i want to make a swamp walk edh deck
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 7, 2017, 11:39 p.m. by Donpoohbear
id like to make a swamp walk deck no idea were to start id like to do it budget since im fairly new thank you .
I'm not sure about creatures but Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is my obvious first thought. Blanket of Night is a cheap Enchantment that has the same effect. I will remind you, redundancy is important. You don't want to lose your ability to Swampwalk because your opponent removes Urborg.
Contaminated Ground, Evil Presence, and Tainted Well all provide Swampwalk but only for one opponent each. Leshrac's Rite gives one of your creatures Swampwalk.
Korlash, Heir to Blackblade is a "Swamps Matter" Commander, although I'm not sure how good he will perform. Zombie Master can be ran to give him Swampwalk as well. Squelching Leeches and Nightmare are both creatures that benefit from a lot of Swamps.
Personally I run a Ghoulcaller Gisa deck that is Zombie Tribal. The Tribal theme is primary, while Swampwalk is just a hopeful Win Condition.
I figure you also want as much land ramp as you can get, especially if you are running Korlash as your Commander. Black has some issues with this but Liliana of the Dark Realms is good. I can't think of much else outside of Burnished Hart and Expedition Map.
You will definitely want to run Cabal Coffers, I suggest using all Snow-Covered Swamp and Extraplanar Lens to double the mana from each of your Basics, while not giving your opponents any benefit. Crypt Ghast and Magus of the Coffers are also good. Lastly, Lashwrithe and Nightmare Lash are both awesome.
January 7, 2017 11:55 p.m. Edited.
January 7, 2017 11:58 p.m.
potatoZMaster says... #6
here is the gatherer search for every card every printed with swampwalk written on it somewhere on the card. there... aren't a lot to be brutally honest. there are exactly 44 GREEN AND BLACK CREATURES that have swampwalk, so thats a start. you will almost 100% end up in a green black deck because of this, as the other colors have a total of maybe 3 or 4 creatures with swampwalk. like was already stated, you should have ways to make your opponents lands into swamps. good luck!
January 8, 2017 12:05 a.m.
potatoZMaster says... #7
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&text=+[swampwalk]
thats the link, i forgot to post it.
January 8, 2017 12:06 a.m.
Funeral Charm, Lashwrithe, Vampire Nighthawk, and Filth are some easy picks.
January 8, 2017 12:13 a.m.
Filth is what I was looking for!!
Also Zombie Trailblazer and Restless Bones are repeatable Swampwalk effects.
Then there are Instants, a few have been mentioned. They can be combo'ed with Isochron Scepter for the effect each turn.
January 8, 2017 12:17 a.m.
Donpoohbear says... #10
these are all amazing suggestions thanks im looking into making a list now
January 8, 2017 12:35 a.m.
Just going to throw this out there, but I really think you should make Sol'kanar the Swamp King the commander. It's a little embarrassing but I got stomped by this guy a couple days ago. He is a 5/5 for 5 in great colors and overrall he's just a perfect beater in the command zone.
Nightcreep and Blanket of Night are OK back ups to urborg.
January 8, 2017 1:10 a.m.
I would suggest against Sol'kanar the Swamp King as the mana base is a lot more expensive to make consistent and his ability is fairly useless.
You would really end up playing him for his colors only, of which isn't that great for the deck plan.
He doesn't really have a game plan for winning and anything he can do is outclassed by other options. His only benefit is natural Swampwalk, which again, there are better options.
January 8, 2017 2:44 a.m.
Yeah, Sol'Kanar isn't a great idea due to that red. Sheoldred, Whispering One makes much more sense. She's mono-black of course, so you won't get those green spells, but most of the swampwalk things will be in black anyway, and she's oppressive without swampwalk.
January 8, 2017 10:25 a.m.
Well he did say he wanted a Swamp walk deck, not a zombie deck with Swampwalk thrown in. The obvious game plan for winning with Sol'kanar the Swamp King is . His . Swampwalk . A 5/5 unblockable commander isn't just for the colors.
You could make a consistent mana base for 3 colors under 25 dollars, it just might include ETB tapped lands which can slow down the deck. Opening up offers so much good stuff. Mass haste, additional combat phases and double damage matters a lot when you plan to win via combat damage. You also get access to Izzet and Rakdos guilds which are extremely powerful.
To sum it up, the commander is on theme and screams swampwalk deck while being a win condition. Grixis color pool will also make the deck more competitive in the end. Just my thoughts though, good luck.
January 8, 2017 10:38 a.m.
Spatialdebris says... #15
As a back up to swamp walk you can use equipment like Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots as welll as the enchantment Dauthi Embrace
January 8, 2017 10:40 a.m.
How about just shifting the deck into land walk and other types of unblockables? Intimidate, menace, shadow, etc.
