Introduction
Hey everyone, after reading about Horde magic over the past year, I finally decided to craft up my own zombie horde deck. The deck is now in it's 2nd version with the Horde now divided into three separate decks each representing a different Necromancer and the paths they like to take to victory. This the first initial list of the decks and I found them effective but a little underwhelming. We won most of the games against them with some good comboing. Thats what tune ups are for. Anyways, here is the current iteration of The Village Under Siege.
The Flavor of the Horde:
As you and your planeswalker buddies relax for a little R&R at a homey little village on the plane of Innistrad, three local necromancers decided they wanted to raise some dead and take out the town. Are y'all bad enough dudes to save the day?
The Rules
Setup:
The Survivors always start at 60 life regardless of the amount of players going against the horde.
Each necromancer has their own separate deck (I have mine all in different sleeves). Randomly chose a Necromancer's library, and that is who the players will play against. That Necromancer will be known as the active Necromancer.
Gameplay Refresher:
The Survivors always go first, and take the first three turns before the Horde gets a turn. The Survivors do not get to draw on their first turn.
a). If less than 3 Survivors increase the starting turns to four. If more than 3, reduce the starting turns by 1 for each additional player past 3. (So four players is 2 turns, five is 1 turn.)
At the beginning of the Horde's turn, it reveals cards from the top of its library until a non-token card is revealed. First, all the tokens are cast, and then the non-token card is cast.
All creatures have haste, and must attack each turn if able. The Horde has infinite mana, and will pay all costs for cards such as Propaganda or Rhystic Study.
When the Horde loses life, it mills that many cards from its library into its graveyard.
If a card is returned to the Horde's hand, it is cast during their next main phase.
Winning the Game(all conditions must be met):
All Necromancers must have no cards in their library.
All Necromancers must have no cards in hand.
All Necromancers must have no creatures in play.
Deck-Specific Rules
The Necromancer's horde is intelligent. You make all choices for the Necromancers. You are encourage, but not forced, to make the choice in the Horde's favor.
The horde's turn proceeds in this manner:
a) Before the Horde untaps, if the active Necromancer's library is empty, randomly switch to another Necromancer's deck that hasn't been used yet. That Necromancer becomes the active Necromancer.
b) Upkeep - no special actions
c) First main phase -
1. Reveal cards until a non-token card is revealed.
2. All tokens enter the battlefield. This does not use the stack and cannot be responded to.
3. All spell(s) are cast in the order they were revealed.
4. The cards Sightless Ghoul, Butcher Ghoul, Mass of Ghouls, Gravecrawler, Black Cat, and Withengar Unbound are considered tokens.
c) Combat phase - All creatures which are legally able to attack must attack (note that all creatures have haste). Each creature randomly attacks the Survivors or planeswalkers, if any are in play. Exception being special creature that have tap abilities or creature bosses.
d) Second main phase - Any cards drawn or returned to hand during the first main phase are now cast. Only the active Necromancer may cast spells or put tokens onto the battlefield from their hand.
If the active Necromancer would gain life, it puts one card per life gained randomly from its graveyard on the bottom of its' library.
When a card with flashback is put into the graveyard, it is flashbacked during the horde's next first main phase.
When a card with unearth is put into the graveyard, it is unearthed during the horde's next first main phase.
Choosing who to attack - Whenever there is one or more planeswalker in
play, zombie tokens will divert their attacks from the survivors and attack the planeswalker(s). If there is more than one, they will equally divide among the planeswalkers, with the odd number going for the one with the most loyalty counters. (Note: the number of zombies that will attack a planeswalker will never exceed the number of loyalty counters on that planeswalker, so any extra zombies will revert back to attacking the survivors.
Token are found in the Horde deck are considered cards and maybe be bounced to the hand or stay in the graveyard. If placed in the hand, they are put onto the battlefield during the horde's next main phase.
Cards that create tokens create "True Tokens". These tokens do not stay in the graveyard and are removed from the game like normal tokens. I have mine in different sleeves next to the Horde's library.
Whenever a spell or an ability the Horde controls would target a single player or a single permanent a player controls, copy that spell or ability for player choosing a different target corresponding to that player. So a Thought Scour would copy for each player, so each player would mill 2 and the horde would draw 3 cards.
