PDA

View Full Version : Fun Theme Deck - Zombies



Clark Kant
10-03-2006, 01:55 AM
I was looking at Graveborn Muse or as JazzyKat referred to it... "a walking phyrexian arena for an extra colorless!" and I got an urge to build a competitive Zombie themed deck.

After looking through the power level of a lot of Zombies, especially a few particular ones which I astricked, I think it's possible to build a competitive Zombie themed deck. No it won't be as powerful as Goblins, but it looks like it could come somewhat close.

Below is a list of Zombies that may be worthwhile to include, focus your attention esp on the Zombies with an astrick next to them...

**Graveborn Muse - Awesome Walking Phyrexian Arena

Blind Creeper

Cabal Interrogator

**Carnophage

**Sarcomancy

**Grave Defiler

**Lord of the Undead

**Soulless One

Organ Grinder

**Rotting Giant

Sangrophage

**Shepard of Rot

Stromgald Crusader

**Zombie Trailblazer

**Undead Warchief

**Zombie Master

Wretched Anurid

**Withered Wretch

Vengeful Dead

Skulking Knight

Putrid Raptor

**Phyrexian Scuta

Helldozer



Non Zombies worth looking at...

Coat of Arms

Call to Grave

**Unholy Grotto

I was mainly wondering if any sources did any of the grunt work on a Zombie themed deck and have insights to share.

Anarky87
10-03-2006, 11:24 AM
**Undead Warrior


Is that supposed to be Undead Warchief? If not, I think the Warchief definitely deserves a slot.

Pinder
10-03-2006, 12:54 PM
How is Grave Defiler not asterisked here? It's a freaking Ringleader for Zombies.

Also, I think that Withered Wretch should definitely be in. It's a 2/2 for 2, which is solid, and also removes the yard against Thresh and the like.

jazzykat
10-03-2006, 01:16 PM
I was looking at Graveborn Muse or as JazzyKat referred to it... "a walking phyrexian arena for an extra colorless!" and I got an urge to build a competitive Zombie themed deck.



Wow that is the first time someone quoted me and wasn't harassing me! Added to the list of non-zombie but cool stuff:

usual suspects: dark ritual, duress, aether vial
and
patriarch's bidding!

Good luck.
JKat

nitewolf9
10-03-2006, 02:19 PM
If I were gona build a zombie deck, it would probably look something like this:

4x dark ritual
4x duress
4x cabal therapy
4x aether vial
3x umezawa's jitte

2x oversold cemetary

1x graveborn muse
3x lord of the undead
4x withered wretch
4x grave defiler
4x undead warchief
2x Soulless One

3x chrome mox
2x unholy grotto
16x swamp

sideboard:
4x engineered plague
4x hymn to tourach
4x dystopia
3x pithing needle

Grave defilier gives us something like goblin ringleader, which is obviously great. Souless one is a nice piece of fat that can end the game and give goblins some real problems...plus, after mass removal, with cemetary out, he comes back just as good as big and bad as he was. Wretch is great against alot of the format and is pretty obvious. We also run jitte because it's busted, and our creature count supports it (and our creatures can come back). Aether vial is great here, and when you get one to 4 counters you can cast warcheif, defiler, and soulless one off of it. I was thinking of having some creatures at the 3 cmc range to eat up the time spent getting to 4 counters, and also a way to fight plague if need be, so I put lord of the undead in there.

We can fight plague with duress and cabal therapy, and we also have plague to help fight goblins. We are also more equipped to do battle with combo than goblins is, and have maindeck yard hate in the form of withered wretch.

Chrome mox is there as another lackey answer, as well as a way to be more explosive (run disruption earlier, etc.).

This deck lacks the sheer explosiveness of goblins, but I think it's better against decks like solidarity and iggy, and even thresh (dystopia and wretch is really golden there).

I duno, what do you guys think?

Clark Kant
10-03-2006, 02:31 PM
Thanks for all the advise. Yeah you guys are right, I mixed up which zombie does what and screwed up some of my astricks.

The last build looks pretty good but off the top of my head I think I would rather not run Oversold Cemetary and run 2 Graveborn Muse and 1 Patriach's Bidding instead. Your build gave a great list to work off of though.

I'll try and get a deck together and see how it works out.

You're right, it won't be as fast as goblins, but it will have similar tempo, and a lot more disruption which could lead to a pretty competitive final product.

Goblin Snowman
10-03-2006, 02:36 PM
Ok, I see a few different decks you could make with this archtype. You could go a few ways with this, with the whle aggro side with Carnophage/Sarcomancy, Rotting Giant/Wretched Anurid/Shepered of Rot, Embalmed Brawler, Graveborn Muse, Gemplam Polluter.
You could go into a Train Wreckish build with Gangurous Zombies (not sure on spelling), Graveborn Muse, Helldozer, Call to the Grave (goddamn Moongoose), Withered Wretch, Noxious Ghoul, Twisted Abombination, w/e.
You could make it look like Goblins, more Midrange than anything, with Cabal Interrogater, Sarcomancy, Graveborn Muse, Polluter, Lord of the Undead/Warchief, possibly Soulless one. I just don't like him. Maybe Vengeful Dead? Rotting Giant? Carnophage? Maybe Contaimination with Oversold Cemetary?
Or there's the way I like best, replacing Deadguy Ale's creatures with Zombies, Graveborn for Bob, Interrogater for Hyppy, Wretch for Wretch, Shade for Rotting Giant? Just to get a Bargin going.

nitewolf9
10-03-2006, 03:03 PM
Call to the Grave seems very powerful in the build I suggested...
And perhaps 1 more graveborn muse would be a good addition.

I would probably run the 1 muse and 2 call to the grave over the cemetaries and one of the other creatures, such as a lord of the undead (with ritual and the 3 mox's, the call's seem manageable and completely broken when they hit).

The Lotus Eater
10-03-2006, 05:37 PM
If I were gona build a zombie deck, it would probably look something like this:

4x dark ritual
4x duress
4x cabal therapy
4x aether vial
3x umezawa's jitte

2x oversold cemetary

1x graveborn muse
3x lord of the undead
4x withered wretch
4x grave defiler
4x undead warchief
2x Soulless One

3x chrome mox
2x unholy grotto
16x swamp

sideboard:
4x engineered plague
4x hymn to tourach
4x dystopia
3x pithing needle

Looks like a fun deck. I've always liked the idea of a zombie deck for 1.5, but they do seem a little slow and clunky.

I would suggest Festering Goblin for the build, as you don't have any 1cc drop creatures. It also works good with cabal therapy. I don't think Oversold Cemetery is really needed here, perhaps 2x Call To The Grave in that slot. It does cost five mana, but it looks like it can really help out the deck in the late game against decks that can get bigger fatties out (Madness, 5/3, Angel Stompy.

Also, I don't think the usefullness of Zombie Trailblazer should be overlooked. It can essentially be used as a Time Walk by tapping your creatures during your opponents upkeep and manascrewing them until you have gained significant board advantage.

I've been playing around with a zombie deck for a little bit now, but I use a more control/aggro build:

// Lands
20 [US] Swamp

// Creatures
3 [PS] Lord of the Undead
3 [AP] Grave Defiler
2 [TO] Zombie Trailblazer
4 [9E] Festering Goblin
4 [SC] Undead Warchief
4 [LE] Withered Wretch
2 [LE] Graveborn Muse

// Spells
4 [FE] Hymn to Tourach
2 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [R] Dark Ritual
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
4 [US] Duress

The early Duress, Hymn, Therapy can usually outright win against combo.

Rastadon
10-03-2006, 07:02 PM
Yes! Resident Evil - The Deck!

Why play Patriarch's Bidding when you can play Balthor the Defiled?

Good luck. I really really really want this to be compeditive.

syssc9
10-04-2006, 11:51 AM
I love Zombies - got real involved with them during Onslaught - lots of ways to build really fun Z-decks! Gempalm Polluter and Unholy Grotto combo to give you the equivalent of direct damage (well, life loss for the other guy) while avoiding the Grotto’s usual card disadvantage. You can sit behind a few decent Zombie blockers, never attack, and recur the Polluter FTW. Vengeful Dead is fun against creature sweepers, but Noxious Ghoul is a house if you are using Patriarch’s Bidding or Living Death. (I hadn’t thought of Balthor, the Defiled – thanks for the tip.) I often used the Putrid Raptor’s Morph cost to dump the Ghoul in the yard. When a Ghoul or 2 hit play along with a bunch of other Zombies, the opponent’s resurrected creatures go right back to the yard (assuming they’re not zombies.) Festering Goblin is a two for one, much like Goblin Fanatic, and I can’t even imagine a Z-deck without Carrion Feeder! The synergy between these last 2 is great, and the combat tricks available with Carrion Feeder are legion. Twisted Abom is a decent finisher - he swamp cycles early and beats late. I would almost always cycle him, then let him be resurrected by a Bidding. No worry about his high cost – a bit like Morphing the Raptor.

I find that there is at least one basic division: Z-decks with Grotto usually don’t work well with other creature recursion like Bidding or Living Death. Here’s one possibility of a list:

4 Festering Goblin
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Withered Wretch
4 Putrid Raptor
4 Noxious Ghoul
4 Twisted Abomination
4 Gempalm Polluter
4 Grave Defiler
3 Vengefull Dead
3 Patriarch’s Bidding

4 Polluted Delta/Bloodstained Mire
2 Cabal Coffers
16 Swamp

The fetch lands and Abominations serve as shuffle effects after Grave Defiler puts a Bidding on the bottom of your library. Green or white could be splashed for Naturalize/Disenchant, or even Vindicate. I never bothered with creature removal due to the action of the Ghoul, other cheap Zombies and especially Bidding.

My Zombie war cry is: “You can’t kill my Zombies, they’re already dead!”

The Lotus Eater
10-05-2006, 04:15 PM
The more I play around with this deck, the less and less I like Lord of the Undead. At first, he seemed like an autoinclude in this deck, but I ended up finding his ability to return zombies to my hand from the grave the best part about him, but I didn't like how he required mana. I'd almost rather run Zombie Master for the regenration ability he grants, which seems like it would come in handy. Also, I found that the deck has very little room for creature removal, especially for a mono-black deck.

I have found these cards to be absolutely essential to the deck and irreplaceable:
Undead Warchief: Lowers the cost of your zombies, most noteably the next guy.
Grave Defiler: The ringleader for zombies. This is one way that you're going to get your CA. He not only gets creatures in your hand, but he puts lands on the bottom of your library, quite the double whammy.
Gempalm Polluter: Replaces itself when cycled and usually does a significant amount of damage. Also, easy to recover from the graveyard in most builds for repeated usage.
Dark Ritual: Pumps out those early Warchiefs.
Unholy Grotto: Capable of bringing back any cycling zombie or Grave Defiler that you may need.

The current build that I am testing does not include Lord of the Undead, I was able to squeeze in 3x Diabolic Edicts and am currently testing 2x Oath of Ghouls in the place of Lord of the Undead. It requires less creatures in the grave than Oversold Cemetery and with cards like Withered Wretch out, you can almost always insure you have more creatures in your grave than your opponent, the cycling zombies come in handy here as they love jumping in the graveyard.

This is my current creaturebase:
4 [SC] Undead Warchief
4 [LE] Withered Wretch
4 [LE] Gempalm Polluter
4 [9E] Festering Goblin
2 [SC] Twisted Abomination
4 [AP] Grave Defiler

I'm still running 4x Duress and 3x Cabal Therapies, but I have been forced to sideboard my Hymn to Tourachs. I do miss them maindecked, as they can randomly win games by themselves.

