Several years ago, Sam Black put together an interesting aggro deck in Legacy that featured cards like Bloodghast and Gravecrawler alongside Goblin Bombardment, Lingering Souls, and Cabal Therapy. With the printing of Deathrite Shaman, this deck quickly faded into irrelevance. However, with Deathrite Shaman banned and the printing of Stitcher's Supplier, this deck could be set up to break out in a big way. Let's take a look at ScavengingBooze's take on the archetype:
Mardu Zombies - Legacy | ScavengingBooze, 5-0 Legacy League
- Creatures (18)
- 2 Gurmag Angler
- 4 Bloodghast
- 4 Carrion Feeder
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Stitcher's Supplier
- Sorceries (16)
- 4 Cabal Therapy
- 4 Faithless Looting
- 4 Lingering Souls
- 4 Thoughtseize
- Enchantments (5)
- 2 Bitterblossom
- 3 Goblin Bombardment
- Lands (21)
- 3 Swamp
- 2 Marsh Flats
- 2 Scrubland
- 2 Undiscovered Paradise
- 3 Badlands
- 3 Bloodstained Mire
- 3 Polluted Delta
- 3 Verdant Catacombs
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Diabolic Edict
- 2 Pithing Needle
- 3 Surgical Extraction
- 3 Tidehollow Sculler
- 3 Wear // Tear
- 2 Zealous Persecution
The idea here is pretty straightforward. You've got Faithless Looting to set up the value engines of Gravecrawler and Bloodghast, as well as Stitcher's Supplier to try to blindly flip your Lingering Souls and Cabal Therapys into the graveyard. When you back these cards up with Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapys, it's pretty easy for you to tear your opponent's hand to shreds while you set up a reasonable clock from the graveyard.
It might seem like Snapcaster Mage plus Swords to Plowshares is a problem for this style of deck, but that's where the sacrifice outlets come in. Carrion Feeder and Goblin Bombardment help you protect your creatures from being exiled, and can actually be an engine unto themselves for generating extra damage with your various creatures jumping in and out of the graveyard.
Years ago, this was a quirky deck that attacked from several different angles all at once. If puts an interesting kind of pressure on opponents to have graveyard interaction, spot removal, and a way to get you dead before your engine really gets going. Without Deathrite Shaman in the picture, it could be that many archetypes are going to struggle to find that combination of disruption and pressure, and this archetype could be in prime position to put up some good performances.