So I have been toying around with a few zombies I have and not sure where to go.
I do want this for the "casual night magic" at the lgs but I would love to take it to anything "real" just for fun because why not.
I do like goblins and merfolk decks but they really are not my tribe. Been a fan of zombies ever since I started mtg really.
Not sure if I should take ideas from goblins and merfolk like vial, port, wasteland, Lords and that sort.
I do need cavern's for sure, wasteland is not good as most zombies I chose are 1 and multiblack so I would have to have urborg to make port and wasteland usable to cast stuff.
But if I use vial then it don't matter, I really want to use rituals for speed but consistency against counter magic vial with cavern should be a must.
But dropping in 3 carnophage t1 is just sweet but like anything a fow means I'm done for. Now on to cards
Creatures I am interested in using
Carnophage
Corpse Harvester
Geralf's Messenger
Gravecrawler
Gurmag Angler
Maggot Carrier
Sangrophage
Shepherd of Rot
If I do use rits dark and culling are my top picks, I don't have any other fow user at the lgs so I think I can get away with a ritual build for the time being.
Removal in the form of edict effects and dismember.
Discard I don't really have room for but can be good to have, but then again at my lgs removal is almost non existent to the point of laughing your way out of the store.
I ha e been toying with draw in the form of sign in blood, nights whisper and alters reap.
And my creature curve is picked so low so I can use unearth, if it's useless I draw.
Reasons for creatures
I love the good 1drop zombies, I almost want maggot carrier over gravecrawler because it causes life lose on entering.
But repeatability the crawler is by far the best for the long game.
Maybe maggot can go.
The phages because the most damage for the cost, life loss is a thing but I hope I do more damage before it matters.
Corpse harvester is fantastic, any zombie and a land for the payment of a creature that I can recure or it just comes back(messenger).
The fish because it's a big beatstick
Shepard of rot is really my endgame, I love that card because it reminds me of old pestilence which is another card I really found interesting.
I have it as a 1 of in the idea but tendrils of agony, it gives life back, takes life and works with all the rits and such.
But if I go vial its useless and I need a different way to get life back from the phages and Shepard.
I really want to make this a strong contender but it will never be "t2" unless we get a zombie recruiter and a 2/2 haste for 1.
I have gone through almost every zombie in the cmc top of 3 and these are the ones I really like.
Only 3drop I like is messenger and I'm not a huge fan of the Lord's, I want to drop creatures, get some beats in and finish with SoR.
I do have 1 big issue and that's a lot of 2 cmc spells which can lead to bad opening hands and reliant on rits to do anything.
Not sure on numbers at this point or which direction to go to plan the deck.
Just tossing around the idea and decided to ask for opinions on the subject.
Combo decks are probably pretty great in that field.Originally Posted by Sidneyious
Out of curiosity, what are the other decks you expect to run into? Whenever I build a new deck, I also build in mind of what I expect to face.
Zombies was my first love in Legacy from monoB to splash white and more. However, that was before delver and terminus existed. But some new zombie cards can make this more fun than what I remember. I topped out at 2-3 Undead Warchiefs, but Corpse harvester was way too slow for me. I usually pulled ahead with the one drops or Lord of the Undead paired with Gempalm Polluter in case my Shepard was too risky to activate.
Lands
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Verdant Catacombs
7 Swamp
1 Leechridden Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Mutavault
1 Unholy Grotto
Creatures
3 Gempalm Polluter
3 Lord of the Undead
3 Mogis's Marauder
3 Shepherd of Rot
3 Carrion Feeder
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Carnophage
Spells
4 Bad Moon
4 Sarcomancy
3 Unearth
Sideboard
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Yixlid Jailer
3 Bitterblossom
2 Pithing Needle
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Withered Wretch
1 Stillmoon Cavalier
Here's what I remember from the top of my head for a monoB list with some current updates (so it's not straight from 2009) and I'm also taking into consideration this is more of a budget. Correct me if I'm wrong here because I could add more things to beef up the power and consistency like Jitte/Dark Confidant and add white for disruption + removal. Manabase could be all swamps, but some key zombie cards like Unholy Grotto and Leechridden Swamp are cheap to get and should be in any zombie deck for reach. You mentioned Cavern of souls and I prefer that over vial to address countermagic since it costs no extra deck space and vials (and rituals) take up slots that could be threats. It is usually hard to recover from mulligans with zombies, so I like to keep the deck dense with threats and not give the opponent time to setup before I deploy the first wave of zombies.
