Grand Nagus Zek

Grand Nagus Zek is a clever little Treasure engine that grows exponentially as creatures die around the table. You're incentivized to play aristocrats that sacrifice themselves or enable death triggers—each creature death nets you a Treasure token, which makes Zek bigger and generates mana flexibility. Your core gameplan is to enable repeated creature deaths through sacrifice outlets, board wipes, or combat, while Zek slowly becomes a legitimate threat that can swing for serious damage. You can lean into the Treasure/Borg artifact creature synergies from the Star Trek set to create a hybrid deck that generates value from death triggers and then leverages all that mana and artifact fodder into a midrange or combo finish.

The beauty of Zek is that he slots into black's natural death-matters ecosystem—cards like Viscera Seer, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Cartel Aristocrat let you sacrifice for value every turn, triggering Zek once per turn for a Treasure. Pair this with cards that create token armies or sacrifice outlets that double as draw/tutors, and you're generating both board presence and explosive mana. Late game, Zek becomes a 6+ power flyer or attacker that's extremely hard to race.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.