Halloween is coming, and I wanted to try a special deck for the occasion. I thought playing a bunch of Zombies would be a good idea, but after playing a couple of leagues with the deck, I immediately saw that the deck’s raw power was strong enough to match what the rest of the format was doing, so I continued playing until I hit 100 matches, trying all the possible cards and ideas I had. My win rate is 73% which I feel it’s good enough, especially because many wins came from the best deck in the format: Boros Energy.  

How does the combo works:

Soultrader’s combo revolves around these elements:

1) A recursive threat 

2) A way to drain your opponent's life points

3) A way to sacrifice the recursive threat

4) A way to have enough mana.

The “linear” combo (the one that you will do in the 85% of the games) is the following one: 

Step 1: Sacrifice Gravecrawler 

Step 2: Your opponent loses 1 life, you create a Treasure

Step 3: You sac the Treasure, your opponent loses 1 life

Step 4: You cast Gravecrawler from the graveyard (Soultrader is a Zombie)

Note: this is not an infinite combo, as you need life to fuel it. Also it doesn’t work if your opponent has too much life. 

This is the formula: (1/2)x +1 rounded up 

You can operate the combo as early as turn two if you have the perfect hand.

Other combo cards: 

Zulaport Cutthroat is the most obvious of the three: it’s a source of life draining that will make the combo “infinite”, as sacrificing Gravecrawler will also gain you one life. 

The Meathook Massacre is a wrath that has Marionette Apprentice’s static ability, except it doesn’t work on artifacts. The card does generate lethals from nowhere even when you have some creatures + Apprentice, wrathing the board and dealing your opponents (x*2)-1 damage, where X was the number of creatures you controlled. 

Chatterfang, Squirrel General is a Gravecrawler replacement that lets you combo off without using the graveyard. When you have Soultrader + Apprentice, sacrificing a creature will allow you to create a Treasure and a Squirrel, then sacrifice the squirrel and repeat. 

On an additional note, Chatterfang + Soultrader + Spymaster’s Vault is a “combo”, as you can connive enough time to either find Apprentice / a reanimate effect if you already have one Apprentice in the graveyard.

The deck has a decent B plan of attacking with small creatures, eventually forcing lethal damage with Marionette Apprentice + Soultrader. This is what I call the “aristocrats plan”, as a reference to the old modern deck. Generally speaking, the more damage you deal to your opponent, the less life you need to combo out. This is often relevant when using Orcish Bowmasters. 

Why is the deck good in the current meta?

As I explained in a tweet not a long time ago, this is how the meta feels like to me.

Boros is currently the best deck - it has a strong aggro plan, a strong midrange plan with Phlage and The One Ring as top end, and a lot of removals. 

Soultrader Combo has a very good way to stop early pressure with bodies, and can snowball really easily due to Unearths and Chthonian Nightmares. On top of that, being able to also play black interactions in the form of Fatal Push and Flare of Malice is a great way to beat strong Boros starts. 

The deck ignores The One Ring for the most part, and can deal with Phlage with Boggart Trawler. Also, Soultrader can present lethal boards from nowhere, and has the power to come back from really problematic boards. 

The matchup vs UB Frog is easy as well: Flare of Malice is really tough to beat for them, and a lot of our creatures are super difficult to interact with for a counter+removal strategy. Playing a game of limited with one-mana 2/1s and 3 mana 3/1s in the first turns will allow you to pressure their life total until they either have to commit their mana or you can double spell. Chthonian Nightmare is an A+ card here too. 

The other decks in the format you tend to beat either with the grindy plan (if they’re control decks revolving around counters/removals/Ring) or just being able to combo out faster than them (if they’re big mana/other combo decks). 

On a general note, I feel all the matchups are winnable at least, since no one is packing “permanent graveyard hate” - such as Rest in Peace/Leyline of the Void - and the deck easily beats Spellbombs and similar cards. 

Currently, the only deck that I haven’t beat yet is 5C Zoo, which caused a lot of my losses. Instant speed interaction, fast lifelink clock, and exile removal is for sure a bummer for Soultrader.  

Those two cards tend to shine vs “open meta”:

Note: Soulless Jailer doesn’t work well with Unearth/Nightmare, but it doesn't interact with Gravecrawler. 

