Narfi's The Walking Draugr [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH Sacrifice Tokens UB (Dimir) Zombie

Rune0809

Creature (32)

• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Champion of the Perished
• 1x Corpse Augur
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Draugr Necromancer
• 1x Filth
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Headless Rider
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Priest of the Haunted Edge
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Tomb Tyrant
• 1x Tomebound Lich
• 1x Tormod, the Desecrator
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Vile Entomber
• 1x Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Zombie Master

Land (35)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crypt of Agadeem
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Ice Tunnel
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 6x Snow-Covered Island
• 14x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Haunted Crossroads
• 1x Haunted One
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Necroduality
• 1x Reflections of Littjara
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Tortured Existence

Artifact (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bontu's Monument
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Commander (1)

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Agadeem's Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Blood for Bones
• 1x Blood on the Snow
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Distant Melody
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

Instant (8)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Negate
• 1x Rise of the Dread Marn
• 1x Tragic Slip

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Maybeboard

Creature (7)

• 1x Acererak the Archlich
• 1x Archghoul of Thraben
• 1x Cleaver Skaab
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Soulless One
• 1x Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip
• 1x Vengeful Dead

Instant (4)

• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Thermal Flux
• 1x Thrilling Encore
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Discerning Taste
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Pact of the Serpent
• 1x Rise from the Grave
• 1x Strategic Planning

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Mortuary
• 1x Necropotence

Artifact (4)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

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If you ever played the video game Elder Scrolls Skyrim, you know tomb delving always brings out the draugr. Skyrim is my favorite game of all time and my first magic the gathering set was Kaldheim. When I opened an alt art foil Narfi, Betrayer King it immediately reminded me of the draugr lords in Skyrim and I immediately fell in love! This is one of my pet decks and I’ve decided to write the primer to my favorite non-faerie deck.

It saddens me I had to cut almost all the Kaldheim zombies out for efficiency but I left a few in for flavor, and because they’ve also come in clutch several times. For example, I’ve stolen a Vorinclex with Draugr Necromancer, and I’ve eliminated an Avacyn Angel of Hope with my Priest of the Haunted Edge. After those games they will never leave this deck.

So onto the Primer!!

So Why Narfi?

I know what you’re gunna say, “Why Narfi and why not Gisa and Geralf, or the Scarab God, or even the new Wilhelt the Rot Cleaver?” Well, first off, Narfi is bae so there’s that; and second, because I hate paying commander tax; and third, I love lords in any tribe and having one in the command zone works for me!! I only have to pay three snow mana to cast Narfi from the graveyard. That is two less than his original casting cost. He doesn’t go to hand, but to the battlefield which is awesome! “But he comes in tapped when you cast him from the graveyard!” Yes, but it’s his lord effect we want and there’s plenty in this deck!!

NOTE!!! There is a combo that goes with Narfi including Ashnod's Altar, Thermal Flux, Tormod, the Desecrator, and Diregraf Captain. The combo works like this…Have Narfi on the battlefield along with each permanent listed on the battlefield with Thermal Flux in hand. Cast Thermal Flux upon Ashnod’s Altar which will then have it make colorless snow mana instead of just colorless mana when sacrificing a creature. Then, Sacrifice Narfi and one other zombie with him to the altar. This will generate four snow mana which we can then cast Narfi from the graveyard. When Narfi leaves the grave, Tormod will then create a tapped zombie token. (NOTE!!! You can also use Headless Rider or Desecrated Tomb for the same effect as Tormod). Keep repeating this process of sacrificing Narfi and a zombie token to the altar. This will trigger Diregraf Captain (or even Vengeful Dead etc.) to gain a life and have target opponent lose one life. Keep doing this to kill each opponent and BAM you win!! Just make sure you sac Midnight Reaper before you start this combo or you’ll die too haha.

Draugr Power!

The true might of this deck is in the lords and surprisingly enough, each lord has an added effect. These zombie lords add +1/+1 to each “other” zombie. These lords include the great Narfi, Betrayer King himself along with Cemetery Reaper, Death Baron, Diregraf Captain, Lord of the Accursed, Lord of the Undead (my favorite due to being painted by my favorite artist, Brom), Tomb Tyrant, and Undead Warchief (did I forget anyone???). These lords allow my zombies to swing out tall! OH! I shall not forget my lord enchantments Liliana's Mastery, and Haunted One. Like I said before, each lord, even the enchantments, do an added effect which are all important in this deck. After all, Diregraf Captain is technically a combo piece in this deck!

It’s the Little Things!

I always fill my deck with pet cards. When I opened a copy of Champion of the Perished I knew I had to add him. He fits in so well! When he gets big (and he does get big!) I can sacrifice him with Disciple of Bolas and draw cards equal to his power. I also do that with Narfi as well. When I need to refill my hand, I cast Disciple of Bolas, sacrifice Narfi, draw four (or more if there are more lords on the field), and recast him for three snow mana and BAM board state the same as it was but it was like I tapped Narfi and drew four cards!

The other zombies like Tomebound Lich, and Undead Augur may seem slow, but there are reasons for them in this deck. In my meta, we use a lot of creatures so Tomebound Lich serves several purposes, especially when boosted by lords. One, he draws cards. Two, he provides needed protection and gains me life. Three, he also can stay alive most of the time due to all the buffs. The same for the other.

Zombie Master and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth are a neat little combo. Urborg turns all my lands into swamps, and also makes my opponents’ lands swamps, and Zombie Master makes all my huge zombies unblockable with swamp walk!!

Ghoulcaller Gisa may seem/look slow in this deck, but again with Narfi, I can make four zombie tokens each turn and that’s if he’s not buffed!