Zombies have cool tricks like Carrion feeder + Gravecrawler to make huge one drops or have a mid-late game mana sink to bust through blockers or close the game out fast. Gravecrawler in this way can act as a zombie Ravager by eating creatures that were going to die to removal anyway or your own chumpblockers to then buyback with unholy grotto. The Mogis's Maruaders is also nice at keeping the pressure up once you are facing blockers. Mogis, Gempalm, and Leechridden Swamp (to some extent) can put you at a lifetotal high enough to go crazy with a final activation of shepherd.
Sb isn't actually made, but that can start you off. There are lots of useful zombies left if you need removal like pairing Nameless Inversion with Lord of the Undead to buy it back.
Hopefully this helps you eat some more brains.
I expect very mediocre decks, if I remove a blocker I can get lots of damage in.
If I can dump my hand ala affinity I'm golden.
If certain people come in I have oops and dredge to deal with. Otherwise its dumb aggro like I want to do but stronger than them.
I do like the idea with carrion feeder, with a rit I can do that a few times.
Gary is a possibly over the tendrils idea.
If I stick with the phages which I really want to, I dont see much removal if any happening.
Most want to trade creature for creature, one likes to use mana dorks and lords.
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http://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/...8525311190.png
What about it ?
If you want to make Legacy Zombies you'll probably have to adopt a Merfolk approach.
Lords on lords on lords. And Aether Vial.
Problem is that Merfolk can run 8 2 mana lords (and 4 Phantasmal Image) where Zombie lords start @3 mana.
So basically what you're building is Merfolk Gone Bad (or Rotten Fish, whatever tickles your fancy).
Being able to cast Buried Alive for 3 Gravecrawlers is pretty awesome though, I'll admit that. Add in some Bridge From Belows and sac outlets and you might have something. Like Bad Dredge, or Baby Reanimator.
It's a little old, but the Zombardment thread might be worth looking at.
I put this together for Tribal Wars, but just posting it in hopes it might have a useful idea in there:
4 Putrid Imp
4 Grave crawler
3 Relentless Dead
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Prized Amalgam
1 Rotting Rats
20 Creatures
4 Cabal Theapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Dark Salvation
19 Spells
4 Cavern of souls
4 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
5 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
21 Lands
60 Total
I toyed around with Zombies in Legacy for a month or two not too long ago. It was definitely fund and I took a lot of people by surprise, but I never really cracked the nut.. However, one card I am certain you NEED to play is Scourge of Nel Toth
For reference, this is what I ended up with:
Creature (29)
4x Bloodghast
2x Fatestitcher
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
1x Golgari Thug
4x Gravecrawler
2x Phantasmagorian
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Putrid Imp
4x Scourge of Nel Toth
Instant (5)
1x Darkblast
4x Entomb
Land (18)
1x Cabal Pit
1x Cephalid Coliseum
2x Dakmor Salvage
2x Phyrexian Tower
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
3x Underground Sea
1x Undiscovered Paradise
3x Verdant Catacombs
Sorcery (8)
4x Careful Study
4x Gitaxian Probe
Sideboard (15)
1x Ashen Rider
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Coffin Purge
1x Dread Return
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
2x Karakas
2x Pithing Needle
4x Reanimate
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
Feel free to pick up the mantle, I am sure there is a good Zombie deck hidden somewhere in the cardpool, I have just moved on for now (Though Cryptbreaker briefly made me wanna go back)
Good luck with it
There are some other possibilities - a graveyard deck with Zombie Infestation or a combo deck that uses Rooftop Storm.
What would be your approach with the addition of Cryptbreaker?
i think there would be value (like most other tribal decks) to run aether vial. works rather well with relentless dead if nothing else.
zombies after going through gatherer which might be playable
anathemancer
cryptbreaker
diregraf colossus
geralf's messenger
gravecrawler
lord of the undead
relentless dead
gempalm polluter
grey merchant of asphodel
zombie master
undead gladiator
stillmoon cavalier
lifebane zombie
withered wretch
gurmag angler
grave defiler
western paladin
probably need to run deathrite shaman in any case.
-rob
Don't have a sideboard yet, but as a mainboard -- potential?
4 Putrid Imp
4 Grave-crawler
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Scourge of Nel Toth
4 Cryptbreaker
1 Haunted Dead
4 Careful Study
4 Force of Will
1 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Cavern of souls
4 Polluted Delta
4 Blood-stained Mire
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Island
Cryptbreaker, haunted dead and scourge is bad.