Decklist and card choices: 

This is my current decklist, even if I like to change cards league to league in order to see how everything performs, and I am not sold on the exact numbers of flex slots yet. 

The deck building of such a deck is really challenging, as the bar between “weak” and “good” cards is tough to see clearly.

I already spoke about the combo cards in the section above, now I will speak about “the rest”, starting from the 4-ofs, then diving into the 1-ofs. 

Main deck:

Stitcher's Supplier is a strong way to enable the graveyard shenanigans, and possibly the best turn one start the deck can make. Supplier is also essential in mid game Chthonian Nightmare turns, because milling yourself allows you to find the missing pieces to reanimate with the next Nightmare. 

Orcish Bowmasters fill the two-drop slot perfectly. The deck is hungry for bodies and Raise the Alarm is always nice to have. The upside of Bowmasters is, obviously, the fact that The One Ring is in the 49% of the meta decks; many of the other decks still play cantrips or X/1s, allowing you to decrease the pressure while making a good “tempo” play. 

Deadly Dispute is the weakest card in the deck, but I still like it as a way to produce card advantage out of your recursive creatures. I am ceaselessly testing cards to find better slots, but 5-0-ing my last two leagues with Dispute made me feel I was onto something. I especially enjoy the Treasure provided by Dispute, as the deck can be really mana hungry and one mana can be the difference between a win or a loss. 

Flare of Malice is a card I never tried in fewer than four copies even if I don’t consider it a sacred cow. The appeal of the card is obvious - having a zero mana removal. I am, however, a bit skeptical how this card plays out vs Boros. Two-for-one-ing yourself to possibly kill a Raptor with a leftover Ajani is tough - my suggestion is to not be greedy and understand what the problematic cards in each matchup are and fire it off before it’s too late. 

I already spoke a lot about how strong and cool Chthonian Nightmare feels so I won’t repeat the same words here. The only thing I am willing to share is, I am always unsure about the numbers: having two Nightmares in your hand is bad, but having one is busted usually. I can 100% see playing three for this reasoning.

Unearth is a less convoluted way to abuse the graveyard and worth playing four copies. This card is especially great since it’s either a way to recur something to start your combo, or to have a backup in case they have a piece of removal. Understanding when to play Unearth and what to reanimate is one of the toughest skills of the deck. 

Boggart Trawler is quite relevant as a creature, since exiling the graveyard in this format of Phlage vs Murktide is huge. It’s also a decent attacker/blocker, and making your opponents use your removal on something “irrelevant” like Boggart will lead the way for Soultrader to come. 

I tend to deploy Agadeem's Awakening as a land a lot, but the upside of casting it for 6 mana reanimating all the three combo pieces is also huge. As a general rule of thumb, the positive opportunity cost for MDFC is great especially for this deck, as it’s basically monocolored and having both the possibility of not getting mana screwed/not getting mana flooded is awesome considering the low level of your singles. 

Spymaster’s Vault is the best land in the deck, and it’s often a way to enable lethal lines. Being at a high life total will allow you to sacrifice Gravecrawler N times, conniving N cards and likely find the missing Apprentice(s). It’s also very strong in grindy situations (like vs Boros) as you can start to ditch the irrelevant lands and keep proposing threats until you either find the combo or a Nightmare.

This was a convoluted lethal line, but basically here due to Chatterfang you can produce N Squirrels, so you can have enough cards to look with Vault. Just make sure you’re confident of what you’re doing because losing too many life points will not be lethal as you can’t then pay life. 

Phyrexian Tower is another unique card: it’s awesome in fast matchups in combination with Nightmare, but it’s a colorless mana source vs grindy decks. I tried to fit a second copy, but having two legendary lands is a burden, and losing even one game due to this “nonbo” was enough for me to accept that one is enough. 

Blooming Marsh is excellent at being a Bayou, and it rarely enters tapped due to MDFC. I am thinking about cutting one fetch to add a second copy: life matters a ton in this deck. 

The more I think about Underground Mortuary, the more I consider it a bit superfluous: Soultrader can’t really afford a tapland in the first three turns; and while I get the allure of having a fetchable cantrip, it’s probably not worth it. 

