[Deck] Zombardment

[Zupponn]

On 3-25-2012, Sam Black did what many of us could not. He managed to create a decent zombie list for Legacy and pilot it to a top 16 finish at a Star City Games Open. Since I was unable to find a thread for this deck on the forum, I took it upon myself to create one.

ZOMBARDMENT

Here's his list:

Zombies by Sam Black Top 16 SCG Open 3-25-2012
4x Bloodghast
4x Carrion Feeder
3x Geralf's Messenger
4x Gravecrawler
2x Rotting Rats
2x Tombstalker
2x Goblin Bombardment
1x Tragic Slip
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Faithless Looting
1x Gitaxian Probe
4x Hymn to Tourach
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
1x Thoughtseize
3x Swamp
2x Badlands
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Marsh Flats
1x Polluted Delta
2x Scrubland
1x Undiscovered Paradise
2x Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard:
3x Dark Confidant
1x Goblin Bombardment
1x Grave Pact
1x Darkblast
1x Disenchant
1x Geth's Verdict
1x Tragic Slip
3x Deathmark
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
1x Vindicate

A good start for a zombies list, but it needed a little streamlining, and then

Zombies by Sam Black Top 8 GP Atlanta 7-1-2012
3 Blood Artist
4 Bloodghast
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Bitterblossom
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Faithless Looting
3 Goblin Bombardment
4 Lingering Souls
4 Thoughtseize
1 Tragic Slip
3 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
3 Scrubland
2 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard:
2 Dark Confidant
1 Darkblast
2 Disenchant
2 Go for the Throat
2 Perish
2 Pithing Needle
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Vindicate

Wow. A top 8 at a Grand Prix with this? That must mean that Black is on to something here...

Now lets look at some card choices and their purpose in the deck:

Looking at creatures, they all fit the sacrificial theme, whether they are the fodder (Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, Tidehollow Sculler) or that they benefit from the sacrifice (Carrion Feeder, Blood Artist). They all are aggressive cards, but Tidehollow Sculler can provide some added utility as well.

There is also a mini token theme going on here with Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls providing more sacrificial fodder as well as either additional blockers or attackers should the need arise.

Then we have the disruption including discard (Cabal Therapy, Thoughtseize) and removal (Goblin Bombardment, Tragic Slip), all of which are good and solid choices in almost any meta.

Any time an aggressive deck has access to good, cheap card advantage, that deck gets a major boost and here is no different. Faithless Looting is amazing in this deck more often drawing you 2 cards and discarding 1 or 2 to be used later than just drawing and discarding.

The sideboard in this new version is still a little bit of a mess of proven decent sideboard cards. A mix of removal (Disenchant, Darkblast, Vindicate, Go for the Throat, Perish) plus Pithing Needle for activated abilities and Surgical Extraction for graveyard hate can go a long way in shoring up those odd matchups. The only oddball here is Dark Confidant, who seems out of place amongst the silver bullets. Maybe there's a matchup where the card advantage provided is incredibly important. I'm not really sure myself.

It's cool to see something fresh and exciting break the monotony of Legacy's big bad decks once in a while, and with a little support by players, this deck could turn out to be a real contender.