IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THIS IS NOT AN EDH DECK, IT IS ONLY MEANT TO BE PLAYED AGAINST EDH DECKS
This deck was inspired by the popular Horde format (OG rules found here: http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Horde_Magic, apologies but TO's link function does not appear to work for hyperlinks) but I have developed the following rule-set with friends:
The Horde has a deck of 200 cards exactly, not including its Generals, that is controlled by no player.
The Horde has infinite mana and an infinite hand size at all times.
The players should play with at least 4 people, no more than 6.
The Horde shouldn't have to target anything but if it does it typically chooses the target at random unless specified. Any other choices the Horde is forced to make are made at random.
The players take 4 turns each in a bubble before the Horde becomes a part of the game, once the Horde enters the game it takes a turn between each player's turns (i.e. Player A takes a turn, then the Horde takes a turn, then Player B takes a turn, then the Horde takes a turn, etc.). The Horde starts taking turns after 4 full rounds or after a player reaches 4 lands in play, whichever occurs first.
Once the Horde starts taking turns its turns are constructed thus: Beginning Phase(Untap, Upkeep, Cast), Combat(Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, Declare Blockers, Combat Damage, End of Combat), End Step
During the Cast step of the Horde's turn it casts progressively more cards from the top of its library. For the first 2 rounds of the Horde's participation (called the First Wave) it reveals 1 card from the top and then casts it each turn. For the Second Wave it reveals 2 cards from the top and then casts them. For the Third Wave it reveals 3 cards from the top and then casts them. For the Fourth Wave it reveals 4 cards from the top and then casts them, etc., etc. The Casting of cards has a specific order: first all creature spells (including tokens) are cast, then all non-creature permanent spells, then all non-permanent spells. All spells are cast in this order and in order of increasing mana cost for cases where multiple spells of the same type are revealed (e.g. Twilight's Call and Drown in Sorrow are revealed simultaneously, Drown is cast first, then Twilight).
On the first Horde turn of each Wave its Cast is replaced by casting the Wave General. The Wave Generals are Legendary Creatures that act as normal creatures once they enter the battlefield. Despite being called Generals, they do not deal General(Commander) Damage, and they do not go back to a General(Command) Zone if they would be put into another zone than the battlefield.
The Horde always attacks the player with the least life. If two or more players are tied for the least life then one of them is chosen at random and all Horde creatures able to attack, attack that player. The exception to this rule is Raving Dead, which will attack a player at random as the card says. Also, the Horde does not attack planeswalkers typically. The caveat to this is that all flying creatures the Horde controls attack a planeswalker at random instead of the player with the lowest life.
The Horde's Graveyard has a specific order. For all cards that go there simultaneously from being milled or dying at the same time, first non-token creatures are put in, then token creatures, then non-creature permanents. Tokens are not exiled upon entering the graveyard and stay there until another effect (like Burning the Bodies, see section 14) removes them.
Horde zombie tokens with x/x power and toughness have power and toughness equal to the number of zombies the Horde controls.
Players are still technically opponents of each other for the purpose of all cards that reference opponents and may attack each other (especially in order to make themselves not the target of the Horde).
Players may block for each other when the Horde attacks (even though you aren't allies, as soon as the weakest player dies, the next weakest is going to get attacked so players have a vested interest in preserving each other to some degree).
Players attacking the Horde: When a player Enters the Combat Damage step he or she declares if they are going to "Spite the Dead" or "Burn the Bodies". To Spite the Dead the player attacks the Horde and replaces damage with milling that many cards from the top of the deck. To Burn the Bodies the player attacks the Horde and replaces damage with exiling that many cards (tokens count as cards) from the top of the Horde Graveyard. If a player has multiple combats in one turn then they may choose a different combat effect from the previous choice. The Horde never blocks. Also, note that this is a replacement effect and therefor no damage is dealt to the horde. Effects that trigger off of combat damage will not happen (e.g. Sword of Fire and Ice).
If the horde takes non-combat damage it mills that many cards; if the horde gains or loses life, nothing happens.
The Horde does not activate abilities or pay Flashback or Unearth costs. It does not Regenerate its creatures. If a card says the Horde "may" make a choice or take an action then it always does.
If cards are returned to the Horde's hand they are shuffled back into the Horde's deck.
If the horde ever has to choose a creature type for any reason it chooses zombies.
The players remaining alive once the Horde is not able to cast any cards and has no remaining creatures win the game.
This deck has a Stranger Things and general horror theme of non-zombie creatures sprinkled in and more importantly 3 Demogorgons in the form of Phantasmagorian, Phyrexian Obliterator, and Phyrexian Negator. These are flavor characters and besides being good creatures they have one special ability: whenever they would die they are shuffeled back into the Horde deck until there are no cards left in the Horde deck. Exiling them removes them from the game permanently. I want to add more Demogorgons eventually in the form of Mindslicer and other monoblack horrors.
More Stranger Things flavor comes in the form of Underworld Dreams, which represents the Upside Down from the show.
Note: If an effect that says a player wins the game is replaced by a triggered ability called So Close, which says that if a triggered ability would make a player win the game, instead they lose the game. Then the game will continue on as normal.
*Note on scaling for number of players: If one or more players are playing group hug, reduce the number of setup turns from 4 to 3.
Cards with special functionality in the Horde:
Fury of the Horde essentially works as it is meant to and gives the Horde an extra combat one turn.
As mentioned before, Raving Dead attacks a player at random as the card says.
Token Note: TappedOut doesn't have tokens as legal cards for a deck so they are listed here.
1x Bat
2x Skeleton
5x Zombie X/X
2x Zombie X/X
27x Zombie 2/2
1x Zombie Horror X/X
1x Zombie Giant 5/5
Horde Record (As of June 16, 2017)
Wins: 5
Losses: 7
Please feel free to offer suggestions and improvements to the format or decklist. In a future update I'm thinking about making all activated abilities and Unearth/Flashback costs mandatory payables for the Horde deck.
Added several cards and removed old cards and 6 token zombies
There were a few too many boardwipes last time we played (partly because one player had a Bane of Progress that the Horde kept inadvertantly reanimating. So I've removed Decree of Pain and a few of the smaller -1/-1 cards for some of the cards I really wanted in the deck.
Group hug is banned from being played against the Horde. It enables the players to get too far a jump ahead of the Horde. Played successive games with first turn Veteran Explorers rammed into another 1/1 to ramp everyone so far ahead that the Horde basically lost before the game started.
Added new condition that the Horde starts taking turns after 4 full rounds or after a player reaches 4 lands in play, whichever occurs first.
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