Sideboard: 

Fulminator Mageis obviously for Eldrazi and Amulet. Big mana can be problematic if they win before you do, so having access to Fulminator is huge as the card can be really strong paired up with Chthonian Nightmare or Unearth. I like to have four copies, as big mana decks are a huge part of the meta for now (18+% of the meta according to Mtggoldfish)

Phyrexian Crusader is your sideboard plan vs Boros. Postboard games tend to be slower for your opponents, as they’re more likely to keep hands with interaction and Phlage, so Crusader really shines. Having a strong B plan also allows you to dilute the combo siding out some Gravecrawlers, the worst possible card vs the RW aggro deck. 

Accursed Marauder and Fatal Push are mostly for UB Frog, but can be played also vs Boros/aggro decks. I don’t like Marauder vs Boros usually, as they can just sacrifice their worst creature, but it’s interesting paired with other removals, and a good one to play after sweeping the board with Meathook. Adding a third copy of Push was something I am willing to try soon, as the card really feels good in a lot of matchups. 

The Meathook Massacre is mostly for Boros/Mardu (that’s a more challenging matchup than Boros) but came in clutch also in the mirror match. I can see some upside of siding it in vs removal heavy decks (like UB) but I haven’t tested it myself yet. 

Soulless Jailer is for Storm/Goryo/weird combo decks - if those are really present, adding a third copy might help. The card is a beast in those matchups, and doesn’t impact your gameplan too much. My suggestion is - side in Jailer, make sure to trim down on Unearths and Nightmares.

Reclamation Sage comes directly from the 2015 Amulet Titan sideboard, meaning that you side it in a lot when you have no clue what you’re playing against in terms of hate. Haywire Mite is a more targeted hate, helps against Ring decks but it’s also strong at dealing with Static Prison. I can see playing one Mite in the main, as Yawgmoth used to do, to save one sideboard slot. 

Cards I tested and didn’t like: 

Note: I like to define myself a “brutalist” deckbuilder - meaning that I tend to cut all the “cute” cards to play more copies of the “strong” ones. I feel the deck can be built in many different ways; I liked my approach and I feel the fewer “cute/bad” cards I was playing, the more I was winning. 

The One Ring: My first approach to any modern deck that plays “weak cards” is to add 4 The One Ring. I played the card, and it solved zero problems. Turns out you can’t really play ring when you’re severely down on board, especially because a lot of decks in the format have removals for it. I tried various configurations, first playing 4, then 3, then 2, but none of them impressed me positively, considering I am using four mana in a t3 format. 

Birthing Ritual: I like ritual, but it turned out to be good only against already good matchups, such as UB frog. Moreover, the fact that Soultrader’s combo can’t be performed at instant speed made me eventually remove the card. Overall though, Ritual is likely the best card of the ones I am not playing (and I can see having some in your deck). 

Bloodghast: this card is unplayable, and each time I drew a Bloodghast I knew I would lose that game. I get that Bloodghast is a strong enabler for all graveyard shenanigans, but this doesn’t justify playing it imho. Curving out with 2/1s that can’t block vs Ocelot Pride/Guide of Souls is not where you want to be at the moment. If the meta will slow down eventually, maybe this card can shine once more. 

Shambling Ghast: as a pauper aficionado, I know this card has some upsides sometimes. It’s a one mana play, it’s a Zombie, and is a sort of removal for big creatures/ramp spell if it ends up dying. In the testing process it was often 1 mana 1/1 with no abilities though, and even if I 5-0d a league with it, I end up cutting the Ghast to save space. 

Undead Butler: I liked the ability of Butler to be sort of a “glue” for the deck, but in practice was just a perplexing 2-mana play that provided almost nothing. 

Wight of the Reliquary: the card was really fun, but did nothing for what I was trying to do. Modern feels too fast for such a card to be played, and getting lands out of your deck if you’re planning to combo isn’t the best thing you can do with your mana and your spells. There’s probably a cool build with Wights out there, but I feel that for now it is suboptimal compared to the stock combo version. 

