Hello everyone! I’m Levi from The Thought Vessel, and today I am very excited to present my Commander deck tech for The Ghoul, GunslingerThe Ghoul, Gunslinger. I am a huge Walton Goggins fan, so I will admit that I was disappointed that there really wasn’t a character from the original Fallout set that was close enough to Cooper Howard to actually build a deck around. But with the new release of the Fallout Secret Lair, we finally got our man.

But is this card all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s take a look.

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The Ghoul, GunslingerThe Ghoul, Gunslinger is a 2/3 Zombie Mutant Rogue for with first strike that says “Whenever The Ghoul or another nontoken Zombie or Mutant you control dies, target player gets two rad counters. If that player is you, create a Treasure token.”

My initial reaction to this card is wanting to pick up a copy to put in my MothmanMothman deck, as it seems like a great in-universe fit. Providing a little self-mill or an infinite combo outlet for Zombie decks is going to be really solid, as it can fill a lot of different roles in your standard The Scarab GodThe Scarab God Zombie Typal deck.

But in the command zone, it’s not bringing as much power as other Zombie commanders like Wilhelt, the RotcleaverWilhelt, the Rotcleaver, Varina, Lich QueenVarina, Lich Queen, or even Ghoulcaller GisaGhoulcaller Gisa would, so we're sacrificing some guaranteed firepower. A bonus here is the political side of things, as players will often see this deck as that one awesome character from Fallout with 99 cards, and we might be able to fly under the radar while we're setting up, seeing a theme instead of a threat.

The biggest comparison to The Ghoul is either Zul Ashur, Lich LordZul Ashur, Lich Lord or Mikaeus, the UnhallowedMikaeus, the Unhallowed. Similar to a lot of commanders in this space, regardless of who is in our command zone, we’re probably going to play with all three of these cards in our deck list. Zul Ashur, Lich LordZul Ashur, Lich Lord, would play very similarly to The Ghoul, but their support pieces would be different.

The Ghoul excels at being able to load up our graveyard with creatures, while Zul allows us to cast them from the grave. Ultimately, the strategy is the same, but Zul is a little more enclosed around a Zombie deck, while The Ghoul has extra weapons in the holster with the rad counters, self-mill, and being able to mix in Mutants.

Mikaeus, the UnhallowedMikaeus, the Unhallowed is an absolute staple in a lot of black decks that involve Zombies, graveyards, or even being dropped in as a combo option. We typically don’t see a lot of Mikaeus, the Unhallowed decks in the wild because it’s very transparently putting one half of a two-card infinite combo in the command zone. It's the kind of commander that's going to have the table’s undivided attention from the very start of the game.

Without access to a lot of protection magic in mono-black, that's a tough spot to operate from. The Ghoul on the combo side of things acts as more of an enabler. With a combo like Phyrexian AltarPhyrexian Altar and GravecrawlerGravecrawler, we can simply rake in the death triggers, load up each opponent with 100 rad counters, and pass the turn to watch the radioactive fireworks.

Remember, if the fireworks are bigger than your thumb, there’s no point in running. They both can operate as combo commanders, but I think The Ghoul has a better chance of actually pulling it off in a game.

I can see a few different ways we can approach things. The first thing we can do is fully lean into The Ghoul and make the theme of the deck revolve around our commander entirely with rad counters, aristocrats, proliferation, and really get grindy. I don’t like this as much because if The Ghoul starts getting targeted a lot and hated out of the game, as some players have negative reactions towards mill strategies, a deck like that could struggle where it doesn’t have to.

I'm intrigued by the idea of a Mutant deck, but with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Marvel Super Heroes coming up this year, where we'll be getting a lot more Mutants, I want to hold off on that archetype to see what is available to us, especially since we're only in black.

If a dedicated Ghoul or Mutant deck doesn’t work, our alternatives are aggressive combo or Zombie themes. Since our commander cares about Zombies, we’re better off using Zombie lords and typal synergies. Zombies offer plenty of options for self-sacrifice and graveyard recursion.

So, we will build a Zombie deck focused on death triggers, graveyard filling, and recurring our strongest creatures.

