Precon Upgrades for Undead Unleashed | $50 | Wilhelt | Zombie Tribal | Sacrifice | MIC
Midnight Hunt preconstructed decks have been revealed and with it comes another round of my precon upgrades. We're kicking things off with the deck with the Dimir deck, Undead Unleashed! We're going to do a thorough analysis of the deck, highlighting its goals and how well it accomplishes them, check out its deckbuilding fundamentals, identify its strongest and weakest cards, then use all that information to create a high-impact list of upgrades for under $50.
Undead Unleashed is a Dimir precon that lets you harness the power of death magic, summoning hordes of zombies to overwhelm the battlefield and sacrifice them for even greater power. If you love the idea of a deck that merges together the themes of Zombie Tribal and Sacrifice into a singular cohesive deck, then Undead Unleashed is the precon for you!
The Precon List
Before we talk upgrades, let's take a look at the stock list to see what we're working with:
Right out of the box, Undead Unleashed provides a ton of support for its two main themes: Zombie Tribal and Sacrifice. I count a whopping 43 cards that are either Zombies or support Zombie Tribal, and 19 cards that deal with sacrifice, with a lot of overlap between the two themes, as many of the Zombie cards either sacrifice themselves (Ravenous Rotbelly)or have beneficial triggers when you sacrifice Zombies (Undead Augur). It's clear that this deck is first and foremost Zombie Tribal, and the subtheme is Sacrifice. We're going to keep the primary and secondary themes intact when upgrading the deck.
Choosing Our Commander
Undead Unleashed comes with three commander options to lead the deck: the face card, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, and two more in the 99, Gisa and Geralf and Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth.
While all of these are perfectly fine commanders, it's clear the Wilhelt is the best leader for the precon: in a deck whose primary focus is Zombie Tribal and secondary focus is Sacrifice, Wilhelt offers a ton of support to both our themes. Gisa and Geralf also fits Zombie Tribal very well, but I think they're simply a less powerful option than Wilhelt and serve us better in the 99. Eloise is probably my personal favorite commander of the bunch, and while she does provide excellent support for Sacrifice decks and token decks, both things that this precon cares about, I don't think she provides as much value to this Zombie deck as Wilhelt does without a major overhaul to really make Eloise shine.
Analyzing the Precon
Now that we've glanced at the stock list and settled on our commander, let's take a closer look at the deck itself to identify what parts benefit the most from upgrades.
As I often explain in my Budget Commander articles, every time I build a rough draft of a deck, I make sure I have a certain ratio of mana, interaction, card advantage, etc. This gives me a reference point to compare to the deck and see which areas may need improvement. My general ratio is:
- 50 mana; lands and ramp, usually a 37–13 split
- 10 card draw; cards that net you 2+ cards in hand
- 8 targeted removal; split between creature / artifact / enchantment removal and countermagic
- 3 board wipes; creature-light decks might want one more, creature-heavy decks might want one less
- 2 graveyard recursion
- 2 flexible tutors; higher budgets I recommend more tutors
- 1 graveyard hate; since you need to keep Graveyard decks honest
- 1 finisher; something that can win games the turn you cast it without too much setup
That's always my starting point, which is then tweaked to suit the individual deck's strategy and further tweaked with playtesting. I always find it immensely useful to figure out some quick ways to improve the deck in question.
Let's see what the rough ratios are for Planar Portal and how it compares. I count:
- 48 mana; 40 lands and Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Charcoal Diamond, Sky Diamond, Talisman of Dominance, Commander's Sphere, Crowded Crypt, Rooftop Storm
- 10 card draw; Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, Undead Augur, Midnight Reaper, Spark Reaper, Corpse Augur, Forgotten Creation, Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth, Hordewing Skaab, Drown in Dreams, Distant Melody
- 10ish targeted removal; Fleshbag Marauder, Ravenous Rotbelly, Ruthless Deathfang, Butcher of Malakir, Eater of Hope, Overseer of the Damned, Dark Salvation, Syphon Flesh, Feed the Swarm, Go for the Throat
- 2ish board wipes; Aetherspouts (kinda), Army of the Damned (kinda), there's no card in the deck that will destroy everything on the table but plenty of ways to make opponents sacrifice lots of creatures
- 9 graveyard recursion; Gisa and Geralf, Prowling Geistcatcher, Tomb Tyrant, Gravespawn Sovereign, Gorex, the Tombshell, Liliana, Death's Majesty, Hour of Eternity, Ghouls' Night Out, Zombie Apocalypse
- 0 flexible tutors;
- 4 graveyard hate; Cemetery Reaper, Shadow Kin, Stitcher Geralf, Bojuka Bog
- 2ish finishers; if you count Zombie Apocalypse and Hour of Eternity, but the deck is aggressive and should have no issues finishing games
This precon is a bit high on lands, low on ramp, and lacks a true board wipe, but other than that it covers its bases pretty well. There's plenty of card draw, removal, and tons of graveyard recursion, which makes sense in a deck that fills its graveyard with creatures quickly and consistently.