Eldariel
10-05-2006, 04:35 PM
Umm, I've had pretty good experience with Zombies, but I don't find Grave Defiler playable. Why? Sarcomancy is your best 1-drop by far, you really want to play it for the curve, and it doesn't play along with Grave Defiler. I've actually played around with the tribe quite a bit, but you'll need a really different approach if you wanna fit Grave Defilers in addition to Graveborn Muses and Undead Warchiefs (both incredible 4-drops). I've actually tried out a bunch of more or less serious Zombie-builds over the time and while I'd usually just rather have Goblins, swinging for 12 turn 2 is always fun (turn 1 Ritual-3 2-drops, turn 2 Ritual-Undead Warchief). Then there's always the Warchief-2-mana Lord-play. One more succesful build I tried was a Zombie Sligh to this tune:

Mana (fetches are there for Cabal Pit, Rotting Giant, et cetera)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wasteland
4 Swamp
1 Tomb of Urami
1 Cabal Pit
4 Polluted Delta
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chrome Mox

Creatures
4 Wretched Anurid
4 Lord of the Undead
4 Rotting Giant
4 Carnophage
2 Carrion Feeder
4 Undead Warchief
4 Sarcomancy

Spells
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Snuff Out

which is obviously pretty explosive, but doesn't really recover that well (few Grottos could be nice). It's like Goblin Sligh vs. Vial Goblins, one is a single push FTW, while the other one has a long game. Still, Cabal Therapy is really nice disruption for any purpose whatsoever (and the deck has dudes to sac usually), Snuff Out is fairly decent removal in a deck that tends to curve out and Moxes and Rituals speed the play up by quite a bit.

Still, if one really wanted to utilize Zombies, one should really utilize the incredible power of Graveborn Muse; even one activation gives enough cards to smash anyone and there're always Carrion Feeders to sac her to once she's done her job. Grave Defiler could be fit, but you'd really need some sort of 30-Zombie build to utilize him (meaning no Sarcomancy and probably only one non-Zombie spell in addition to either Vials and lands or Rituals and lands). Balthor the Defiled is a must though, although I'd utilize Withered Wretch to eat the other graves empty..

syssc9
10-08-2006, 10:08 AM
I love this site! I play with a deep card pool (but not T1 deep) and you guys are always giving me Ideas. I tend to build in a slightly different direction because I play mostly casual multiplayer, but boy, do you ever peak my interest. This thread especially got me to dust off my old Z-deck, make a couple quick changes, and take it with me to my local shop last Thursday night. I won 3 games at the big table against 4 other players. Zombies Rule – at least they did last Thursday for me. Thanks. Since then I have done some significant research and made several other changes and thought I would post them for you to look over. Don’t know how this would work in a Tourney oriented environment, but it sure worked for me against all comers on Thursday.

4 Putrid Imp
4 Festering Goblin
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Withered Wretch
4 Putrid Raptor
4 Noxious Ghoul
4 Gempalm Polluter
4 Grave Defiler
4 Balthor the Defiled
2 Lord of the Undead (could be Gravedigger)

2 Cabal Coffers
20 Swamp

I removed the Polluted Deltas and Twisted Abom’s because I no longer need shuffle effects. This is due to the wonderful suggestion of Balthor, wonderful Balthor the Defiled! A Zombie that substitutes for Patriarch’s bidding is gold. I never thought too much of Lord of the dead either, but he works well in this build. His main function is to retrieve Gempalms from the yard. I may even go to 3 of him and Drop Balthor to 3. Needs testing. His boost of +1/+1 is a nice by-product, but not really necessary. I suppose I could drop 2 swamps for 2 Unholy Grottoes for backup, but so far I am really liking the Lord.

Just in case anyone is wondering, I almost never hard cast the Raptor – I morph him (preferably) with a Ghoul, and I always cycle the Gempalm. When you look at my manna curve from that perspective, it looks much better. The Ghoul servers as all purpose creature removal as he and a bunch of his brethren coming out of the yard together serve to dust off just about anything, even some very large indestructibles! If I need other types of removal, I keep 4 Larry Niven’s Disks in the same box. Not really a side board, but it’s a start.

Remember:You can’t kill my Zombies –they’re already dead!!!