These are just a few things I've added to make the deck fun.

The Snow Land Base

Snow-Covered Swamp and Snow-Covered Island lands are needed in this deck for Narfi's ability, that's it. I also wanted to make sure the deck had as much “snow draugr” feel to it as possible to resemble the snowy tombs in Skyrim with the sleeping Draugr inside!

I added Watery Grave and Polluted Delta to make sure I got both my colors. I really only need two lands to tap for blue. The rest of the deck runs mostly on black snow mana. Polluted Delta can fetch Watery Grave, Sunken Hollow, or Ice Tunnel.

Card Draw

I added as much card draw as I could fit in without taking the tribal feel out of the deck. Cards like Distant Melody, Graveborn Muse, and Disciple of Bolas are great card draw engines.

Normally, Disciple of Bolas is slow, but in this deck the pay off is greater than her speed. I've drawn twelve (or more) cards with her by sacrificing my Champion of the Perished which had eleven +1/+1 counters on it. At worst I can cast her with Narfi out, draw four cards, and recast him.

Graveborn Muse is an interesting card. I've seen people die to this card, especially in Scarab God and Gisa and Geralf decks. Their board presence becomes so large that they die to their own zombies!! This deck, because it's aim it to go tall, draws me about three to five cards each turn and that suits me just fine! I also can gain a lot of life back with Disciple of Bolas and our loving friend Gray Merchant of Asphodel or more commonly called "Gary".

I plan to add a Necropotence to this deck at some point but NOT today.

Target Removal

I tried to add enough target removal in this deck to remove any large threat like Elish Norn (even with lords out), Dauthi Voidwalker, or Leyline of the Void effects.

Go for the Throat is my favorite two cmc removal spell. Tragic Slip and Priest of the Haunted Edge take care of those pesky indestructible creatures. Feed the Swarm gets rid of Enchantments. Fleshbag Marauder hits every player along with Grave Pact.

Let's not forget our Board Wipes with Cyclonic Rift which is usually a finisher, Blood on the Snow for that snowy flavor, and a semi board wipe and graveyard recursion spell Zombie Apocalypse.

Graveyard Recursion

What's more on flavor for a zombie tribal deck then the graveyard itself??

Besides the zombie lords, Recursion is the most important part of this deck. I've played around with the right amount of recursion to have in the deck for several months until I found the sweat spot. The most important ones include Agadeem's Awakening  , Lord of the Undead, Tortured Existence, Victimize and my favorite Haunted Crossroads.

There's nothing like an opponent board wiping or targeting a key zombie only to bring it right back!

Tricks up my Sleeve

There's no point in playing mtg, in my opinion, without having a few fun tricks. Ask anyone at my lgs and they all will say I'm the "Faerie Player" the "Oona Player" or the "One who likes his bag of tricks".

If you look closely at the list you will see a card called Rise of the Dread Marn. This card is an absolute blast. Pay the two mana for it's foretell cost and just let it sit. When someone board wipes, cast it at instant speed for one black mana, and you get a zombie token for each creature destroyed this way...ON THE ENTIRE BATTLEFIELD!! That's right! For every creature that dies, you get to make a 2/2 zombie creature token. Then get ready for the fun part. Recast Narfi to the field, then cast a recursion spell you've had in your hand, and before you know it, you've got an entire army of zombies swinging in for the kill as 5/5s or more!

One tricksy card I carried in this deck for a bit was a fun little card by the name of Thrilling Encore. It's niche as heck, but when it does work out in your favor you take all the creatures that died that turn. Cast a card like Damnation and then cast Thrilling Encore and take every creature that died. Like I said, it works only in niche circumstances but when it does work its the best feeling ever. I haven't scrapped it completely, but put it safely in the sideboard for safekeeping.

Zombie Master is a fun little undead which gives all (not other but each) zombies you control swamp walk and regenerate for one black mana. Like WHAT?? Throw out an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and your huge zombies are swinging free and there's nothing your opponents can do to block!

Tutors or Lack Thereof

As far as tutors go, I only wanted a few Vile Entomber, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Demonic Tutor and Buried Alive. With the later I usually scrounge up Filth, Wonder, and Gravecrawler and throw them into the grave where they stay for the rest of the game doing tons of work!! Wonder makes every creature I control have flying. Filth gives all my zombies swamp walk. Gravecrawler…is…well…Gravecrawler. Vile Entomber finds a zombie I need so I can recur it later. Sidisi and Demonic Tutor finds me whatever I want. This deck is casual and meant to be played with other solid mid power decks.

Why so few Combos?

Combos are simply not the way I usually win with this deck. Ninety percent of the time I win through combat damage. It’s not hard to have five to seven zombies on the field each turn. If a board wipe happens, I bring them all back with the many recursion spells I packed in the deck.

The main combo I tutor for is Phyrexian Arena, Gravecrawler, and Diregraf Captain.

I should add in Acererak the Archlich and the Narfi combo but at this time the deck is fun as it is. I will update the combos at some point but for now I'm content. Each piece of these combos can operate without the other. Diregraf Captain is a lord and pumps my other zombies. Rooftop Storm simply empties my hand. Relentless Dead is a great grave recursion zombie, and Phyrexian Altar gives me mana when I need it by sacrificing zombie tokens to cast more zombies. If I made this a combo deck I would have to add way more protection and counterspells which would take away from the tribal feel to it.

Well, that's it! That's my pride and joy! I love playing this deck and I've won with it many times and never felt bad about it. I hope you enjoyed reading about my deck. Tell me what you think! Critiques are always welcome too!

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Copy Clone, Foretell, On an Adventure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed, Zombie Berserker 2/2 B
Folders	Possible Builds, Funsies