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Starting point: Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver - Undead Unleashed Pre-con

I like to pick decks based on fun themes rather than "the best" competitive deck available. Zombie movies are a staple in my house so I knew once I started playing magic, I wanted to build a zombie tribal deck. With the recent release of the Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver pre-con, this was an opportunity to jump start my zombie horde without a huge initial investment.

As my good friend told me, always know how you want to win the game prior to constructing your deck so the first and foremost win condition here will be overwhelming opponents with a zombie horde and boosting their power with a few "Night King" creatures.

Token Generators

Anthem Cards

Next, since death by slow trample isn't our only potential win condition, let's list out some of the other ways this deck can win.

Combo #1

With Gravecrawler's unique ability of being played from the graveyard for 1B as long another zombie is in play, it will be a major focal point to one of our alternate win conditions.

  • Gravecrawler + Sacrifice outlet (Ashnod's Altar) + Rooftop Storm + Damage opponent on death (Bastion of Remembrance)
  • This kind of 4 card combo has multiple choices for a sacrifice outlet and for damaging an opponent on death. Rooftop Storm allows you to do this loop infinite times but even without it, if you have enough damage effects on creature death, you can take down your enemy with only a bit of mana.

Sacrifice Outlets

Damage on Death Effects

*Note: You can replace Rooftop Storm + Gravecrawler in the combo with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver and Poppet Factory to the same effect. This allows you to infinitely sacrifice zombie tokens to create infinite death triggers.

Combo #2

An additional simple 2 card combo that can be played is Rite of Replication (with the kicker) and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. When you cast Rite of Replication paying the Kicker's cost to create five copies of Gray Merchant of Asphodel, the enter the battlefield trigger and all copies will trigger at the same time. Each will compute 12 devotion to black as each copy adds 2 (original + 5 copies = 6 x 2 = 12). Your opponents will lose 72 life and you will gain 72 life.

Combo #3

What's a zombie deck without the potential to create a slow, shambling tide of death with the soul purpose of consuming our opponents brains? Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver allows us to do just that with this 5 card combo.

Gravecrawler + Any free sacrifice outlet such as Altar of Dementia + Rooftop Storm + a transformed Poppet Stitcher   + Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver allows us to create an infinite number of enter the battle field and death triggers.

  • Sacrifice Gravecrawler
  • Wilhelt's ability will trigger, creating a zombie token with decayed
  • Poppet Factory removes abilities from creature tokens (goodbye decayed) and gives them a base toughness of 3/3.
  • Recast Gravecrawler from the graveyard using Rooftop Storm
  • Revel in your growing army!

*Notes:

  • You can remove Rooftop Storm from this combo if you have a way to generate additional mana through the sacrifice. If your sac outlet is Phyrexian Altar, you make back enough mana to continuously cast Gravecrawler.
  • If you don't have Rooftop Storm out, you can still get some good mileage out of this combo if you have a Headless Rider on the board. The trigger will stack with Wilhelt's so you get 2 zombies for every sacrifice. You can push this even further if Necroduality is available as every time Gravecrawler comes back into play you'll gain an extra token copy that loses it's abilities and becomes a 3/3 via Poppet Factory, so each sacrifice and return you'll get 2 + 1 new tokens generated.

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84% Casual

Competitive

Date added 2 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 2 Mythic Rares

40 - 9 Rares

21 - 4 Uncommons

14 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.39
Tokens Copy Clone, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Manifest 2/2 C, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed, Zombie Army 0/0 B, Zombie Berserker 2/2 B
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