Special Card rules
Pontiff of Blight doesn't attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. It does not grant each other creature extort and uses it's extort on every card cast by the horde. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed doesnt attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. Cemetery Reaper doesn't attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. During the Horde's post combat main phase it will use it's ability targeting the creature with the highest converted mana cost in each player's graveyard and a zombie token in the Horde's graveyard. Cover of Darkness will always select zombies for the type. Cunning Lethemancer doesn't attack unless forced to by a player's effect. Chill of Foreboding doesnt affect any Necromancer's library.
This Infinite Consortium has gathered Intel about a powerful lich on Innistrad gearing up to overtake a small village that is housing (insert valuable thing here). I know the flavor isnt all together yet but still crafting it, maybe with some awesome input from y'all the community. The rules will be tweaked over time to better suit this but as I said this is a work in progress. Each of the Horde Decks im crafting I want to ooze with flavor and story.
The Rules
Setup:
The Survivors always start at 60 life regardless of the amount of players going against the horde.
The deck is separated into three stacks with the contents of each start random. At the start of the game, shuffle the horde and put the deck into three stacks of 33, 32, and 32. Then the deck is set up like this
These three cards are placed in top-loaders and are known as Bosses.
Gameplay Refresher:
The Survivors always go first, and take the first three turns before the Horde gets a turn. The Survivors do not get to draw on their first turn.
a). If less than 3 Survivors increase the starting turns to four. If more than 3, reduce the starting turns by 1 for each additional player past 3. (So four players is 2 turns, five is 1 turn.)
At the beginning of the Horde's turn, it reveals cards from the top of its library until a non-token card is revealed. First, all the tokens are cast, and then the non-token card is cast.
All creatures have haste, and must attack each turn if able. The Horde has infinite mana, and will pay all costs for cards such as Propaganda or Rhystic Study.
When the Horde loses life, it mills that many cards from its library into its graveyard.
Winning the Game(all conditions must be met):
The Horde must have no cards in its library.
The Horde must have no cards in hand.
The Horde must have no creatures in play.
Deck-Specific Rules
If a card is returned to the Horde's hand, it is cast during their next main phase.
The Horde is supposed to be mindless, so whenever possible, make choices randomly.
The horde's turn proceeds in this manner:
a) Upkeep - no special actions
b) First main phase -
1. Reveal cards until a non-token card is revealed.
2. All tokens enter the battlefield. This does not use the stack and cannot be responded to.
3. All spell(s) are cast in the order they were revealed.
4. The cards Sightless Ghoul and Butcher Ghoul are considered tokens.
c) Combat phase - All creatures which are legally able to attack must attack (note that all creatures have haste). Each creature randomly attacks the Survivors or planeswalkers, if any are in play. Exception being special creature that have tap abilities or creature bosses.
d) Second main phase - Any cards drawn or returned to hand during the first main phase are now cast.
If the Horde would gain life, it puts one card per life gained randomly from its graveyard on the bottom of its current stack.
When a card with flashback is put into the graveyard, it is flashbacked during the horde's next first main phase.
When a card with unearth is put into the graveyard, it is unearthed during the horde's next first main phase.
Choosing who to attack - Whenever there is one or more planeswalker in
play, zombie tokens will divert their attacks from the survivors and attack the planeswalker(s). If there is more than one, they will equally divide among the planeswalkers, with the odd number going for the one with the most loyalty counters. (Note: the number of zombies that will attack a planeswalker will never exceed the number of loyalty counters on that planeswalker, so any extra zombies will revert back to attacking the survivors.
Token are found in the Horde deck are considered cards and maybe be bounced to the hand or stay in the graveyard. If placed in the hand, they are put onto the battlefield during the horde's next main phase.
Cards that create tokens create "True Tokens". These tokens do not stay in the graveyard and are removed from the game like normal tokens. I have mine in different sleeves next to the Horde's library.
When counting cards or interacting with the horde's library, only the current stack on top is used. That prevents cards like Traumatize taking the game so easily.
Bosses cannot be milled past. Before a boss creature is cast during the Horde's turn place three "True Token" zombies on the battlefield. This allows the bosses to enter the battlefield with some minions.
Special Card rules
Pontiff of Blight doesn't attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. It does not grant each other creature extort and uses it's extort on every card cast by the horde. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed doesnt attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. Cemetery Reaper doesn't attack each turn unless forced to by a player's effect. During the Horde's post combat main phase it will use it's ability targeting the creature with the highest converted mana cost in each player's graveyard and a zombie token in the Horde's graveyard. Liliana's Reavers' combat damage will cause each player to discard a card and put a zombie token into play for each player onto the battlefield. Geralf's Messenger's ETB ability will target each player. Cover of Darkness will always select zombies for the type.
