Darwin's Dead: Spicy Brew
Darwin's Dead is a blue-black Zombie deck with a combo built out of a creature card. Rotlung Reanimator makes a 2/2 black Zombie whenever it or another Cleric dies. Artificial Evolution costs one blue mana and replaces one creature type with another in a card's text, so cast on Rotlung it turns Cleric into Zombie, and from then on, as long as that Rotlung stays in play, every Zombie that dies leaves a new 2/2 Zombie behind, tokens included. Altar of Dementia sacrifices a creature for no mana and makes a player mill as many cards as that creature's power. With all three in play, each token you sacrifice to the Altar mills two cards and replaces itself, and you keep going until the opponent's library is empty. They lose the next time they have to draw.
Until the pieces come together, it plays like a Zombie deck, and all sixteen creatures are Zombies. Withered Wretch is a Zombie Cleric, so it leaves a token behind even before you find Evolution, and for one mana it exiles a card from a graveyard. Carrion Feeder is a second sacrifice outlet: with an evolved Rotlung, every token you feed it turns into a +1/+1 counter and a new token, so the Feeder can get as big as you want, and an Altar drawn later lets you sacrifice the Feeder and mill as many cards as its power in one go. Festering Goblin gives a creature -1/-1 when it dies, which kills an X/1 when you sacrifice the Goblin to the Feeder. Lord of the Undead gives your other Zombies +1/+1, so each token mills three instead of two, and returns a dead Rotlung to your hand for 1B and a tap. Unearth puts any of the sixteen back onto the battlefield for B, since none of them costs more than three, and cycles when there's nothing to bring back.
Duress and Cabal Therapy take the removal spell or counterspell meant for Rotlung, and Therapy's flashback costs a creature, which an evolved Rotlung replaces right away. Lim-Dûl's Vault looks at five cards at a time, paying 1 life for each new five, then puts the last five on top in the order you want; Impulse takes one of the top four at instant speed, so the two together dig for Evolution or the Altar. The mana is four Polluted Delta, four Underground River, two City of Brass, nine Swamps and three Islands. One line the deck can take: Duress on turn one, Withered Wretch on turn two, Rotlung on turn three, then Altar and Evolution on turn four with a land left over, sacrificing the Wretch to start.
Artificial Evolution does almost nothing on its own, the creature plan won't always outrace a dedicated aggro deck, and Rotlung draws the removal, which is where Lord of the Undead and Unearth come in. Gaea's Blessing shuffles the graveyard back when it's milled, so against it keep Withered Wretch around: exile the Blessing in response to its trigger, the rest of the graveyard still goes back, and then you keep milling. The sideboard has Hydroblast for red threats, Engineered Plague for Goblins and Elves, Annul for artifacts and enchantments while they're being cast, Chain of Vapor to bounce a permanent that stops the combo, Tormod's Crypt, Smother for Phyrexian Dreadnought and other cheap creatures, and a fourth Duress. The list hasn't been tested in a tournament yet. Rotlung with Artificial Evolution has made one Premodern Top 8 so far: Martin P finished in the Top 4 of the Moxforge League on 30 April 2023 with a Zombie aggro deck that played Evolution but no Altar of Dementia.
Mainboard
- 4× Rotlung Reanimator
- 4× Carrion Feeder
- 3× Withered Wretch
- 3× Festering Goblin
- 2× Lord of the Undead
- 4× Artificial Evolution
- 3× Altar of Dementia
- 4× Cabal Therapy
- 3× Duress
- 3× Lim-Dûl's Vault
- 3× Impulse
- 2× Unearth
- 4× Polluted Delta
- 4× Underground River
- 2× City of Brass
- 9× Swamp
- 3× Island
Sideboard
- 3× Hydroblast
- 3× Engineered Plague
- 2× Annul
- 2× Chain of Vapor
- 2× Tormod's Crypt
- 2× Smother
- 1× Duress
