Hit the Sac, Get Zzzs v8.3 (Modern)

BW Sac

Welcome to the deck.

This is a deck I have been working on for a few years now, on and off. The Relentless Dead intro pack was my introduction to MtG, and zombies have held a dear place in my heart ever since. While this deck started as a fun kitchen table, it has slowly turned into something I consider viably competitive (on some level). Here is what I've come up with and an attempted explanation of my thoughts. Keep in mind that this deck is still definitely a work-in-progress.
I gladly welcome any feedback.

The trend I see in many modern zomb decks is that they either 1) stray from being zomb (to make the deck stronger; probably a good idea for those who want a more serious deck, aka me), 2) try to get tons of small chumps to overwhelm the opponent (zombie hunt, which this also does somewhat), or 3) to focus on milling your own deck to get more powerful effects (Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, which this deck does not do).

So finally with that here is a quick explanation of my overall deck direction followed by details on each card:

OVERVIEW:This deck pretty much revolves around sacrificing your creatures to gain desired effects, only to get them back asap (Aristocrat hold the Cartel Aristocrat). Once you get them back on the field you can sacrifice them again. Card's that require sacrificing a creature as a cost tend to be quite powerful (since normally sacrificing a creature isn't the easiest thing to do) and by building a deck that can take advantage of the negatives of sacrificing to make them a positive, you can get a surprising number of extremely powerful combos.

EXPLANATIONS ON INDIVIDUAL CARDS:

CREATURES:

Blood Artist : With the amount of chump blocks and sacrificing, this card often ends up being a workhorse. Definitely more of a "do something while you wait" card rather than an end game. Although it has definitely ended a few games before.

Cathedral Membrane : Get out turn 1 if needed, quite versitile. You can sac later during combat to trigger ability if needed, good for TOS. Can also trigger two abilities for trading post. Similar vibe to vault skirge, depending on need.

Gravecrawler : Those of you up on your zombies probably saw this coming. A 1 drop zombie that you can sac all day, provided you have the swamps for it. The value of this card is obvious and mandatory for the deck to function properly. If there's two of these on the battlefield (or one in the graveyard if a zombie is on the field. Really just as long as there is at least one somewhere not in your library or exile, and there is a zombie on the battlefield) you can combo with any permanent sac outlet (FI) to be able to sacrifice once for every black mana you can produce. Keep in mind Manavaults allow you to bring this back too.

Hanweir Militia Captain : Amazing chump producer. On upkeep trigger, activate any mutavaults you have and you can often get him to flip turn 3. Since he produces BW tokens, they can be sacrificed for TOS first ability, then generate a spirit with her second. Really good combo.

Nether Traitor : Like Gravecrawler, great early damage + easy sac outlet. Can just get it back when need be. Generally you're attacking every turn because of Shadow. If there's two of these in your graveyard / on the battlefield you can combo with any permanent sac outlet (FI) to be able to sacrifice once for every black mana you can produce. For a single NT, the exact math (since you may need it on some turns) is that you can sacrifice n times where n = min(amount of black mana you can produce, # creatures on the field excluding NT) + # creatures on the field.

Tidehollow Sculler : Like a Thought-Knot Seer, but is also an artifact zombie and a two drop. Helps with GC, but unfortunately attracts artifact hate. At a 2 drop, don't be afraid to chump block, use his ability for delay, not permanent elimination. Always expect them to get their card's back at some point later, so just try and take anything that kills momentum.

Vault Skirge : See Cathedral Membrane. Alter their numbers as you see fit. I like two of each, I find it's the most versitile option.

PLANESWALKERS:

Sorin, Solemn Visitor : Second planeswalker I've tested, so am open to suggestions here (I've tried multiple Lilianas who seem ideal on paper, but in game they never seem to work as well as you'd hope, and after the last hope I'm sorely disappointed). Usually good aggro, or any game where I'm on the defensive. This is good if the match up has us often keeping creatures on the board, but neither player is really gaining any advantage. Currently mainboarding to get more play out of him. Was temorary, but I find he's a safer bet game one against most other decks.

ENCHANTMENTS/INSTANTS/SORCERIES:

Fallen Ideal : Fallen Ideal is an amazing card, probably your #1 win con, giving you the ability to sacrifice whenever you want, boost your creature, give it flying, and you get it back if your creature is killed. Note 1: Getting this while a GC + zomb is on the field can be devastating. Attach to blood artist to attack around ensaring bridge. Note 2: Feel free to sac the creature that this card is equipped to in order to return FI to your hand, a good trick in some weird situations. Also stops a path exile of course.

Fatal Push : IMO current best modern destroy target creature due to majority of staple modern creatures being low drops. Often can trigger second ability because of sacrifices/chrom starts or just cracking a Marsh Flats. Should I being playing a fourth in the board? Probably. But I'm not.

Lingering Souls : Modern staple, almost always a card you're fine with playing. A bunch of chumpers or pingers lets you defend or get in for pretty steady damage.

ARTIFACTS:

Chromatic Star : This is a new addition, but it really helps out the curve. While it slows you a bit an early turn you can usually be pretty mana efficient with it. Running these allows for all the colorless lands, esp the mutavaults. I was very hesitant, but it seems to make the deck work so much smoother, that I'm having a hard time believing it isn't worth it.