Things look good on the surface, so now let's take a deeper dive into the individual cards.
40 Lands. 40 is a lot of lands for a Zombie Tribal deck. I would expect a deck with a 40-land count to either be a Lands deck or at the very least have a couple of cycling lands tossed in there to prevent flood like Polluted Mire but there are none here. Despite the high count, there's a lot of great reprints here: Bojuka Bog for free GY hate, Path of Ancestry is fantastic in tribal decks, and we have a whopping 7 lands that can enter untapped and tap for both colors of mana, which is the highest for a precon that I can think of.
The only real stinker here is Unclaimed Territory. It's not the worst because it can always tap for colorless, but we don't have such a high Zombie count that it will regularly mana-fix and we'd be better off cutting it or replacing it for a basic land.
8 Ramp. The ramp is on the low end. The ramp that we do get is generally good, such as staples Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and I'm totally digging the new mana rock Crowded Crypt as a lategame finisher. Also we got Rooftop Storm which is sweet! Just a few more ramp cards would be great here though.
10 Card Draw. The card draw is overall a highlight, with even the weaker options getting stronger due to Sacrifice synergies. Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver and Undead Augur are solid draw that reward you for doing the deck's thing, which is sacrificing zombies. We have burst draw with Corpse Augur and Distant Melody after some setup. There's also Drown in Dreams which can get you back into the game if you fall behind plus it can also fill your graveyard for recursion at the same time.
There's some weaker card draw options like Spark Reaper which cost a bunch of mana, but it's still sweet in this deck since it's a zombie and it doubles as a sac outlet.
10ish Targeted Removal. We have a couple of true targeted removal options and they're good: Overseer of the Damned, Feed the Swarm, etc. But most of our removal is forced sacrifice in the form of cards like Fleshbag Marauder and Butcher of Malakir, which aren't quite board wipes nor targeted removal, just something in between that I had a hard time classifying.
Most of these cards are great, though some are a bit overcosted even if they stick to the theme, like Eater of Hope. Also we're in Blue; why don't we have a single counterspell?
2ish Board Wipes. Zombie Apocalypse is one of the best cards in the deck but the "board wipe" part isn't reliable. Aetherspouts is a great "gotcha!" card but not reliable either. This area needs work.
9 Graveyard Recursion. It's not a surprise that the Zombie Tribal deck has tons of fantastic recursion, which is the main strength of this deck. Zombie Apocalypse, Gravespawn Sovereign, Liliana, Death's Majesty, these are going to carry the deck past the finish line.
0 Flexible Tutors. Tutors are super helpful for any Commander deck to help you find the right card for any situation, but I'm fine with them not showing up in precons. These are decks that are meant to pick up and play without being intimately aware of the deck's contents so tutors would only serve to confuse new pilots.
4 Graveyard Hate. Bojuka Bog is great, but even better are the Zombie support cards that incidentally GY hate like Cemetery Reaper and Stitcher Geralf.
2ish Finishers. The closest thing to a spell you can slam down and usually win the game off of is probably Zombie Apocalypse and a super lategame Hour of Eternity. But the Zombie deck is all about making zombies, beefing up zombies, and attacking, so you'll be fine without a specific finisher card.
The Verdict. The graveyard recursion and card draw are highlights of this deck. There could be less lands, more ramp, and a better board wipe or two, but this deck is sweet regardless.
Upgrade Goals
I have some specific goals when upgrading the deck:
- Cut some lands
- Add some ramp
- Enhance the Zombie Tribal theme
- Enhance the Sacrifice theme
This precon is really solid right out of the box but since it's Zombie Tribal, one of the most popular and well-supported tribes in the format, we have plenty of strong tribal support cards that we can make room for to strengthen the deck.
