Hello everyone. With Halloween just a few days away, there's no better time to take a look at some decks featuring scary creatures. This week I have three decks for you featuring Skeletons, Zombies, and Devils for you to use at your local Friday Night Magic or on Magic Arena. Let's get started.

Ske-lethal

We start this week with a deck featuring Skeletal Swarming. This can get out of control very quickly with this deck. Let's take a look at it.

Ske-lethal | MID Standard | Sonio, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Tangled Florahedron // Tangled Vale
• 4 Prosperous Innkeeper

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Lolth, Spider Queen
• 1 Wrenn and Seven

• Instants (7)
• 3 Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins
• 4 Divide by Zero

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Culling Ritual
• 4 Storm the Festival

• Enchantments (10)
• 2 The Meathook Massacre
• 4 Binding the Old Gods
• 4 Skeletal Swarming

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Maskwood Nexus
• 4 Esika's Chariot

• Lands (24)
• 2 Forest
• 1 Rimewood Falls
• 2 Hall of Storm Giants
• 2 Lair of the Hydra
• 2 Woodland Chasm
• 3 Clearwater Pathway // Murkwater Pathway
• 4 Barkchannel Pathway // Tidechannel Pathway
• 4 Darkbore Pathway // Slitherbore Pathway
• 4 Shipwreck Marsh

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Environmental Sciences
• 1 Mascot Exhibition
• 1 Pest Summoning
• 2 Confront the Past
• 2 Teachings of the Archaics

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In order to get Skeletal Swarming into play as quickly as possible, there are a pair of creatures in the deck that will help. Tangled Florahedron // Tangled Vale has a dual purpose for this deck. In the early stages of the game, by casting it as a creature, you'll be able to ramp up your mana production, allowing you to cast spells a turn earlier than usual. In the late game, you might want to pay it as Tangled Vale instead, to add another land that you can use on future turns. Prosperous Innkeeper also provides a bit of mana ramp when it enters play. The Treasure token it creates upon entering the battlefield can help you pay for the Black mana in the cost of Skeletal Swarming. You can also gain quite a bit of life over time with each Skeleton you create.

This deck also includes a pair of The Meathook Massacre. When you cast this legendary enchantment, you can choose how much mana to put into it, allowing you to destroy specific creatures, while leaving other larger creatures in play. While The Meathook Massacre is in play, you'll gain a point of life whenever one of your opponent's creatures dies, and your opponent will lose a point of life whenever one of your creatures dies. This makes it difficult for them to block your Skeleton creature tokens while you have Skeletal Swarming in play. Watching your opponent squirm while making that decision to block or not makes playing this deck a lot of fun.

These Zombies Are Killing It

Next up, I have a deck featuring a horde of Zombies that can overwhelm your opponent. Let's check it out.

These Zombies Are Killing It | MID Standard | MtgMalone, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (18)
• 2 Ebondeath, Dracolich
• 2 Tainted Adversary
• 3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• 3 Skullport Merchant
• 4 Champion of the Perished
• 4 Shambling Ghast

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Lolth, Spider Queen

• Instants (7)
• 3 Infernal Grasp
• 4 Deadly Dispute

• Sorceries (5)
• 2 Duress
• 3 Blood on the Snow

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Ghoulish Procession
• 3 The Meathook Massacre

• Lands (23)
• 2 Faceless Haven
• 21 Snow-Covered Swamp

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Speaking of Lolth, getting this planeswalker into play can offer you an easier way to deal lethal damage to your opponent. Since this deck has ways of creating additional Zombies, getting Lolth's loyalty up to eight can be a trivial matter. This is especially true if you're able to cast The Meathook Massacre while you have a fair amount of creatures in play. For each creature of yours that dies, you'll put one loyalty counter on Lolth. You can then use Lolth's -8 loyalty ability to create an emblem that guarantees that your opponent takes a minimum of eight points of damage every turn you're able to deal combat damage to them.

Zombies, by their nature, are somewhat fragile creatures. It doesn't take much damage for them to die, which works out great for you if you have Ebondeath, Dracolich in your graveyard. Ebondeath can be cast from your graveyard as long as another creature not named Ebondeath, Dracolich died this turn. That's any creature, not just the non-token variety. So, feel free to attack with a Zombie that has decayed that was created by Ghoulish Procession. Whether or not it is blocked, you'll have to sacrifice it at the end of combat, satisfying the death required for Ebondeath to return to the battlefield.

Devils' Playground

The final deck I have for you features Devils, a creature type that doesn't see a lot of play in Magic decks. Let's take a look at the deck to see how it works.

Devils' Playground | MID Standard | HelloGoodGame, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Callous Bloodmage
• 4 Fireblade Charger
• 4 Shambling Ghast
• 4 Tainted Adversary

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 3 Lolth, Spider Queen
• 3 Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

• Instants (3)
• 3 Deadly Dispute

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt
• 1 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
• 2 Roil Eruption
• 4 Burn Down the House
• 4 The Meathook Massacre

• Lands (23)
• 7 Mountain
• 8 Swamp
• 4 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 4 Haunted Ridge

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Admittedly, getting ten Devils in play throughout the game is a tough proposition. Luckily, the other creatures in this deck will die easily allowing you the opportunity to cause additional life loss with The Meathook Massacre. Callous Bloodmage, Fireblade Charger, and Shambling Ghast all have only a single point of toughness. They make for terrific blockers, preventing any non-trample damage from hurting you, and dealing life loss with The Meathook Massacre. Callous Bloodmage offers you the chance to create a 1/1 Pest creature token, who can also be an effective blocker. When Fireblade Charger dies, it deals damage to any target equal to its power. Shambling Ghast's death will either give an opponent's creature -1/-1 until the end of the turn, or it will create a Treasure token for you. When you're getting an advantage for the death of your creatures, it's difficult for your opponent to attack successfully.

Tainted Adversary is a terrific creature in this deck. It can be played in the early game, where it can act as a blocker for slightly larger creatures. It's best, though, when played later in the game, when you're able to pay for its enter the battlefield ability a time or two. By doing this, you'll give Tainted Adversary a +1/+1 counter for each time you pay 3 mana, plus you'll create a pair of 2/2 Zombie creature tokens with decayed. While those tokens will only get to attack a single time before you'll have to sacrifice them, they can deal a lot of damage when combined with the +1/+0 and haste that Zariel's +1 loyalty ability gives them. Your opponent might have difficulty in deciding whether to simply take the damage or to block and potentially lose some of their creatures. This decision is made even more difficult when you have a copy of The Meathook Massacre in play.

Wrapping Up

Whatever your plans are for this Halloween, hopefully you'll have time for some Magic. Whether you play one of the spooky decks I've discussed above or one of your own, let me know in the comments below how you did.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes