, Dreadhorde General (also doubles as amazing card draw), Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip, Liliana, the Last Hope, and Liliana, Untouched By Death (has a removal ability).

Zombie tribal cards:

Shepherd of Rot, Lord of the Accursed, Risen Executioner, Relentless Dead, Field of the Dead, Undead Augur (also card advantage), Havengul Runebinder, Stitcher Geralf, Gleaming Overseer, Call to the Grave (rude card), Endless Ranks of the Dead (my favorite zombie tribal card), Graf Harvest, Graveborn Muse (also card advantage), and Josu Vess, Lich Knight.

Never/Return is zombie themed removal.

Necromantic Selection is a zombie themed board wipe.

Ramp cards:

Dimir Signet, Talisman of Dominance, Charcoal Diamond, Sky Diamond, and Fellwar Stone.

I hope this helps!