Innistrad: Midnight Hunt – Undead Unleashed Budget Upgrades

The final part of our Innistrad: Midnight Hunt’s budget upgrade will be focused on the Undead Unleashed commander deck. Undead Unleashed on its surface is a Dimir coloured zombie beatdown deck but the synergy in this deck proves otherwise.

Undead Unleashed

Undead Unleashed is a multi-utility deck while being built around zombies. The synergy among the cards in the deck was well planned out as well, and there are barely any cards which doesn’t serve any purpose in this deck

The primary commander for this deck is Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. While Wilhelt may not be a great commander in general, but he is a perfect fit for this deck. His ability does not only replenish the board with zombies after a board wipe, but he is also a draw engine on a stick. The secondary commander is Eloise, Nephalia Sleut. As zombies are usually weaker in survivability, Eloise’s provides Investigates whenever a zombie dies, and Investigate tokens trigger his Surveil ability as well. Besides the commanders, the preconstructed deck comes with other great draw engines such as Corpse Augur and Distant Memory, but some upgrades will be needed to fully utilize these draw engines.

Creature removals and control spells are rather limited in this deck as well. Single removal staples such as Go for the Throat and Fleshbag Marauder are included from the get-go. Aetherspouts is the only spell available for mass removal, which is largely insufficient as there is a lack of tutor spells to search for the already limited removal spells.

Undead Unleashed Highlights

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The rest of the cards in the deck focuses on the deck’s synergy. Cards such as Eater of Hope and Butcher of Malakir makes use of the Zombies to activate their abilities while Eternal Skylord and Gleaming Overseer provide a buff to Zombie tokens.

Budget Upgrades

While Undead Unleashed is an extremely balanced deck, there are a few cards that don’t serve much of a purpose. Below is a list of replacements or upgrades that I would recommend.

Cards to remove:-

• Hour of Eternity
• Havengul Runebinder
• Dark Salvation
• Liliana’s Devotee
• Cleaver Skaab
• Forgotten Creation

Upgrades:-

• Gray Merchant of Asphodel – utility zombie that gives life gains while reducing opponent’s life
• Acererak the Archlich – Combos perfectly with Rooftop Storm
• Dimir Machinations & Drift of Phantasms – Transmute utility for tutoring Acererak or other 3 CMC spells.
• Mausoleum Secrets – Another tutor spell for tutoring your win conditions.
• Rise of the Dread Marn – To recover your board presence in case of a board wipe.
• Erebos, Bleak-Hearted / Erebos, God of the Dead – An indestructible card draw and creature removal body.
• God-Eternal Bontu – Enter the battlefield card draw and it returns to the deck upon removal.
• Plumb the Forbidden – A simple card draw on a stick that utilized the synergy with zombies in this deck.
• Carrior Feeder – A sacrificial engine that gets stronger with every sacrifice.
• Dreadfeast Demon – A great board presence by cloning your favourite beatdown creature.

Undead Unleashed Budget Upgrades

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The upgrades suggested generally provides more options of card draw to accelerate the deck with a workaround tutor through the transmute ability. Acererak, the Archlich will definitely be a game-breaker when it’s placed in combo with Rooftop Storm for infinite venture, tokens, damage, mana and draws.

Undead Unleashed Other Upgrades

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If budget permits, cards such as Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Jet Medallion, Ashnod’s Altar, Phyrexian Altar and Altar of Dementia are great additions to the deck. For Commander newbies, Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor can directly tutor for your preferred card at a small cost of 2 life. The three altars are sacrificial engines, which plays a huge role in this deck to create more tokens or activate certain activities. Jet Medallion lets you cast black spells for 1 less mana.

These cards from the upcoming Crimson Vow make a good addition to the deck as well.

Undead Unleashed Crimson Vow Upgrades

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As mentioned earlier, Undead Unleashed is already a well-designed deck as it is. What it really needed was adding in a few more cards draws, sacrificial engines and tutors to draw out combo components and key ability creatures.