​Lord of the UndeadLord of the Undead is an iconic Zombie staple that allows us to buff our Zombies while also having the activated ability to pay two mana and bring a Zombie from our graveyard back to hand. Since this ability doesn’t state that it has to be done as a sorcery, we can either grab an important creature that we want to play that turn, or we can use it defensively to save our more important Zombie if an opponent uses a Bojuka BogBojuka Bog or FarewellFarewell to remove our graveyard.

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Accursed MarauderAccursed Marauder and Fleshbag MarauderFleshbag Marauder, or as I like to call them, the Marauder Brothers, can sacrifice themselves along with a creature from each of our opponents while getting us a rad counter that we can use to fill up our graveyard. These types of creatures are this deck’s bread and butter, or in this case, Zombie and Zombie.

​Undead WarchiefUndead Warchief is our employee of the month on our graveyard shift (I’m sorry) as it provides us both +2/+1 to our Zombies and reduces their casting cost by one mana, making it that much easier to deploy a horde.

​On the other side of things, Grim ServantGrim Servant is a great tutor on a Zombie body that can let us get whatever we may need in the moment between recursion, a sac outlet, removal, or even a part of a finisher if we're prepared to go for the win.

In this deck, if a creature is going to break our theme by being a non-Zombie, it better be a pretty special card. In the case of the four non-Zombie creatures, they have earned their spots.

​Our Spirit, Crypt GhastCrypt Ghast is a 2/2 for four mana that allows our Swamps to tap for an extra mana and also has extort, a keyword that lets us pay one extra mana at the end of a spell to steal one life from each player. Since we're going to be losing life fairly consistently, between being damaged by our rad counters and players simply attacking us in retaliation, we want to include a few ways to get some of that life back to keep ourselves with a healthy life total. We want to avoid abandoning our strategy because we can’t afford the life to do so.

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In the same vein, we're also playing an Elf with Ayara, First of LocthwainAyara, First of Locthwain. Every time a black creature enters the battlefield for us, we will gain one life, and each of our opponents is going to lose one life. This would be solid on its own, but we can also tap Ayara to sacrifice a creature and draw a card. So in one three-mana card, we get life drain, card advantage, and a sac outlet. We can let the non-Zombie issue go.

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Finally, we have our Humans (or pre-Zombies), with Pitiless PlundererPitiless Plunderer and Morbid OpportunistMorbid Opportunist. These provide us with what every functioning Commander deck needs: ramp and card draw.

More specifically, these creatures provide value through what this deck is already trying to do, and that is sacrificing creatures. Once per turn, when another creature dies, any creature, not just our own, we can draw a card. With the right setup, we can be drawing an extra four cards per rotation of the table without a second thought. Pitiless Plunderer doesn’t have the same once-per-turn restriction. Any time another creature of ours dies, we get a Treasure token.

Between Pitiless Plunderer and The Ghoul, Gunslinger, we can really start raking in the mana!

No deck would be complete without a few cards that can throw the game on its head in our favor. The appropriately named Zombie ApocalypseZombie Apocalypse brings back every Zombie in our graveyard right onto the battlefield. It also has the bonus of destroying all Humans, which is becoming more and more relevant with Humans being prevalent in so many sets.
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Liliana, Dreadhorde GeneralLiliana, Dreadhorde General provides its extra utility by drawing us cards when our creatures die, and can also force each player to sacrifice two creatures. In our deck, this is an asset. For our opponents, it can be devastating. We can also save up for that -9 ability to wipe our opponents' boards. It's not something that I would rely on, but it's a nice effect to have in our back pocket.

​What Zombie list is complete without Gray Merchant of AsphodelGray Merchant of Asphodel, or as the community knows him, Gary? Draining the table equal to our devotion to black is a strong effect in most decks, but in mono-black, it becomes that much stronger.

With the number of Zombies in this deck, Pyre of HeroesPyre of Heroes is incredibly powerful, allowing us to sacrifice a creature and tutor a different Zombie right into play. The progression up to Mikaeus at six mana is fairly clean, with multiple creatures that have tutor effects along the way.

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Murderous RiderMurderous Rider is a bit of a sleeper for this deck. Getting a removal spell that we can then play as a 2/3 lifelinking Zombie to gain some life back is solid all around. Yes, it goes back into our library when it dies, but having that utility with this card makes it a lot better for this deck than a Snuff OutSnuff Out would in its place.