I've elected for this Horde, that it's target effects will hit each player to help with scaling the power of the Horde.
I like to throw a thank you to cryogen for starting to organize the various horde decks out there and I also kinda borrowed his layout for his Undying Horde so it looks somewhat professional.
Any feedback for this Horde would be appreciated and I'm glad I finally posted my list on here.
CHANGE LOG
9/29 Horde deck has changed into the 3 Necromancer Version.
That is actually a pretty sensible rule! Maybe try Guiltfeeder or Geralf's Mindcrusher with that? But I think most of your other rules are pretty standard, so you might consider removing that part in favour of readability.
One other thing: The only thing I have heard other people say about Bad Moon is that it underperforms. I never even ran it because it seemed to weak. How is it doing for you? If it falls under the category that the Survivors are glad to see it because it isn't so bad, I would say lose it for something stronger.
I actually had pulled out my Mindcrusher today to add to the Horde.That guiltfeeder look's good, it funny cause Im planning on doing an overhaul of the deck to add in horrors, demons, and gargoyles to the original zombie theme. Then add in Swamps that will trigger Schemes from a personalized deck, so this Lich will mean some business.
Possibly even a shop deck so they can obtain random cards to help similar to bonus decks others are using.
Now as for Bad Moon, yeah, it isnt the scariest card to hit the field but it does give the zombies a nice boost. Ill have to test it out some more.
I don't understand the hate against Bad Moon. People are perfectly happy to run the other lords, and if you play by the rule of haste, they'll never activate their abilities, so you're essentially playing a Bad Moon that can attack and is easier to remove.
I might steal your rule for liliana's reaver. I really wanted to use that card in my horde, but it didn't have nice wording so I just didn't put it in. It's at a nice power level and it would just be another awesome zombie to defend against.
Thanks guys for the kind words of the scaling targeting rule. Felt bad-ass reading the kudos. I thought it opened up lots of routes that were previously closed and with the games I played tonight, it solidified my thoughts on its effectiveness.
Over the past week, I changed up the Horde into 3 different Necromancer themed decks that is similar to the boss model of the old model. I've added the new rules associated with it and kept the old list and stuff around under a spoiler tag to show the changes and keep the history of the deck.
This makes yet another interesting twist to standard Horde, seems like every player here has its own take. Very nice, because Horde is very meta-dependent (not only in powerlevel, but in flavour-appreciation of your group too).
If I understand correctly, there are no more 'bosses' between each deck? Just three different decks with different styles, but no more fixed cards (like the Pontiff previously) between them?
Not at the moment. I wanna run a few games without the bosses. I'm trying to think up a good start/end boss for each. For Milly, possibly a traumatize? For Tyson a Mikaeus? Boudreaux, something? Suggestions are always welcome by all. The obvious strategies are milling, swarming, and mass burn/discard.
Alrighty Espuma, I decided to add back in bosses cause they were fun in the first place and I put them in the start of the deck. So with the first flip of the horde being this awesome spell started the games on a hard foot. For Milly, her boss was Traumatize. Boudreaux had Tyrannize, and Tyson had Mikaeus.
Milly started off against 5 players twice, both games resulting in a win for the players with about 15 cards in their libraries and anywhere up to 500 life. Once they stabilized on her, we could steam roll through the other two. I left the graveyards of fallen necromancers open so they could get back even more zombies in case of a resurrection spell.
As Boudreaux, the horde won on turn 4? 5? That Tyrannize cause me and another to sac our hands for the life and the other kept. They all crapped out and we were promptly smashed to bits with exact lethal.
I'll post the updated list tonight. But yes bosses are back and they players loved the torment of turn 1 traumatize.
Still haven't posted my updated list. I added some Zombie Snakes to Tyson's deck with the added ability of "When this dies flip a coin, heads put 2 2/2 zombies tokens out or tails all creatures the horde doesn't control get -2/-2 until end of turn. " I also added 3 tokens to come out when Mikeus does.
With 3 games we won each time, with my Johan deck providing global ramp, the Sand Warrior dude gaining absurd life, and a karn deck to provide the win con. Possibly it's the combination of decks but I feel like my horde isn't working out. Need to test other against decks, also never saw a snake cause they were all milled.
Oh yeah, we also tried out Cryogens all decks out at once and it was pretty brutal hitting 3 life before we stabilized with a elder scale wurm. Probably gonna finally take it out this time.
Also I was thinking of making custom cards for the deck. Making themed versions of the targeted spells so the wording is on every card so it's clearer for newer players playing the hordes. Ok that's all for this week.
I really really like this concept, thank you for sharing. I am going to build Horde decks to play. Really like the 3 different deck concept with a different flare for each one.
Hey everyone, after reading about Horde magic over the past year, I finally decided to craft up my own zombie horde deck. The deck is now in it's 2nd version with the Horde now divided into three separate decks each representing a different Necromancer and the paths they like to take to victory. This the first initial list of the decks and I found them effective but a little underwhelming. We won most of the games against them with some good comboing. Thats what tune ups are for. Anyways, here is the current iteration of The Village Under Siege.
The Flavor of the Horde:
As you and your planeswalker buddies relax for a little R&R at a homey little village on the plane of Innistrad, three local necromancers decided they wanted to raise some dead and take out the town. Are y'all bad enough dudes to save the day?
The Rules
Setup:
Winning the Game (all conditions must be met):
Deck-Specific Rules
b) Upkeep - no special actions
c) First main phase -
c) Combat phase - All creatures which are legally able to attack must attack (note that all creatures have haste). Each creature randomly attacks the Survivors or planeswalkers, if any are in play. Exception being special creature that have tap abilities or creature bosses.
d) Second main phase - Any cards drawn or returned to hand during the first main phase are now cast. Only the active Necromancer may cast spells or put tokens onto the battlefield from their hand.
The List:
20 Zombie Tokens
3 Zombie Giants
8 Butcher Ghoul
2 Sightless Ghoul
2 Mass of Ghouls
1 Withengar Unbound
Zombies and Demons
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Vulturous Zombie
1 Maalfeld Twins
1 Undead Warchief
1 Grave Titan
2 Ghoulraiser
1 Ghoultree
1 Unbreathing Horde
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Dread Slaver
1 Polluted Dead
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Reiver Demon
1 Living Death
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Army of the Damned
1 Grave Betrayal
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Barter in Blood
1 Bad Moon
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
1 Moan of the Unhallowed
1 Doom Blade
1 Polluted Bonds
21 Zombie Tokens
6 Skeleton Tokens
9 Horror Tokens (1/1 UB with flying)
Skaabs and Horrors
3 Stitched Drake
3 Skaab Goliath
2 Relentless Skaabs
2 Rotcrown Ghoul
2 Returned Centaur
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Geralf's Mindcrusher
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Wright of Precinct Six
1 Consuming Aberration
2 Dream Twist
1 Chill of Foreboding
2 Thought Scour
1 Moan of the Unhallowed
1 Barter in Blood
1 Syphon Mind
1 Griptide
1 Plague Wind
1 Murder
21 Zombie Tokens
8 Black Cat
4 Sightless Ghoul
3 Gravecrawler
Desecrating Bodies
3 Grixis Slavedriver
1 Ghoulraiser
2 Geralf's Messenger
1 Desecration Demon
1 Cunning Lethemancer
1 Soulless One
1 Carnage Gladiator
1 Liliana's Reaver
1 Grave Pact
1 Plague Wind
1 Bump in the Night
1 Go for the Throat
3 Skull Rend
1 Syphon Flesh
1 Shrieking Affliction
1 Zombie Apocalypse
1 Delirium Skiens
1 Syphon Mind
1 Barter in Blood
ETC.
This Infinite Consortium has gathered Intel about a powerful lich on Innistrad gearing up to overtake a small village that is housing (insert valuable thing here). I know the flavor isnt all together yet but still crafting it, maybe with some awesome input from y'all the community. The rules will be tweaked over time to better suit this but as I said this is a work in progress. Each of the Horde Decks im crafting I want to ooze with flavor and story.
The Rules
Setup:
Gameplay Refresher:
Winning the Game (all conditions must be met):
Deck-Specific Rules
b) First main phase -
c) Combat phase - All creatures which are legally able to attack must attack (note that all creatures have haste). Each creature randomly attacks the Survivors or planeswalkers, if any are in play. Exception being special creature that have tap abilities or creature bosses.
d) Second main phase - Any cards drawn or returned to hand during the first main phase are now cast.
I've elected for this Horde, that it's target effects will hit each player to help with scaling the power of the Horde.