January 8, 2017 1:15 p.m.
It's a Jee...I mean a thing, you wouldn't understand. Lol
January 8, 2017 1:28 p.m.
If you want specifically a swampwalk deck, it's gonna be primarily black. Therefore, the more colors your commander is, the less reliably you will be able to cast it, because most of your mana base will be black. If you compensate by adding in more colors in the landbase but keeping the spells primarily black - as a swampwalk deck would end up doing - then you risk being unable to cast your ordinary spells in the early game. As such, Sol'Kanar is an awful choice for a deck that is intended to focus on swampwalk above all else. A 2-color commander is a maybe; something like Wrexial, the Risen Deep would likely be just fine. But three colors would start to pull away from the OP's intentions, if not shave consistency unnecessarily.
One could make a deck that focuses on simple unblockable mechanics, but that isn't what the OP is asking for.
January 8, 2017 3:12 p.m.
potatoZMaster says... #19
for anyone who was wondering, (i.e., most of you since you clearly havent gatherer searched this) there ARE NO BLUE SWAMPWALK CARDS. every single one of them is either white green or black. with the slight exception of solkanar and wrexial. I SEVERELY recommend making the commander black green, or black green white.
January 8, 2017 3:41 p.m.
Why do you think majority of your mana base needs to be black? This is a little rediculous considering the deck relies on getting out Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if anything you can run more UB and RB duals. Lol if this argument was legit there'd be no UBR zombie decks because 80% of the zombies are mono black. If you have consistency issues running 3 colors then you need to rethink your mana base and artifact ramp.
As a side note, just because most swampwalk creatures are black does not mean you want to run them. Bog Wraith just isn't gonna cut it. These 3 creatures are the cream of the crop like it or not: Wrexial, the Risen Deep, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Sol'kanar the Swamp King. The rest is just bad. Zombies get a lot of synergy with Swampwalk, but I'd still prefer Thraximundar over a mono black commander if going aggro route. Mono black and Dimir zombies are fun, I play it and enjoy it a lot. But, they play for combos and not so much aggro. If you want to win by attacking there's no reason not to utilize reds very obvious advantages.
January 8, 2017 3:45 p.m.
Please look at the list of swampwalk creatures, they are Lost Soul like terrible. Quality not quantity is important. Blue brings counters, draw, 1 of the 3 best creatures available annnnnd Whim of Volrath effects to change land walk type if needed.
January 8, 2017 3:53 p.m.
You clearly don't want to listen to what I'm saying.
The OP wants a swampwalk deck. Yes, focus on swampwalk isn't going to yield a particularly powerful deck; there aren't a lot of good cards that have or support swampwalk. But of the good and bad, they are largely black. So, if swampwalk is the plan, black is the color. To offer blue because counterspells or red because aggression loses sight of what the OP has requested: a swampwalk deck. There's no swampwalk in red or blue besides the commanders, so they're largely not worth it. A case can be made for Wrexial if you like him as a commander in general, but Sol'kanar has nothing going for him in a deck that just wants to swampwalk. Trying to splash red and blue will either mean an unbalanced mana base or a spell base with minimal swampwalking. The latter isn't what the OP wants, and the former is easily avoidable by playing a commander better suited for the goal of - congratulations - a swampwalk deck.
So mono black or Dimir are likely the ideals. Golgari and Abzan are options, but they don't have any swampwalking commanders as I recall, so they'd need to resonate with the player.
If you want to build a Sol'kanar unblockables deck or what have you, you have every ability to do so. But don't tell the OP how to build something they didn't ask for.
January 8, 2017 6:16 p.m.
Lol the best cards that support swampwalk are not in black that's the thing. If you can't see that I'm sorry. Black can make their lands swamps, can give your creatures swampwalk and thats what you need it to do here. To stay in the game though you are going to need to support that idea with cards that take you further. They can't block? Bident of Thassa, Gratuitous Violence/Dictate of the Twin Gods or a well timed War of the Worlds will win you games. You see what I'm saying here? You can use all three colors together to actually make a deck that doesn't suck.
January 8, 2017 6:59 p.m.
A grixis zombie deck is the perfect example, it's mostly black but out performs a mono black bzombie deck in almost every way because it's card pool is larger. Not every card has to be a zombie to make it a zombie deck. The same applies here but with Swampwalk.
January 8, 2017 7:04 p.m.
Donpoohbear says... #25
swamp walk is what i started this to be about but as i am a new player i am reading all of your suggestions and i really do appreciate the advice for multi color commander. it makes me think i can do this by getting some good quality swamp/island walkers and a few flyers with plenty of cards for support to protect me .
Spatialdebris says... #2
Zombies + Zombie Master
January 7, 2017 11:44 p.m.