Decayed in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | Illustration by Chris Rallis

Have you ever played a video game with a weight or inventory space mechanic? One where the larger, heavy-hitting weapons take up more room or encumber your character, while the more light-weight weapons are easier to manage but sacrifice damage output? That’s a common balancing act for game developers, and it translates into Magic cards as well.

See, Magic is well-known for designing creatures that fall into one of two camps: either the weaker, more expensive card with a great ability, or the cheaper, over-statted creature with a drawback. Decayed falls into that latter category, and while it’s mechanically linked to the Zombie tokens from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, it’s a masterclass in demonstrating the way the game developers balance their cards.

I’m putting on the L1 judge hat, so pick up your limbs and find your corpse buddy: We’re talking about decayed.

How Does Decayed Work?

Ghouls' Night Out | Illustration by Fajareka Setiawan

A creature with decayed can’t block, and when it attacks, you sacrifice it at the end of combat. It’s technically a static ability (can’t block) and a triggered ability (sacrifice after attacking) in one. It’s really as simple as that, and with the exception of a few cards, it almost exclusively appears on Zombie tokens created by cards from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Notably, the sacrifice effect triggers on attacks, but the creature isn’t sacrificed until the end of combat. That means it still deals combat damage, then a delayed sacrifice trigger goes on the stack during the end of combat phase.

The History of Decayed

Decayed was introduced as a zombie-themed mechanic in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt. None of the cards in the set actually had decayed; instead, they created 2/2 Zombie tokens with decayed or returned creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield with decayed. MID featured 14 cards that created decayed creatures, with another four unique cards in the Undead Unleashed precon from Midnight Hunt Commander, bringing the total to 18 cards.

The mechanic wasn’t used in the follow-up set, Innistrad: Crimson Vow and hasn’t been seen since MID, though I think there’s quite a bit of potential for a return.

Is Decayed a Triggered Ability?

Decayed is part static ability, part triggered ability, with the trigger being tied to the sacrifice part of the effect. The trigger does cause an ability to go on the stack, and can be responded to.

Can You Sacrifice a Creature in Response to Decayed?

Yes! Since the sacrifice effect from decayed goes on the stack, you can use instant-speed effects to interact with the creature before decayed resolves. For example, you can attack with a decayed zombie, deal combat damage, go to the end of combat step where the second delayed trigger happens, then sacrifice that zombie to Village Rites before the decayed trigger resolves.

A word to the wise: If you’re playing on Arena, I highly recommend using Full Control (CTRL + Shift) if you plan on sacrificing decayed creatures with an instant-speed effect. The game might recognize when you have an effect you can use in response to the sacrifice trigger, but the timing is strange and Full Control guarantees you don’t miss your opportunity.

Do Decayed Tokens Die?

When you sacrifice a decayed token, it dies like any other creature would. That means it goes to the graveyard, where it ceases to exist since it’s a token. Effects like Blood Artist and Agent of the Iron Throne will trigger.

Do Decayed Tokens Cause Sacrifice Triggers?

Effects that trigger when a permanent is sacrificed trigger when you sacrifice a decayed token. Mayhem Devil and similar cards “see” the decayed token be sacrificed, even if the token doesn’t stay in the graveyard after it dies.

Do All Zombies Have Decayed in MTG?

The only zombies with decayed are the ones created by an effect that gives them decayed. The ability isn’t flavorfully tied to zombie creatures as a whole. An effect mentions when a card has decayed; otherwise it’s safe to assume it doesn’t.

Does Poppet Factory Get Rid of Decayed?

Poppet Factory removes all abilities from creature tokens you control, which includes the decayed ability. If you control the Factory and a 2/2 decayed Zombie token, treat the token like a base 3/3 without decayed until Factory leaves the battlefield.

This rarely happens, but if a decayed creature attacks, it’s still sacrificed at the end of combat even if it loses decayed before then.

Is Decayed Good?

Technically no, in Magic and real life. Decayed is essentially drawback text, so you don’t really want the decayed ability on your creatures. However, the creation of decayed creatures is tacked on to the effect of other cards, so even though the mechanic itself is an inherent downside, the card creating those creatures can still be quite good.

Think about it like Phyrexian Arena. It’s not a good thing that Arena causes you to lose life each turn, but that’s the tradeoff for an extra card each turn, which you’ll happily take. Decayed has similar downside, but that downside might be used to balance out a more desirable creature or effect.

Decayed hasn’t appeared on any standalone cards yet, but it’s perfectly plausible to imagine non-token creature cards that just inherently have decayed. Decayed gives the designers a tool to balance out future designs, so it seems reasonable to print a creature with gigantic stats and decayed at a low mana value: The decayed drawback means the strengths of the card can be pushed in a different direction. Decayed wouldn’t be good here, but it would allow for the design of interesting, pushed creatures and reanimation effects.

