Many Blessed Returns
Modern BGW (Abzan, Junk) Combo Counters Infinite Combo Persist Reanimator Zombie
Creature (20)
Land (20)
Sorcery (10)
Sideboard
Instant (7)
Land (4)
Sorcery (4)
Maybeboard
Creature (4)
Instant (1)
Inspired by user Saccox’s excellent budget deck Vizier of black goblins Pezzent! (10/12 Euro/$), I wanted to see what the potential might be if the budget cap were removed. I was not disappointed.
If you like this build you might enjoy another deck I’ve recently constructed, entitled Mourning Becomes Elendra.
This deck lists under the Abzan hub, although technically it’s really just an Orzhov build. Moreover, it’s predominantly black with just enough white to reliably cast our key Enchantment.
•Godless Shrine can for both colors, making it the ideal Turn 1 drop.
•Isolated Chapel will nearly always enter untapped, as the rest of our mana base automatically fulfills its ETB criteria.
•2 basic Plains guarantee we are still able to cast our Enchantment in the event of a Blood Moon.
•Basic Swamps round out the remainder of our mana pool.
...< Deep breath >...
+1/+1 counters, -1/-1 counters, Acorn counters, Age counters, Aim counters, Awakening counters, Blaze counters, Blood counters, Book counters, Bounty counters, Bribery counters, Brick counters, Coin counters, Component counters, Corruption counters, Corpse counters, Crystal counters, Despair counters, Devotion counters, Divinity counters, Doom counters, Egg counters, Ember counters, Energy counters, Enlightened counters, Eon counters, Eyeball counters, Fate counters, Feather counters, Filibuster counters, Flame counters, Flood counters, Foreshadow counters, Gem counters, Ghostform counters, Gold counters, Growth counters, Harmony counters, Hatchling counters, Healing counters, Hit counters, Hone counters, Hoofprint counters, Hour counters, Ice counters, Incarnation counters, Isolation counters, Keyword (deathtouch, firststrike, flying, hexproof, lifelink, menace, reach, trample and vigilance) counters, Ki counters, Knowledge counters, Landmark counters, Level counters, Lore counters, Luck counters, Manifestation counters, Mannequin counters, Muster counters, Night counters, Page counters, Petrification counters, Phylactery counters, Plague counters, Point counters, Poison counters, Pressure counters, Prey counters, Quest counters, Ritual counters, Shield counters, Silver counters, Slime counters, Soul counters, Spore counters, Storage counters, Study counters, Task counters, Theft counters, Time counters, Tower counters, Training counters, Valor counters, Velocity counters, Void counters, Voyage counters and Wish counters are just some of the different types of counters infesting the Modern format.
There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of cards, combos and interactions that benefit either directly or tangentially because of these seemingly endless varieties of counters. Trying to keep track of all the different types and how they might affect any given card in play can feel like trying to hold back the ocean with a push broom.
Sometimes it’s good to just take a step back and revel in the Solemnity of some peace and quiet.
Our mana curve is quite low, so we’ll almost certainly be unloading a land and a spell each turn. Around Turns 3-4 our hand will be uncomfortably light, so when weighing the options I’ve elected to include Cryptbreaker over something like, say, Night's Whisper to help us gas up. The most realistic scenario is to draw an extra card per turn, as we run 12 zombies and thus 12 potential opportunities to pay for the privilege. I don’t count the 4x Geralf's Messenger since they enter tapped and aren’t Cryptbreaker-friendly.
There is, however, a dream scenario wherein we have Carrion Feeder, Solemnity and 3 copies of Putrid Goblin in play. That would open up the floodgates for us to be inundated with cards for as long as our life total holds out...but the stars have yet to align even in playtesting for this. Even so, we can get far more value out of Cryptbreaker’s draw ability than a single cast spell.
Without the burden of counters weighing down our creatures, they’re unencumbered by restrictive stipulations. Breaking free of those shackles yields very tangible results: whenever one of our Undying creatures...dies, it will simply return to the battlefield as a matter of course. We will first and foremost have a steadfast contingent of blockers to absorb any incoming attack damage; of course being able to attack without any thoughts of self preservation also has its benefits.
•Carrion Feeder edges out the competition for the coveted 1-drop slot. Its inherent utility as a free sac outlet is an integral component of our combo engine.
But you may ask, ’With Solemnity in play, isn’t this creature’s ability rendered useless?’
Yes and No. We won’t be able to place any counters on Carrion Feeder, but we absolutely can still take advantage of its insatiable greed for sacrificial mayhem. More on that later...
