The Zombie Hord

Unknown Casual Theme/Gimmick Zombie

ericjills

Common (36)

• 4x Aven Eternal
• 4x Butcher Ghoul
• 4x Grim Initiate
• 4x In Oketra's Name
• 4x Infectious Horror
• 4x Invading Manticore
• 4x Rancid Rats
• 4x Relentless Advance
• 4x Those Who Serve

Rare/Mythic (29)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Captive Audience
• 1x Custodi Lich
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Dread Slaver
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead *f-pre*
• 1x Fallen Shinobi
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x God-Eternal Oketra
• 1x God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
• 1x Kraum, Ludevic's Opus *f-etch*
• 1x Lightning Reaver
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Liliana's Reaver
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Necroduality
• 1x Nekusar, the Mindrazer *f-etch*
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Prized Amalgam
• 1x Summon the Pack
• 1x Thraximundar
• 1x Undead Alchemist
• 1x Vulturous Zombie
• 1x Widespread Brutality
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

Survivor (7)

• 1x Diregraf Escort
• 1x Doomed Dissenter
• 1x Elite Inquisitor
• 1x Holy Justiciar
• 1x Loyal Cathar  ^Flip
• 1x Slayer of the Wicked
• 1x Undead Slayer

Uncommon (28)

• 2x Curse of Shallow Graves
• 2x Diregraf Captain
• 2x Dreadhorde Twins
• 2x Eternal Skylord
• 2x Fleshbag Marauder
• 2x Gisa's Bidding
• 2x Gleaming Overseer
• 2x Grizzly Ghoul
• 2x Invade the City
• 2x Liliana's Elite
• 2x Rise from the Tides
• 2x Syphon Flesh
• 2x Vizier of the Scorpion
• 2x Wayward Servant

---

Its Spooky season! Here is way to spice up your commander night. It’s all about survival against The Zombie Horde!

Braaains!

The Zombie Horde is an addition to any commander game where the players try to outlast the Horde in order to survive. Here are the basics: You start with the Horde deck, shuffled, in the center of the table. The players then have 3 rounds (each player gets 3 full turns) to prepare before the Horde arrives. The Horde deck takes its first turn before the first player AND an additional turn between each player. Each round the Horde will cast cards off the top of the Horde deck and attack the player with the lowest life total (if players are tied, the Horde attacks randomly). The number of cards cast off the Horde deck is tracked by the number of rounds the Horde has been active: one card between each player’s turn for the first round, two cards between each player for the next two rounds, three cards between each player for three rounds, etc. until the Horde deck is depleted. Players may attack the horde deck to remove cards from the Horde. For each point of damage dealt to the Horde, mill that many cards off the top of the Horde’s library. When the Horde deck is empty and all Horde zombies have been destroyed, the Horde is defeated; remove the Horde deck from the game. But the game is not over. Players may have been allies while the zombies attacked, but the game continues as normal till there is a conclusion to the Commander game as normal.**

Within the Horde deck you will find Survivors. Survivors are humans that enter the battlefield under the control of the player who saved them (milled it over by dealing damage to the Horde), or under the control of the player who the horde is attacking, or the player who would have the Survivor enter their battlefield may instead give it to another player. If Survivors are found on the Horde’s turn, Survivors enter the battlefield but do not count towards the Hordes spell count for that round. Activated abilities of survivors can be activated as if they were mana of any color. Be warned, these survivors may die and come back as a zombie only to grow the Horde stronger still!

Braaains?

This is a made up format and therfore has no real rules to follow. So I have added a guileline for how the Horde deck should interact.

Special rules for the Horde deck:

• The Horde is considered another player/opponent when considering targets of spells or abilities.

• If the Horde would be forced to draw a card, the Horde instead casts the top card of the Horde deck as if the spell had flash.

• All players are considered opponents to each other and the Horde.

• If a player loses the game before the Horde is defeated. That player is removed from the game, but the Horde still takes its turns as if that player were still there.

