https://i.imgur.com/8ynUY0o.jpg
To begin with, the card Vigor Mortis is not included in the deck. It's not a Legacy playable card, don't worry. However, the phrase and the card itself is very descriptive for the deck in a way.
Vigor Mortis (lat.) could be translated as "The liveliness of death" and as you'll notice: the dead won't just stay put!
To begin with, here's the current list:
Vigor Mortis (v. 0.9, 2018) main deck7 [black fetches]
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
1 Badlands
1 Scrubland
1 Cabal Pit
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
4 Putrid Imp
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Bloodghast
2 Gravecrawler
2 Cryptbreaker
1 Liliana, Heretical Healer
1 Scourge of Nel Toth
4 Entomb
2 Bridge from Below
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Collective Brutality
2 Smallpox
2 Life from the Loam
1 Raven's Crime
1 Lingering Souls
And as can be seen, the deck (like the card Vigor Mortis) is heavy black, and doesn't necessarily need anything else to do it's thing. However, access to green gives access to some interesting maneuvers in the form of loaming and DrS activations. In addition to the green splash, SB also features white and red stuff, but the only MD white/red card is the single Lingering Souls.
The Strategy and Gameplay
The deck is generally a graveyard synergistic aggro with an Entomb-toolbox, that borrows gameplay elements from Dredge & Pox. It can also switch to combo or control mode when given an opportunity (or just chosen to go for it).
One of the sweetest aspects of the deck is that it's freaking tricky & surprising. It can suddenly go nuts after an innocent-looking one-drop by raving all around with Putrid Imps, Carrion Feeders, Bloodghasts, Entombs, Bridges from Below, Cabal Therapies and so on. Turn 2 6/6 flyer with a few 2/2 zombie companions is something to look for. The deck can also aim for a grindier game by therapying, wastelanding (with loam recursion) and smallpoxing the opponent's resources. Your opponent won't be prepared for all that's happening and probably even you'll miss lot of edges yourself that you just didn't think of.
Even though being generally a graveyard deck and really hating stuff like Leyline of the Voids, Vigor Mortis isn't as greatly impaired with gy-hosers as decks like Dredge or Reanimator-variants. We can just start dropping cheap threats and disrupt the opponent's gameplay while waiting a solution to the hoser and maybe casually win games while doing it.
Let's have a look of the current version of my sideboard.
Vigor Mortis (v. 0.9, 2018) sideboard
solutions to gy hosers & other annoying permanents
hand disruption
creature hate1 Grave Pact
1 Minister of Pain (small)
1 Darkblast (small) (entombable!)
1 Vengeful Pharaoh (big) (entombable!)
graveyard hate4 Leyline of the Void (also sticks BfB on the graveyard 8) )
lockdown against control/midrange
Interesting options / maybeboard:Liliana of the Veil
Liliana, the Last Hope
Grim Haruspex
Rotting Rats
Demon of Death's Gate
Smothering Abomination
Garza's Assassin
Plagued Rusalka
Blood Artist
Tomb of Urami
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Coffin Purge
Nether Traitor
Ground Seal
Big Game Hunter
Anger (& other Judgment Incarnations)
+ some sb cards main or some md cards on side
We shall delve later into various matchups and specific strategies.
So, how does this all smell like?