Zulaport Cutthroat: I always hated this card back when I was playing Yawgmoth, and now it’s the same. The card is terrible outside of the combo; I feel playing Meathook instead is better, since the card is also relevant in a lot of matchups. 

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: The card is really slow, and perplexing. Getting to four mana just to cast Yawgmoth feels silly for this deck. Also, not having a real way to recur the body (unless you have a Zombie + Ghast) makes the card a winmore rather than an actual good card. 

Grist, the Hunger Tide: I don’t like how Grist is positioned at the moment, and I feel all its abilities are a bit off. However, I am willing to play one copy (over a flare likely) to see how it performs since you can cheat it into play with Nightmare and Unearth. I don’t have high hopes to be honest - might still be a decent sideboard card. 

After I posted about the deck on my Instagram, a lot of people contacted me sending me their decklists, and I know there are a lot of cards that I will need to test in the future, so here are some:

• Yawgmoth (one of)
• Ayara, First of Lochtwain 
• Grist, Voracious Larva
• Splashing white for Ajani, Guide of Souls and Knight Errant of Eos
• Splashing red for Blood Moon, Goblin Bombardment and sideboard cards

I will eventually play everything, even if I am unsure about most of those cards. The deck loses to three things:

1) Faster decks

2) Inconsistent draws

3) Strong hate + beatdown plan 

So in my perilous research, I am trying to figure out if there’s improvement in these directions rather than trying fancy plans. 

The only card that might fit the role, and I constantly switch with Deadly Dispute is Malevolent Rumble: the card is usually tempo negative, and it’s strange to play a mill four spell when your opponent can play turn two Ajani/Raptor/Frog, but it’s the best card to boost consistency, considering that Rumble can find Nightmare vs grindy decks and combo pieces vs Goldfish decks. 

Matchups and Sideboard Guide:

Boros Energy:

The matchup is favorable in my testing, once you understand what the problematic cards are. Try to kill Guide of Souls as soon as possible, as you have a really hard time beating flyers. Make sure to fetch at least one Swamp to not get cheesed by Blood Moon, and try to save one Boggart Trawler for Phlage. Unearthing Boggart is a fine play if a Phlage would shake the balance of the games too much. 

I usually like to play more midrange, and I won’t force the combo unless they’re tapped out, as they really play a ton of removals. 

Sideboard:

-2 Gravecrawler

-1 Chatterfang

-1 Unearth

-1 Boggart Trawler

-2 Deadly Dispute

+2 Fatal Push

+1 Meathook

+3 Crusader

+1 Haywire Mite 

Mardu Energy: 

This matchup is a bit worse than Boros, as Bowmaster and Chthonians can be annoying, but overall is fine. My suggestion is to guess if they have Fatal Push or not from game one, and then decide if bringing in Crusaders or not. I would dilute the combo anyway.

Sideboard:

-2 Gravecrawler

-1 Chatterfang

-4 Deadly Dispute

+2 Fatal Push

+1 Meathook

+3 Crusader 

+1 Haywire Mite 

UB Frogtide:

Easy matchup, play as if you were playing a game of limited, and sandbag your rares until you know you can play them safe. Make sure they always trade bad tempo wise, and reach the point when you can double spell. Boggart Trawler is huge at slowing the Murktide down, and Flare helps vs Frog. 

Sideboard:

-1 Meathook

-1 Agadeem’s Awakening

-1 Stitcher Supplier 

+2 Fatal Push

+1 Accursed Marauder

Storm:

Tough matchup, because they usually have a faster goldfish. Mulligan aggressively hands that combos on turn 3, even if it means to gamble on lands/spells. I side in Meathook as a 6th Apprentice; slamming it on turn 2 might work. I am still undecided if Orcish is better/worse than Flare, but I like the ability of killing Ral and possibly slowing them down a bit. 

Sideboard: 

+1 Meathook Massacre

+1 Reclamation Sage

+1 Haywire Mite

+2 Soulless Jailer

-4 Orcish Bowmaster

-1 Agadeem’s Awakening 

Breach Eldrazi: 

The best one in terms of Eldrazi Build, as Flare of Malice is unbeatable. You’re more scared of everything else, but they shouldn’t play many interactions so you might be okay at beating even their busted starts. 

