[Deck] Living Dead Girl

[Mr. Safety]

I suggested Shriekmaw on the first page. You cut me deep man...

Entomb is pretty hot here. I forgot it was an instant. You're looking at a mini-Intuition for cheap.

I was really grinding this list in my head last night. I wanted to get an idea of what the core of the deck was in order to find just exactly what your flex spots would be. This is what I came up with:

Non-negotiable dudes:
4x Vengevine
4x Bloodghast
4x Gravecrawler
4x Other Zombie for Gravecrawler (most likely Carrion Feeder)
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Putrid Imp (discard outlet + zombie, definately a must)
3x Other Mana Dork (most likely Elves of Deep Shadow)
1x Wonder

Non-negotiable spells:
4x Buried Alive
3x Intuition (could now become Entomb)

You're looking at 35 cards there, which doesn't give you whole lot of flex room with only 5 slots left. With Entomb, you could potentially lose Careful Study (or the alternative Faithless Looting) but you mentioned it made for fantastic turn 1 plays. I'd say 4 of those slots need to be Study. It's important for this deck, because it's an aggro deck, to have gas on turn 1. Careful Study is one more option, and a great one at that. That leaves you with a whopping ONE SLOT LEFT to tool around with. I think one move could be to doe a 2-3 split with Intuition and Entomb, and drop to 19 lands. You would still have 6 3-mana bombs that would enable broken turn 2 plays (t1 Mana dork, t2 BA/Intuition) and also have great potential for a big turn 1 (Careful Study, Entomb, Putrid Imp, Carrion Feeder).

Entomb brings a lot of open-ended questions. How do you balance a consistent & effective aggro strategy with the temptation to toolbox the hell out of it?

1) Do you include Dread Return and reanimator bombs because it's just so damn easy with Entomb/Buried Alive/Intuition? Would it be a 'bad' reanimator deck because Vengevine doesn't seal the game like Jin or Iona? Can Entomb enable a sideboard reanimation plan with silver bullets, having a transformative-type of sideboard?

2) Do you fight to keep blue simply for Careful Study and Intuition? Can Entomb make up for those being absent, and consequently are there any black substitutes for those that you aren't already including?

3) Having so much black, does Ichorid become one more 'free' black beatstick? Does Ichorid get you so damn close to dredge that you risk a half-ass concoction that isn't as good as going full-on Vengevine aggro or full-in dredge?

Those are tough questions to answer, at least they are daunting to me anyways. The biggest challenge you have right now is whether or not blue is worth the splash, and therefore the higher susceptability to Wasteland.

[Hanni]

Sorry that I missed your suggestion Safety. I was preoccupied with defending myself against the onslaught of attacks yesterday. I should probably reread through the thread.

For example, Freggle suggested Smallpox, which could be good. The self discard can actually be a good thing, sac'ing Ghast or Crawler is asymetrical, and with Entomb and a single Loam, I could easily recover from the land loss.

Speaking of Loam, that was also suggested, and could also be a decent tutor target for hitting land drops for Ghasts midgame.

You say the deck doesn't have many flex spots, but it actually does. There are a lot of strong options for this deck and many directions it can be taken in. I want to find the strongest and most competitive combination of those, without becoming Dredge.

This is the core:

4 Putrid Imp
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
4 Bloodghast
4 Vengevine

None of the other spells are mandatory. They are simply a means of getting the most out of this core. The mana dorks are only necessary for Buried Alive, which in itself may not be necessary. I'm not saying I want to cut my 3cc tutor 3 spell either, I'm just saying it's not a core card.

I tried the red splash last night and it wasn't worth it, at least in the shell I had it in. At the point where I can pay 2R for the flashback, I could probably hardcast Vine. Draw 2 discard 2 is mediocre when I'm not digging for something specific or I don't have valuable targets to discard.

Wonder is all that and a bag of chips. I can't tell you how many times my army of Jackal Pups can get in there after I Entomb for Wonder. Having Vines fly over 4/5 Goyfs is also nice.

Dread Return is an interesting idea, but it would require multiple tutors. Entomb for DR still requires I get a Reanimation target in the yard.