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If all else fails, we can try Plan B with the Wand of OrcusWand of Orcus. With the number of lords that this deck has, this can produce an army of 2/2 Zombie tokens in no time. If we’re feeling synergistic, we can play this Equipment onto Carrion FeederCarrion Feeder and redeem our Zombies for +1/+1 counters to build up our board and our attacking creature at the same time.

In true Ghoul fashion, we can’t simply travel from point A to point B with our combat damage. We shall get sidetracked by “nonsense” every time. This pile of bovine fertilizer is in the form of some multi-card combos that we can utilize in the event we are playing against an aggressive life gain or turbo fog deck, where combat damage simply isn’t going to cut it.

The combos in this deck are what I like to call "organic" combos, or combos that are composed of cards that are all useful to the deck on their own if we aren't able to get the combo online. Two major combo lines can be made up of different pieces, but they will involve Mikaeus, the UnhallowedMikaeus, the Unhallowed, or GravecrawlerGravecrawler. Keep in mind that these combos are 100% optional and can easily be swapped for an X spell win condition like ExsanguinateExsanguinate or additional Zombie lords without a second thought.

​Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a six-mana legendary creature that gives our creatures undying. Undying is a keyword that allows us to bring our creature back from the graveyard if it was sent there from the battlefield, if it didn’t already have a +1/+1 counter on it. If this sounds familiar, that's because it is! Persist is the same ability but with a -1/-1 counter. So, if we can get Putrid GoblinPutrid Goblin into play with a sac outlet, we can consistently bring it back over and over again since the +1/+1 counter and -1/-1 counter would nullify each other. Every time that death trigger occurs, we simply give our opponent two rad counters until there are enough to take the entire table down to zero cards in the deck or life total.​

Gravecrawler is a one-mana 2/1 that can’t block. We’ll forgive his lack of defense because what he gives up in chump blocking, he makes up for with being able to be cast from our graveyard as long as we control a Zombie. Using either Pitiless PlundererPitiless Plunderer and a sac outlet or Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar, we can continuously sacrifice Gravecrawler and use the mana to recast it to stack up the rad counter with our commander in play.

If we have a card like Bontu's MonumentBontu's Monument in play, we could also forgo having the Ghoul in play altogether and just drain our opponents for everything they have.

If we either don’t want to go for our combos or are not able to, we can also win games the old-fashioned way. This deck can go on the combat plan extremely well. We can throw our creatures at our opponents with confidence, knowing that if we lose any, we can get them back from our graveyard.

If we get into a battle of attrition, that kind of recursion can give us a huge boost. With cards like The Meathook MassacreThe Meathook Massacre, we're going to be chipping away at life totals the entire game, so when we do go on the combat play, we don't have to start from scratch.

This particular list doesn't use any Game Changers. While this is definitely not a Bracket 2 deck, I believe the general card quality is strong enough to warrant playing up in Bracket 3. With a few adjustments that we’ll talk about later, this deck can play up in the Bracket 4 space comfortably as well.

Ultimately, with a creature type like Zombies which has been given so much support over the years, there is simply so much strength in the aggregate that we would have to really go out of our way to push ourselves down to Bracket 2. The pool of Zombies is so deep that we could swap out 20 Zombies from our list and not change our power level.

To move this deck up to a higher Bracket, implementing some inorganic combos and really leaning into those lines of play seems like the most natural path forward. Cards like Demonic TutorDemonic Tutor would be an easy inclusion, and we could take out some of the Zombie lords, as we wouldn’t be trying to win through traditional combat as often.

Corpse HarvesterCorpse Harvester can consistently help tutor up those Zombie combo pieces while also triggering The Ghoul. TriskelionTriskelion would be an easy card to swap in since we're already playing Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. We could even explore some Stax effects like ContaminationContamination to slow the table down as we build to a combo line.

We’re currently playing some more exciting Zombies at a higher mana value that could probably be switched out for some Zombies at a lower curve as well. In the higher Bracket, we can expect the game to hit a critical mass earlier on, so we would just want to adjust the deck accordingly.

If we wanted to move the Bracket down, we could look to add some Mutants and rad counter synergy and lean more into the Fallout theme with cards like Hancock, Ghoulish MayorHancock, Ghoulish Mayor, and Infesting RadroachInfesting Radroach. By diluting our focus, we would naturally slow the deck down to a more relaxed pace and give ourselves some different play pattern options at the same time.