Postboard try to play around Kozilek’s Return, their only wrath. 

Pic related, I got the turn 2 combo vs turn 2 The One Ring.

Sideboard:

-2 Unearth

-3 Orcish Bowmaster

-1 Agadeem’s Awakening

+4 Fulminator

+1 Haywire Mite

+1 Reclamation Sage

Jeskai Control: 

Another very positive matchup, as they have zero ways to exile your graveyard and you should rebuild easily after a wrath, likely comboing off before they can start looping rings. Solitude can be a pain, but playing around it might be fine. The “aristocrats” plan works often - make sure to Boggart them if they have Phlage. 

Sideboard: 

-4 Flare of Malice

+1 Haywire Mite

+3 Phyrexian Crusader

Eldrazi Ramp: 

Ramp is a bit more problematic, but their deck is less consistent at posing a threat, especially because this deck can interact with Lands, Mana Rocks and Graveyard to slow down Emrakul, the Promised End. I would count this more of a goldfish matchup, comboing off is great here. 

Sideboard: 

-4 Flare of Malice

-1 Orcish Bowmaster 

-1 Agadeem’s Awakening

+4 Fulminator

+1 Haywire Mite

+1 Reclamation Sage

Domain Zoo:

This is the worst matchup of the deck: the combination of fast clock, offensive burn spells, countermagic and exile-based removals is really problematic for our “2/1 can’t block deck”. The plan is to slow them down, and combo off when they’re either tapped out or close to win. I would consider hands with Push/Flare or Mite/Rec Sage premium hands. 

Sideboard:

-1 Chthonian Nightmare

-4 Deadly Dispute

+2 Fatal Push

+1 Reclamation Sage

+1 Accursed Marauder

+1 Haywire Mite 

Tips & Tricks: 

1) If you have a Gravecrawler in the graveyard and a Zombie on the battlefield, with only Phyrexian Tower as your mana source, you can announce to cast Gravecrawler and sacrifice the zombie to Tower. 

2) Holding lands from a certain point on can be good, as you can loot them away with Spymaster’s Vault

3) Tap Spymaster’s Vault as your last land, as you might get to activate it even if you haven’t planned to

4) Spymaster’s + Gravecrawler + Soultrader is a small combo: you can pay a lot of life, to connive a ton, digging for the missing combo pieces. Make sure to understand how much life you can lose (remember the formula is (1/2)x +1 rounded up)

5) You can sacrifice a creature to Phyrexian Tower in response to an exile effect/a life gain spell. This is also valid for Soultrader. 

6) You can play around Surgical by having two Gravecrawlers. In general, the first action you should do each turn (if that’s your intention anyway) is to replay the Crawler from the graveyard, so you blank some eventual exile effects. 

7) Chthonian Nightmare generates a trigger on the stack: your opponent can respond by destroying it. Make sure to know this before you commit to it as your last resource. 

8) Chthonian lines are crazy: but in general make sure to start by reanimating a 2for1 threat, and then do it again, so you will end up with more creatures in the end. 

9) Be careful with your MDFC - my rule of thumb is - if the card I am playing is irrelevant (i.e. exiling the graveyard with Boggard is not useful) I will play the MDFC in order to not lose three. Otherwise, I will keep it in hand until I have to land it. 

I probably missed many more as the deck is really skill intensive and funny! I will leave you a puzzle: can you end up killing both Dauthis? 

You also have one Orcish Bowmaster in the Graveyard.

Conclusion: 

This was pretty much everything I know regarding this amazing archetype! But the good news isthat I don’t think the archetype is solved yet. There are various ways to build Soultrader, including splashing other colors or having different takes on what the deck should do. I also feel graveyard-matter decks are often fueled by new sets, so I will keep my eye open for any black/green card that will enter the format from now on.

I hope you appreciated this unique budget deck and how it plays differently from the other meta decks, being competitive even if it doesn’t play The One Ring. 

I want to use this space to thank all the people who helped me: in particular MTGO user KePs who I took inspiration for trying the deck, and Mattia who listened to me when I proposed any possible black playable card.

And remember what Warren Soultrader used to say: 

“Who finds a friend, finds a treasure”