With Buried Alive... Sutured Ghoul or Necrotic Ooze would make the most sense. But now the deck is moving in a different direction. This is not a bad thing, but I'm trying to develop an aggro deck right now, and would like to try and optimize that plan first before exploring alternate gameplans.

I like how the deck can do a play as simple as turn 1 Feeder turn 2 Crawler, and still be able to end up with a big Carrion Feeder without even exposing the rest of the deck or casting any other spells. While at the same time, could instead go turn 1 Birds turn 2 Buried for triple Vines. That's the sort of gameplan I'm trying to focus on for now.

Ichorid doesn't stick around and eats through Ghasts and Crawlers from my yard. His place is in Dredge, not this deck.

[Mr. Safety]

Fair enough...I think you're on the right track for what you want to do. If that is indeed the core of your deck...try leaving blue out. I'm sure you will be trying that, but it bears repeating. Entomb can functionally replace Intuition.

If your plan is to explode into multiple Vengevines, I'm fairly certain you'll want Wild Mongrel. Leaving blue out of the picture makes room for Mongrel as a redundant Putrid Imp.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

This seems pretty sweet, I've been wanting to find some way to abuse all the recurring creatures they've been printing lately, too. Haven't even goldfished the deck yet so I don't have all that many suggestions, though you might want to try out a single Ashen Ghoul. Not really sure if it's good enough but it would allow you to Buried Alive for Ghoul, double Crawler before saccing a BoP to Therapy.
The reason I bring this up is because you might find yourself without Zombies once your opponent knows to kill Feeder and Ghoul is a zombie that will allow for a Crawler chain to come out off of only Buried Alive and a random guy dieing if you don't have the creatures left to trigger Vines.

With Entomb the singleton Loam seems solid, if only to make sure you can actually bring back Ghasts every turn lategame if necessary. It also allows you to turn Careful Study into an actual way to refuel once in a while.

[Tombstalker]

Hanni cool deck idea man, ive actually been messing with something very similar for Modern format although more dredge oriented. Still the main threat package is the same.

I may not have a complete understanding of the deck since I havent played it but may I suggest a singleton of fatestitcher? Hes a zombie that recurrs for free since he can untap the land used to cast him thereby activating your gravecrawlers when you dont have a zombie on board. Might not be a bad idea to entomb this guy as a back up plan to wrath effects.

Also this idea is a little gimmicky but if theres room for white in here you could build a small combo in tireless tribe plus twisted image that could win out of nowhere although subject to disruption. Tribe could replace pimp. I built an entire deck around this interaction + VVs and such. It was hit or miss but some games it could win t2 with wonder in the yard. IDK just a thought.

[Hanni]

Not sure on Ashel Ghoul at the moment. That seems like something I would need to playtest to determine how often that situation pops up and how useful he would be. He's another self-reanimating Zombie, so its worth keeping on my radar. Fatestitcher also seems useful for that purpose.

The more I think about the single Loam, the better it sounds. Triggering Ghasts over and over can be good, especially with a Feeder on the board; Loam would make the Feeder + Ghast combo a lot stronger. I could cut down to 19 lands to fit the Loam, I think.

Loam + Study being a midgame draw engine of sorts doesn't seem bad, either. My only worry with Loam is the amount of design space it opens up. If I'm already in blue, do I go with Intuition instead of Buried Alive (worse at putting dudes in the yard)? Do I run a small Loam toolbox? I really don't want to become some sort of midrange Aggro Loam strategy, but Worm Harvest seems so compelling, and Cabal Pit can deal with a small Scavenging Ooze. Does Vengeful Pharow become another option at that point?

There are so many options for deck construction with this strategy, but I'm certain there are only a few correct ways to build optimally around the core creatures. Ugh, the choices =/

[Freggle]

Here is another list to to show the potential of Life from the Loam

Spells 11
3 Life From the Loam
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lead the Stampede

Creatures 27
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Bloodghast
2 Tombstalker
4 Gravecrawler
4 Putrid Imp
4 Carrion Feeder
2 Eternal Witness
1 Wonder

Lands 25
3 Wasteland
4 Bayou
10 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
3 Dark Depths

Bloodghast is not good enough just to rely on Bloodghast loam. 3 Wasteland gives you a good chance at a waste lock.