The List:
42 Zombie Tokens
5 Zombie Giants
10 Butcher Ghoul
6 Sightless Ghoul
The Bosses
1 Pontiff of Blight
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Zombie Apocalypse
Other Zombies
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Vulturous Zombie
2 Maalfeld Twins
1 Liliana's Reaver
2 Geralf's Messenger
1 Blood Scrivener
3 Gravecrawler
1 Undead Warchief
1 Grave Titan
3 Ghoulraiser
1 Ghoultree
1 Soulless One
1 Unbreathing Horde
1 Living Death
2 Syphon Mind
2 Syphon Flesh
1 Twilight's Call
1 Army of the Damned
1 Grave Pact
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Plague Wind
1 Delirium Skeins
1 Barter in Blood
1 Bad Moon
1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
1 Grave Betrayal
ETC.
Any feedback for this Horde would be appreciated and I'm glad I finally posted my list on here.
CHANGE LOG
9/29 Horde deck has changed into the 3 Necromancer Version.
I actually had pulled out my Mindcrusher today to add to the Horde.That guiltfeeder look's good, it funny cause Im planning on doing an overhaul of the deck to add in horrors, demons, and gargoyles to the original zombie theme. Then add in Swamps that will trigger Schemes from a personalized deck, so this Lich will mean some business.
Possibly even a shop deck so they can obtain random cards to help similar to bonus decks others are using.
Now as for Bad Moon, yeah, it isnt the scariest card to hit the field but it does give the zombies a nice boost. Ill have to test it out some more.
I don't understand the hate against Bad Moon. People are perfectly happy to run the other lords, and if you play by the rule of haste, they'll never activate their abilities, so you're essentially playing a Bad Moon that can attack and is easier to remove.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
BBB Two Hundred Zombies BBB
Duel Commander
WR Tajic, Wrath of the Manlands RW
BGW Doran Destruction WGB
Commander
GUB Mimeoplasm, Screw Politics BUG
BR Mogis, God of Slaughter RB
RGW Marath, Ramp and Removal WGR
WUBRG Karona, Jank God GRBUW
Over the past week, I changed up the Horde into 3 different Necromancer themed decks that is similar to the boss model of the old model. I've added the new rules associated with it and kept the old list and stuff around under a spoiler tag to show the changes and keep the history of the deck.
Enjoy!
Not at the moment. I wanna run a few games without the bosses. I'm trying to think up a good start/end boss for each. For Milly, possibly a traumatize? For Tyson a Mikaeus? Boudreaux, something? Suggestions are always welcome by all. The obvious strategies are milling, swarming, and mass burn/discard.
Milly started off against 5 players twice, both games resulting in a win for the players with about 15 cards in their libraries and anywhere up to 500 life. Once they stabilized on her, we could steam roll through the other two. I left the graveyards of fallen necromancers open so they could get back even more zombies in case of a resurrection spell.
As Boudreaux, the horde won on turn 4? 5? That Tyrannize cause me and another to sac our hands for the life and the other kept. They all crapped out and we were promptly smashed to bits with exact lethal.
I'll post the updated list tonight. But yes bosses are back and they players loved the torment of turn 1 traumatize.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
Follow me on Twitter! @cryogen_mtg
With 3 games we won each time, with my Johan deck providing global ramp, the Sand Warrior dude gaining absurd life, and a karn deck to provide the win con. Possibly it's the combination of decks but I feel like my horde isn't working out. Need to test other against decks, also never saw a snake cause they were all milled.
Oh yeah, we also tried out Cryogens all decks out at once and it was pretty brutal hitting 3 life before we stabilized with a elder scale wurm. Probably gonna finally take it out this time.
Also I was thinking of making custom cards for the deck. Making themed versions of the targeted spells so the wording is on every card so it's clearer for newer players playing the hordes. Ok that's all for this week.
BURPerfectly Suited to Mindless Carnage, ThraximundarRUB
URBOckham's Mindrazer = Nekusar the MindrazerBRU
UBRMarchsea makes all the Men do Stupid ThingsRBU
GWBThe Best Offense is Defense, Doran 2.0BWG
XRDaretti, Artifact ShenanigansRX
RKrenko the Don of the Goblin MobR
GFreyalise and Elves have pet HydrasG
WArmy of the Heavens, Lead by the Angel of HopeW
BDrana, The Removal BloodchiefB
UAzami, Knowledge is PowerU
WBDaxos is Enchanting Enchantments to Enchant more EnchantsBW
GRI got 99 Permanents but Primal Surge ain't One, Ruric TharRG
GBNel Thot's Sacrificial SwarmBG
WRWifey's Wrath - Gisela Blade of GoldnightRW
WUPillowfort Tron - BrunaUW
XXThe TriadXX
Do you have what it takes to survive?