• A spell or ability cannot force the Horde to lose the game; The Horde also cannot win the game.

• If a player achieves an alternative win condition, that player wins the game as normal with or without the Horde.

• If the Horde is forced to make a choice, it does so at random.

• If a player has can take infinite turns, the Zombie horde still takes its turn between each of that players’ infinite turns at the intensity that the horde is currently at.

• If a counter spell or activated ability would force the horde to pay an additional cost (Like Mana Tithe or Disruptive Pitmage)), the counter spells are “hard” counter spells against the horde. If there is a static effect forcing the horde to pay additional costs (like Smothering Tithe or Propaganda), it has infinite mana to pay for additional costs.

• The Horde will never choose to attack a Planeswalker.

• The Horde’s hand size is how many cards it cast on its previous turn. If forcing the horde to discard from hand, it puts the card from its library into its graveyard. If a spell of effect looks at the Horde’s hand it looks at how many cards it cast on its previous turn.

• The Horde will never choose to block.

• If the Horde would gain life, put that many cards from its graveyard (at random) to the bottom of its library.

• If a spell or ability would return a card back to Horde’s hand, to goes to the top of the Horde’s library.

• If a spell or ability is preventing the Horde from casting a spell (like with Alhammarret, High Arbiter) the Horde skips over that card, does not include it towards its card count for that round, and casts the next spell instead.

• If the Horde casts a spell that is not from the top of the Horde deck, that spell does not count toward the Horde’s card count that turn.

• Every card in the Horde deck must have something to do with Zombies. No skeletons, spirits, or vampires here!

There will be other special cases that cause weird rule interactions with the Horde deck. Use your best judgement and get a vote from the group of what they think is the right rules decision.

Braaains...

This is my 3rd iteration of the zombie Horde. As commander continues to change so does the Horde deck and the rules of how to play. This is just my version of the deck, you could build it however you like. With quite a bit of experience in testing and playing against the Horde I have some deckbuilding tips:

• Don’t make the Horde too difficult. You could easily make it impossible to win against the Horde. That’s not the point.

• The point of the Horde is to create interesting political and combat decisions and make games end faster. (It’s also a good way to playtest your commander deck.)

• Don’t make the deck too complicated. If you add too many cards that force the horde deck to make decisions, remember triggers, or count, the deck gets to be a hassle to keep track of. The deck could literally be 100 copies of Walking Corpse and it would still get the job done.

• Its okay to have multiple copies of lower powered cards. My deckbuilding strategy was 4X for commons, 2X for uncommons, 1X for rares and mythics, and a handful (get it, cause there are 7 of them?) of survivors. It makes the deck easier to build, powers it down, and decreases complexity.

Braaains *

Depending on the power level, and size, of your playgroup, you can change how many rounds of “prep” that you give to yourself. In a 1 person game (a good way to playtest a commander deck), the player is given 5 rounds of prep but the Horde increases in intensity each round.

** The Zombie Horde can be a 100% cooperative experience too. You do not need to continue the game to determine the winner. Eliminated players are still considered losers. Mechanically all players are still considered to be opponents to each other and the Horde. In a cooperative game, alternative win conditions do not apply; its defeat the Horde or die trying.

***ENDLESS MODE. If you just want to see how far your friends can go before dying, try Endless Mode. Once you mill all the cards from the Horde deck, shuffle the graveyard and any Horde cards in exile back into the horde deck, give yourself 3 more rounds of prep, then continue the horde at the same intensity that it left off from (any zombies still on the battle field remain and go into the new Horde’s graveyard). Endless mode ends when all players are defeated or when only player remains and the Horde has no zombies on the battlefield. When you restart the Horde deck, any eliminated players no longer give the Horde an additional turn.

Leave a comment if you have played a variation of this deck and/or your thoughts on the whole idea. I usually update the deck once a year around October adding in any new zombies and a total overhaul whenever a zombie focused set is released.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Unknown legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 42 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.71
Tokens	Copy Clone, The Monarch, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B, Zombie Warrior 4/4 B