Can a Creature Have Multiple Instances of Decayed? Does it Matter?

Creatures can only have multiple instances of decayed through some very convoluted lines of play. It wouldn’t matter, since multiple decayed triggers wouldn’t change the way the mechanic plays out. More triggers would go on the stack, but the end result would be the same.

Gallery and List of Decayed Cards

• Crowded Crypt
• Curse of the Restless Dead
• Diregraf Horde
• Falcon Abomination
• Flip the Switch
• Ghoulcaller's Harvest
• Ghoulish Procession
• Ghouls' Night Out
• Gisa, Glorious Resurrector
• Hobbling Zombie
• Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
• No Way Out
• Poppet Stitcher / Poppet Factory
• Revenge of the Drowned
• Rotten Reunion
• Startle
• Tainted Adversary
• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Best Decayed Cards

Crowded Crypt

There’s a lot of discourse these days about whether 3-cost mana rocks hold up in EDH, and to that I say play what you want to play but lean towards 3-mana rocks with some sort of upside. Crowded Crypt is exactly what I’m looking for in a mana rock. It gives black another ramp tool that thematically ties into zombie-themed decks, so there’s plenty to love here.

Ghouls’ Night Out

10/10 on power, 0/10 for the name. Ghouls' Night Out is exactly what I mean when I say decayed is a developer tool to push the power level on cards without making them completely unbalanced. A quad-reanimate spell for 5 mana is crazy good, but decayed is a reasonable drawback. More cards like this please!

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector

Gisa, Glorious Resurrector is cool in theory but paints a big enough target on your head that it rarely “does the thing.” People hate having their creatures exiled and there’s usually a window between when those creatures get exiled and when Gisa reanimates them, so your opponents will usually pick it off before that happens. It’s a cool design, and one of the only cards that grants decayed to normal creature cards.

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is in the running for best Bitterblossom of all time, right behind… well, you know. The OG. Jadar can’t go wide the way ‘blossom can, but it’s great at making expendable bodies at virtually no cost.

Poppet Stitcher / Poppet Factory

Poppet Stitcher is one of many Young Pyromancer variants with a token payoff on the back, which is very uncharacteristic of a blue card. It doesn’t create blockers or repeatable attackers the same way many creatures like this do, but ye ol’ Poppet Factory gives your decayed zombies more staying power than normal.

Rotten Reunion

Rotten Reunion doesn’t quite live up to other top-tier graveyard hate, but there’s something here. It sits at the cross section of a number of different themes: token generation, zombie typal, spellcasting, graveyard hate. That all adds up to a card I’d consider in budget lists or Peasant EDH.

Tainted Adversary

The cards from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt’s Tainted cycle are nice mana sinks. Tainted Adversary is one of the least exciting, but zombie decks won’t mind a cheap body that you can run out early or turn into a mini army of zombies late.

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver is one of the most popular commander of the last two years. It’s the zombie commander of choice and proof that typal decks are still some of the most popular strategies in Commander.

Decklist: Decayed Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver in Commander

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver | Illustration by Chris Rallis

In an attempt to make as close to a “decayed” Commander deck as I possibly could, I started out with the Undead Unleashed precon from Midnight Hunt Commander and made adjustments from there. That means you’ve got Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver as your commander, a legend designed to work directly with decayed tokens and other expendable creatures.

Of course, the roster of decayed cards is pretty short, and some of those aren’t even cards you’re happy to play in casual Commander, so I crammed in as many of the playable ones as I could, left the others in their graves, and shaped a typical zombie typal deck around it.

You have most of your usual zombie payoffs like Cryptbreaker, Noxious Ghoul, and Zombie Apocalypse, but I added a number of sacrifice effects and other synergy cards to work with your higher-than-average number of decayed creatures.

You can feed your decayed zombies to Attrition, turn them into extra cards with Village Rites, Fell Stinger, and a few others, or get extra damage out of them with Mirkwood Bats and Plague Belcher. You also have Poppet Factory and Dress Down which work favorably with decayed zombies and let you keep them around for additional attacks.

All-in-all, this is more of a zombie-themed deck with a decayed subtheme than it is a full decayed deck, but that’s about as close as you’ll get without playing some underpowered cards. I kept the card considerations somewhat budget-friendly, though I shaped up the manabase a decent amount. Try it out, but you can always fine-tune it, too.

Undead End

Crowded Crypt | Illustration by Jarel Threat

End of the road. RIP.

That’s the scoop on decayed, a mechanic that’s pretty narrow as it stands but has a lot of potential for future card designs. I hope it makes a return as a balancing tool on normal cards rather than being directly tied to the MID zombies. Ghouls' Night Out and Gisa, Glorious Resurrector suggest someone’s already been thinking about it.

How do you feel about decayed, and did I answer all your questions about it? If not, ask away and I’m sure I can rise from the dead to answer a few more. Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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