...and running Dark Depths & Vampire Hexmage give you a legit way to win outside the yard. It should also be easy to assemble with Lead the Stampede and Life From the Loam filtering the deck. Eternal Witness can also bounce a dredged hexmage.

Edit:Eternal Witness can also be an Animate Dead

[rufus]

Here is another list to to show the potential of Life from the Loam
....
Edit:Eternal Witness can also be an Animate Dead

Hmm... I'd be more inclined to try Mulch with something like Haunted Fengraf or Volrath's Stronghold than Lead the Stampede.

[Mr. Safety]

Ugh, the choices =/

This is why I ended up trading away my Vengevines...I couldn't decide how I wanted to make them work. Good luck!

[Freggle]

Hmm... I'd be more inclined to try Mulch with something like Haunted Fengraf or Volrath's Stronghold than Lead the Stampede.

Sure there are a plethora of things to try. Mulch has been really good for me in standard along side Splinterfright, but standard does not have the yard hate, or people planning for it like in Legacy.

Lead the Stampede gives the deck a viable way to filter cards when a static yard hate card is present ( i.e. cage, relic, crypt, void) to bring the heat topside.

I would say to try Uktabi Orangutan main, but it doesn't handle the scariest of them all Leyline of the Void. Your dead in your tracks with most of these builds until you can find your Nature's Claim The rest of them you can play around.

Lead also works well with one drops and Vengevine (which I happened to wrongfully omit.)

It's not a perfect list, but one showing where loam and hexmange / depths looks scary, and consistent.

Cabal Therapy to nab the exiles STP / PTE, Wasteland to get opposing wastes, and a fair amount of relevant filter to make it consistent. (Loam / witness works through cage & Bloodghast / fetch works through crypt and relic)

[Qweerios]

I tested the deck quite intensively yesterday and have settled for monoblack for now.

As far as the core goes, I think Buried Alive is definitely in there. I have been decimating Maverick and Storm all night with Dark Ritual. The latter is to this deck what LED is to Dredge. Going turn 1 Liliana is so powerful and often too much for your opponent to recover from (she made me win through Cage and Ooze several times). Our curve supports Dark Ritual so well too. Going for a turn 1 Buried Alive is also extremely effective (3 ghast vs RUG tempo, crawler + 2 vines, or 3 vines for T2 explosions). It is also great on T2 when you open with an Imp and are holding any combination of creatures and vines.

Dark Confidant is also one of those cards that I would include as part of the core because we tend to run out of steam pretty fast once a couple of StP hit the table. He also makes for very broken ritual plays as well.

I found Entomb to be very underwhelming in too many situations. Without a dedicated toolbox, I would rather draw into a Zombie, a Bob, or a Liliana than an Entomb.

Phyrexian Revoker is the most synergistic answer to Ooze, Crypt, Deed, and Jitte that I have found.

Darkblast is absolutely sick with Liliana. I moved them mainboard in place of Cabal Therapy for a few reasons:

-Cabal Therapy is only really powerful against Combo decks
-Aggro/Tempo decks will race us quite proficiently (Goblins, Elves, Maverick, Thresh)
-Every decks with creatures in Legacy right now pack x/1 creatures
-Control decks are already vastly in our favor in game 1
-Darkblast is often card advantage because dredge 3 is often as good as drawing

[ZeinVoncy]

It's entirely off subject, and for that I apologize, but figured I'd at least voice it . . . when you say Living Dead Girl, I couldn't help but imagine that I'd be seeing at least 3-4x Braids, Cabal Minion . . .

[Hanni]

Another SWEET interaction. Carrion Feeder protects my threats from Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile.

[Mr. Safety]

Another SWEET interaction. Carrion Feeder protects my threats from Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile.