•User sergiodelrio kindly pointed out another highly effective 1-drop, Viscera Seer. Another free sac-outlet, once we have our combo engine online this creature will allow us to freely sift through our deck using the scry mechanic. Tutor whatever you need to the top of your library, just prior to drawing a card with Cryptbreaker or Village Rites.
•Our 2-drop slot is occupied by an everlasting gobstopper of a card, if ever there was one. Most useful in the early game to stave off combat damage while we set ourselves up, this zombie goblin isn’t essential to the overall strategy and may therefore be counted as fodder if that’s the most strategic option.
•Kitchen Finks is a safeguard against any archetype that has the potential to inflict massive amounts of direct damage early on. With Carrion Feeder and Solemnity in play, we’ve achieved nigh immortality.
•Geralf's Messenger is our second 3-drop, an unholy inversion of everything Kitchen Finks is. Triple won’t be an issue to cast, and for what he offers there is simply no better selection. With Carrion Feeder and Solemnity in play, we may cast Geralf's Messenger for , sacrifice it to the little guy, return it to play exempt from the burden of a +1/+1 counter, and repeat the process indefinitely. Each time it enters play, we’ll shave 2 life points off the opponent’s total. Just be sure to remind them, “Don’t shoot the Messenger.”
Fun Fact Show
•Cast Putrid Goblin Turn 2, slowly building what will eventually become a faux-immortal battalion of creatures. Use Light of Hope to recuperate a bit of life lost from combat damage or our shocklands, or to destroy an Enchantment slowing us down.
•Tutor for Solemnity with Idyllic Tutor, or use Dimir Machinations to transmute it or any of the other 2 combo pieces, Geralf's Messenger or Kitchen Finks. Cast these as soon as possible.
•With Carrion Feeder and Solemnity in play, cast Geralf's Messenger. Continuously sacrifice it, return it to play, then sacrifice it again to drain your way to victory 2 life points at a time.
•Feed the Swarm hits creatures and enchantments, and in black, which means we won’t need to adjust our mana base to accommodate. The life loss incurred can be completely undone with a few quick loops of Kitchen Finks once we get our combo online, so fire away.
•Dash Hopes allows us to revoke any unfavorable spells headed our way, and like elegant formal wear this spell comes in basic black.
•Surgically extract any combo pieces or pervasive threats.
•Bojuka Bog is handy to efface an opponent’s graveyard, nullifying all sorts of potential issues we may run into.
The basic strategy isn’t limited strictly to Solemnity, Carrion Feeder and Geralf's Messenger. I drafted 3 unique versions of this deck in tandem before settling on the one you see here, and for those who’d like to take the core concept and perhaps move into a different color wedge I’ll detail some further interesting interactions I stumbled across. As I used as the cornerstone color of each build, we’ll need the Heaven sent Reanimation staples introduced in Modern Horizons 2, Unmarked Grave and Persist, as well as a couple brilliant targets for those spells.
•With Flayer of the Hatebound sitting at a rather steep , it’s more efficient to inter, then exhume him. Once in play, he essentially turns any persist/undying enabled creature into Geralf’s Messenger, being able to ping the opponent for its power after returning to the battlefield from the graveyard.
Adding 2x copies of Demonlord of Ashmouth to the mix means misery for the opponent. When one is in play, simply cast a second Demonlord of Ashmouth, sacrificing the first. The sacrificed one will return to the battlefield, pinging the opponent for 5 (!), and requiring a new sacrifice—the other Demonlord of Ashmouth—which triggers the whole loop all over again. Functionally identical to the loop in the maindeck, although the retool to accommodate a mana base will certainly open up quite a few doors.
•The third iteration of the loop involves Flayer of the Hatebound as well, and as the tertiary color (or secondary color; it’s not difficult at all to restructure the mana base to be with just a splash of for Solemnity. Builder’s choice!)
Doing so allows us to add Aerie Ouphes to the lineup, alongside their vampiric BFF Vengeful Vampire. Both are relatively high costed cards so our Reanimation spells might be prudent, but with these two creatures afield alongside Flayer of the Hatebound, simply sacrifice the ouphes to deal lethal damage to our flier, and when both immediately return to play they’ll deal a total of 6 damage to the opponent courtesy of Flayer’s ETB bequeathment.
A bit more work for not much more payoff, but it’s more about versatility—access to means for example that Melira is viable without reanimation, and can also pave the way for a great many different directions for deckbuilding.
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Casual
96% Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 3 years |
| Last updated | 2 years |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 22 - 3 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 8 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.95 |
| Tokens | Zombie 2/2 B |
| Folders | Modern Decks, modern, Modern |
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