The single biggest upgrade to the deck will be Acererak the Archlich. The precon already comes with Rooftop Storm, letting you cast all your Zombies (including Acererak) for free. So all you have to do is put Storm on the battlefield, cast and recast Acererak to venture into Lost Mine of Phandelver as many times as you need, drawing your entire deck, making tons of mana, and draining tons of life in the process. If your opponents are still alive then just cast some more Zombies for free, sacrifice them, and drain them out with Diregraf Captain or similar to win.
Because this combo is so strong we're going to add both Acererak and tutors to assemble our combo more consistently.
The next big power boost we're adding is Poppet Stitcher. The precon doesn't have a ton of instants or sorceries so the front side isn't too powerful here, but the back side, Poppet Factory, allows us the ignore the decayed keyword on our zombies. This, combined with our commander, Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver + an infinite sac outlet like Carrion Feeder allows us to sacrifice zombies infinite times, then pair with a drain outlet like Diregraf Captain for infinite drain.
The final big combo in Zombie Tribal is Gravecrawler + Rooftop Storm + a free sac outlet like Carrion Feeder + a drain outlet like Diregraf Captain. A better version runs Phyrexian Altar which does the same thing as Storm but cheaper and doubles as your sac outlet. Unfortunately Phyrexian Altar is creeping to over $70, so we'll just stick to the Storm version for this article.
$50 Upgrades
Disclaimer: Card prices are volatile and may be different at the time you read this article.
Here's how I'd swap in $50 worth of upgrades. If you want to upgrade on a smaller budget then just makes less swaps:
| In | Out | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Acererak the Archlich | Unclaimed Territory | 2-card combo with Rooftop Storm super easy to assemble and win. |
| Poppet Stitcher | Mortuary Mire |
4-card combo with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder, and a drain outlet like Diregraf Captain |
| Final Parting | Island |
Flexible double tutor, put something in your hand and Gravecrawler / Wonder in your yard. |
| Buried Alive | Curse of Unbinding |
Super tutor, grab Gravecrawler / Wonder or set up for mass reanimation. |
| Patriarch's Bidding | Hour of Eternity |
Super tribal reanimation that's dirt cheap due to reprints. |
| Gravecrawler | Open the Graves |
Super repeatable sac fodder that you can tutor into the grave. Combo with Rooftop Storm + a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder + a drain outlet like Diregraf Captain for inifnite drain. |
| Burnished Hart | Liliana's Mastery | Ramp with sacrifice synergy. |
| Solemn Simulacrum | Endless Ranks of the Dead |
Ramp with sacrifice synergy. |
|
Insane asymmetrical board wipe, clears small creatures, pairs wonderfully with Fleshbag Marauder and similar effects. |
||
| Super efficient 1-drop zombie sacrifice outlet. | ||
| Morbid Opportunist | Havengul Runebinder |
Cheap super efficient card draw engine. |
| Plague Belcher | Shadow Kin |
Infinite drain finisher and reach for the deck. |
| Undead Warchief | Eternal Skylord |
Amazing mana discount and anthem for zombie tribal, is a zombie itself. |
| Wonder | Ruthless Deathfang |
Essentially free flying for your army. |
| Corpse Harvester | Eater of Hope |
Repeatable tribal tutor, is a zombie creature itself so more synergy. |
| Gray Merchant of Asphodel | Go for the Throat | More reach / helps stabilize. Is a zombie creature. |
| Noosegraf Mob | Dark Salvation |
Super efficient zombie token generator, is a zombie creature. |
|
Had a bit of spare change so made the manabase just a little better. |
Here's how the cuts look in lists.
Additions:
Cuts:
And here's the deck with the upgrades installed:
Further Upgrades
Here are some cards that I would've added if I had a higher budget.
Under $10: Cryptbreaker, Zombie Master (if you're adding Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth), Balthor the Defiled, Crypt Ghast, Graveborn Muse, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, Living Death, Dimir Signet, Beseech the Queen
Pricey stuff: Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Relentless Dead, Lord of the Undead, The Scarab God, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Phyrexian Altar, Yawgmoth's Will, Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Intuition, Cyclonic Rift, Tombstone Stairwell, dual lands, fetches, you know the stuff
If you want to enhance your finisher potential even further, then adding Phyrexian Altar makes your Gravecrawler combos much more powerful, but that's a $70 investment.
Coven Counters Coming Soon!
Hope you enjoyed my take on Undead Unleashed. I had a Zombie Tribal deck for many years, first as Thraximundar and then as Varina, Lich Queen, so revisiting this old tribe was a fun experience.
I'll be back with an upgrade article for the other precon deck, Coven Counters, within a few days, so check back for that. Thanks for reading!