Grafted Wargear : This is one of my fav cards, really good on a gravecrawler, flying token, vault skirge, or at best a nether traitor. Of course also a sorc speed sac outlet, but I find usually that's fine.

Trading Post : Mid / late game engine (I usually wouldn't play till turn 5 so I could use the turn I play, essentially treat as 5 cmc). Great sac outlet, let's you cycle chrom stars, vaults skirges, cath mems, etc. Also can goat in a pinch with Fallen Ideal to get around Ensaring bridge like Blood Artist.

LAND:

I'm not going into detail on all of these, as their reasons seem pretty obvious and everyone has their own preferences. If you have any suggestions or specific questions, please let me know.

Mutavault : Can become one extra sac outlet if needed for a combo, or can become a creature to summon some GC from the graveyard. Also pairs with Urborg to make it useful for all your black cards.

Westvale Abbey : Get's going pretty often. Good alt win con.

Vault of the Archangel : Saves you vs burn if you can last it out. Just over all nice.

NOTE: I have play tested running both multiple scry lands and shock lands in the deck, and personally I find the scry lands slow you down too much and running more shock lands end up hurting you. You typically have plenty of white mana (as you really only need one or two on the board) so the extra shock lands' two damage can often be debilitating midgame. I'm on the fence of just having two Godless Shrine / two Swamp.

SIDEBOARD:

Some cards listed here may be actually in mainboard and vice-versa, I tend to experiment with my mainboard a lot. I generally think of my deck as more of like a 75 card tool-kit, where ~70 of them are main-deckable. Currently all three LS are sideboarded, as I've noticed most games I would prefer almost any other card turn 3 than a LS, but it's great to sideboard against anyone playing either aggro or a deck with tons of 1/1s. If they wanna play a battle of the 1/1s I'll gladly pull them in and we can do that, otherwise I'd much rather my core strategy. That being said I may decide to switch LS back any time. I'm definitely on the fence.

If you or they board in artifact hate (stony silence) then make sure to pull your chrom stars and tposts.

Damnation : Removal for bunches of stuff for when bunches of stuff need to be removed.

Ethersworn Canonist : Testing currently, but been fun to cycle with trading post their endstep, so it's not triggering on my turn, doing a bunch of stuff and trading post to get back and play, to re-activate for their turn. Takes 3 mana per turn, only works every other turn, unless both trading posts.

Path to Exile : Duh.

Settle the Wreckage : I moved this in over wrath, I like the idea of it anyway.

Sidisi, Undead Vizier : Wow, get's around dismember AND fatal push, AND is a sac outlet, AND is a zomb for gravecrawler AND let's me tutor? Cool please.

Teysa, Orzhov Scion : White sac outlet and can exile any creature. Generating the white spirits with HMC feels really nice with this as well. Bringing this in against removal-light / creature heavy opponents is great.

Stony Silence : Because those artifact decks.

Surgical Extraction : I don't love the design of this card, it feels too meta-balancy than an actual card. But as an actual card its a pretty good one, so might as well use it.

Worhsip: Trying this over Leyline, due to the double white hurting when blood moon is played, and this serving a similar purpose. This is also better than leyline vs boogles or similar stompy decks. I honestly really don't like this card, it just feels kinda gross. It's amazing in most matchups, but I really only ever bring it in vs burn, and screw burn anyway.

WEAKNESSES:

This is just a shortlist of any major weaknesses this deck has. Could be specific cards or general strategies.

Blood Moon : Probably my least favorite card to see on my opponents side. But I have so much control / answers that I should be ~hopefully okay.

Planeswalkers : Other than hitting them directly I really only have the sideboarded Anguished Unmaking to get rid of them unfortunately.

Flyers : If they have tons of flyers I can bring in my 3 Lingering Souls for chumps, but otherwise just hope to have enough kill spells or have enough control prior to them resolving.

Land Hate : I don't really have anything against Urza's, or other land hate. I tried running a Ghost Quarter / Field of Ruin main, but didn't love it. C(Sh)ould one of these replace a mutavault? Even with Urborgs, running 6 or more colorless only producing land tends to significantly hurt this deck as access to colored mana is so essential.

SPECIAL NOTES:

Again if you differ in opinion on anything, have ideas, or just want to tell me i'm an idiot for not thinking of something, please do! I want the feedback and to see what others think of this deck. I know that was a long description, so thanks to those that actually read through it :D

NopeBoard:

List of cards I have tried and considered, and my reasons for not including them in the deck / sideboard. Obviously they may be still under consideration so feel free to try to change my mind.

Dash Hopes : Good vs control, good vs burn if its eidelon burn or any other burn that hurts themselves a lot. Idk how amazing this card is tbh, but I gave it the honest try. It always looks better on paper than in practice.

Cartel Aristocrat: Surprisingly this deck (usually) doesn't need the extra sac outlet, she immediately becomes a target you want to protect (and can at the cost of other creatures) but then you just end up losing creatures. Unless you have TOS or a BA on the field it doesn't feel that great.

Geralf's Messenger : I reallllllly like this card. But the triple black and coming in tapped is too restrictive. He just doesn't affect the board state enough when he comes in, unless you have other stuff to back it up.

Erebos, God of the Dead : Also liked this guy, but since I have tons of tokens and non-blacks hes often not a creature, plus even with the card draw losing two life hurts too much. I guess this would be good against a lifegain deck in a game you thought would go long, but that just feels so rare it feels like there's better general sideboard.