Much Abrew: MODERN Necroduality Zombies
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. A few weeks ago, we played a Necroduality Zombies deck in Standard for Against the Odds, and while the deck was super sweet, our new Zombie Panharmonicon might have even more potential in Modern, which has way more (and way better) Zombies. So today, we're heading to Modern to take Necroduality our for another spin! Can the enchantment compete in Modern? Let's get to the video and find out on this week's Much Abrew About Nothing!
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Much Abrew: Necro Zombies
Discussion
- Record-wise, we ended up 4-2 with Necro Zombies, losing to Izzet Murktide (maybe the best deck in Modern at the moment) and Enchantress, which is a super annoying matchup since we can't really deal with enchantments, outside of a single Feed the Swarm in our sideboard, making it pretty easy for our opponent to lock us out of the game with Solitary Confinement. On the other hand, we took down Blue Tron, Jund Carth, MH2 Tribal Rakdos, and Faeries.
- In general, the deck felt pretty strong. More importantly, Necroduality itself was quite good. One of the problems I've run into with Panharmonicon recently is a ton of cards incidentally destroy artifacts, but there's not nearly as much enchantment hate running around, which means if we can resolve a Necroduality, it's pretty likely to remain on the battlefield for a few turns. And if we get a few turns with Necroduality out, it's really hard to lose.
- Of course, a big chunk of our deck is good Zombies, which work with Necroduality but are also strong enough that we can potentially win without our namesake enchantment on the battlefield. Sometimes, we just play a Champion of the Perished or two, curve out with random Zombies, and win like a tribal aggro deck. But the most spectacular finishes come thanks to Necroduality. So, what tricks does the enchantment enable in our deck? Let's count down a few of the most important.
- Necroduality is oddly effective with the Gravecrawler / Carrion Feeder loop. Without Necroduality, sacrificing and recasting Gravecrawler a few times is a good way to grow Carrion Feeder and Champion of the Perished. But if we have Necroduality, we can also make a hilariously huge board of Gravecrawlers! Let's say we have five mana, Necroduality, Gravecrawler, and Carrion Feeder. We can sacrifice and recast Gravecrawler five times, which not only makes Carrion Feeder huge but also leaves behind five extra token copies of Gravecrawler since we'll get a bonus copy every time we resolve one from our graveyard.
- Geralf's Messenger is also super strong with Necroduality. We can play a Geralf's Messenger and get two thanks to Necroduality, and when the real copy dies (maybe after being sacrificed to Carrion Feeder), Geralf's Messenger will come back from the graveyard thanks to undying. And since Necroduality doesn't care how our Zombies enter the battlefield, it will trigger again, giving us two more copies and four more damage, for a total of eight.
- Fell Stinger is in our deck to be a Zombie Mulldrifter, drawing us through our deck as we exploit things like Gravecrawler and Shambling Ghast, but it can also work with the Geralf's Messenger burn plan if we target the opponent with its card-draw ability. We actually managed to win a game this way, using Fell Stinger to burn our opponent for the last few points of damage.
- Finally, we have Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which might be our best Necroduality Zombie. Even on an empty board, the combo of Necroduality and Gary will drain for eight. (If we stack our triggers correctly, we can get the token copy of Gray Merchant of Asphodel before the drain triggers resolve.) And if we have a few additional Zombies, it's very possible that a single Gary will drain our opponent for 20 or more. A simply curve of Turn 1 Gravecrawler, Turn 2 Undead Augur, Turn 3 Geralf's Messenger, Turn 4 Necroduality, and Turn 5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel adds up to exactly 20 points of damage, and this doesn't even take into consideration any damage we get from attacking or from Geralf's Messenger's enters-the-battlefield trigger!
- So, should you play Necroduality Zombies in Modern? Maybe. While I don't think the deck is top tier, it was more competitive than had I expected. If you're a fan of Panharmonicon-style decks, I think this is probably the current best option for Modern since it's so difficult to keep an Panharmonicon on the battlefield these days. I could certainly see Necroduality winning an FNM, especially with a bit more tuning. The tribe has gotten a huge boost of power thanks to our most recent return to Innistrad, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being fairly competitive in Modern as a result!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