Nice...I'm guessing they will eventually figure out to deal with the Feeder before it can grow, but if they Stp/path the Feeder they reduce their ability to deal with a Vengevine/Bloodghast/Gravecrawler blitz. The tenacity of your threats are their biggest strength...Vengevine is not as big as an active Knight/Goyf, but it just won't go away. If someone plays 4 Stp main and 4 Paths side, that's still only 8 answers to your 12 recurring threats.

Feeder reminds me of Ravager in Affinity. If you try to deal with the other threats, sac to Ravager. With this one, sac to Feeder.

[Hanni]

After seeing Fauna Shaman + Loyal Retainers do well in Maverick during the Grand Prix coverage, it almost makes me wonder if it couldn't be used in here, as well. Fauna Shaman does seem really slow, at least when it comes to grabbing a playset of Vengevines, but I think the idea has some potential.

I mean, I run a ton of creatures that I actually want Fauna Shaman to discard in the first place. Gravecrawler makes the whole chain stronger, being able to bin a Cravecrawler before grabbing a Carrion Feeder to trigger back the Vengevines. Or, you know, run a singleton Basking Rootwalla and singleton Memnite for even faster chains.

Fauna Shaman also opens up the ability to tutor for Shriekmaw or Big Game Hunter, or other useful creatures.

The deck already has a ton of must-answer creatures, particularly with exile effects, so Fauna Shaman being another must-answer creature seems legit to me.

It would be so nice if they unbanned Survival...

EDIT: OMG... Quirion Ranger has synergy with Bloodghast too. I'm definitely trying out the Fauna Shaman package now.

EDIT 2: Being able to tutor up enchantment removal against Leyline of the Void, or Phyrexian Revoker against Crypt/Relic also seems spicey in postboard games...

I'm almost wondering if white becomes a good color to splash for Gaddock Teeg and Qasali Pridemage...

And does something like Chrome Mox deserve testing?

EDIT: At the point where I'm at nearly 30 creatures, does AEther Vial become worth testing, too?

[Mr. Safety]

See what I mean? Too many options bro, so I gave up on my Fauna Shaman/Vengevine deck.

Scryb Ranger also has potential for untap effects, and the flash, pro-blue, flying body is relivant I think.

If you do Fauna Shaman, I suggest these for silver bullest/enablers:

1x Basking Rootwalla
1x Scryb Ranger
1x Quirion Ranger
1x Shriekmaw


I still think that Buried Alive and Intuition need to be there, it essentially gives you up to 12 must-answer engines along with Shaman. If they counter BA, use Intuition. If they counter either of those, slow roll with Fauna Shaman. Seems legit.

[Hanni]

Meh. Shaman is just way too slow. 1G for a body, and an additional GGGG for a similar effect to Buried Alive. With Quirion Ranger, that's basically 3 turns from the turn its cast.

I still appreciate Quirion Ranger's synergy with Bloodghast, although I'm not sure if that alone is worth it. Besides Vengevines, I don't have any creatures worth untapping (can't block clause)...

Also, Entomb's have been amazing. They increase my early game explosiveness and consistency, and have increased my number of turn 3 goldfishes by a large margin.

4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Buried Alive

That package has been working exceptionally well for me, and I don't think I'll be deviating from it again for a while.

[Sloshthedark]

I like it, just seriously needs at least 3x Cabal Therapy main

[Hanni]

I'm running 4 Cabal Therapy main, actually...

// Lands
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
3 [R] Bayou
3 [R] Underground Sea
1 [UNH] Swamp

// Creatures
4 [7E] Birds of Paradise
4 [TO] Putrid Imp
4 [SC] Carrion Feeder
4 [DKA] Gravecrawler
4 [ZEN] Bloodghast
4 [ROE] Vengevine
1 [JU] Wonder

// Spells
4 [OD] Careful Study
4 [OD] Entomb
4 [OD] Buried Alive
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 4 [WWK] Nature's Claim
SB: 3 [US] Duress
SB: 3 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [RAV] Life from the Loam

[Qweerios]

A single Vengeful Pharaoh is pretty nice with 4 Entomb.

A single Shambling Shell allows you to have access to a Zombie for some Gravecrawler reanimation.