I like the zombie mentor idea but it needs an aggro gas like the phages have.
Vial is a given at this point.
If we went fish like we need Lords, and urborg with more recursion for our beaters.
Much discard lime hymn and duress, yes thoughtseize and iok are " better" but we want to eliminate removal/hate more than whatever and life mater's.
Shepard of rot is by far the best finisher if we untap and corpse harvester is great with gravecrawler and the like.
Messenger us costly but it's power level is insane, it comes in tapped but it's for sure 2 for 3b and a body,
It don't play well with most of the plans many bring up but what is offers is better than most tribal decks can offer.
I'll be the first to say I hate almost all the Lords for zombies but Lord of the undead seems the most playable.
Bloodghast is good only if it can be used, might be the 2drop we can use with gravecrawler.
I can't say enough about how much I love corpse harvester, it costs 5 but to get lands and a tutorable zombie and a land it's endgame pleasure.
I love the phages in non removal meta's, it's nuts, all they can do is block but then when sor comes online they lose.
There's always the suicide black plan of going to the aggro side of things.
1CMC
Gravecrawler
Carnophage
Carrion Feeder
Diregraf Ghoul
Sarcomancy
Putrid Imp
2CMC
Barrow Ghoul
Blood Scrivener
Relentless Dead
Sangrophage
Shepherd of Rot
Spiteful Returned
Stromgald Crusader
Wretched Anurid
Add in Dark Ritual, some mass pump like Bad Moon, Dark Triumph, or Scare Tactics and maybe some removal of some sort.
It's a very all-in strategy, but it could be fun.
I like sarcomancy!
I've been messing around with sui-black style zombies for years now, and sadly I am very pessimistic that it'll ever work. Decks now are on a whole too strong, zombies are going to have to do something different; something semi-broken with consistency to even be a tier 2 deck...
Right now I'm pinning my hopes on Scourge of Nel Toth, although the deck indeed is very vulnerable to GY.
Haven't developed a Side Board plan yet for that.
Anyway, this is what I got after some table top play this week, I might need to fit some putrid imps in.
Turn 1 Entomb to Haunted dead is great, and I'm finding Diregraf to consistently come down as a 4/4 or 5/5 early game.
Force of Will might be somewhat sustainable if dismember is taken out, and 2 more cards are taken out, to add 2 brainstorms to bring the blue cards count to 16 (still low..)
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Grave-crawler
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Scourge of Nel Toth
3 Diregraf Colossus
2 Haunted Dead
4 Careful Study
2 Brainstorm
1 Cabal Therapy
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Dismember
4 Cavern of souls
4 Polluted Delta
4 Blood-stained Mire
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Island
Last edited by LordEvilTeaCup; 08-07-2016 at 09:44 AM.
I decided to revisit Zombies after I got to se Voldaren Pariah play out at the PT. I started of with the shell I shared earlier in this thread and wanted to go more grind than dredge. This is what I have come around to so far:
Creature (32)
4x Bloodghast
1x Carrion Feeder
3x Cryptbreaker
4x Gravecrawler
2x Haunted Dead
2x Lotleth Troll
2x Prized Amalgam
4x Putrid Imp
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Scourge of Nel Toth
2x Voldaren Pariah
Land (19)
3x Bayou
1x Dakmor Salvage
1x Forest
2x Phyrexian Tower
3x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
1x Underground Sea
1x Undiscovered Paradise
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volrath's Stronghold
Instant (6)
3x Abrupt Decay
3x Grisly Salvage
Planeswalker (3)
3x Liliana of the Veil
Sideboard (15)
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Mindbreak Trap
2x Null Rod
2x Pithing Needle
4x Thoughtseize
I will probably give this a go at the weekly legacy tourney at my LSG Tuesday
You might want to get some cavern of souls mainboard, helps you power through a Scourge of Nel Toth against force of will. I know you have both bloodghast and gravecrawler for recurrable sacrifices, but getting behind tempo might be game.
Looks promising though, let us know how you do! Ride those Undead Dragons to victory!
Servus,
I think that Zombies would have to be built on [card]Contamination[/card] to be worthwhile and to gain a justification to run the deck in the first place, just like it is the case with Back to Basics and MUC. The past sets have given Zombies a sufficent number of Cards that enable the Contamination lock while not being too bad on their own, namely [card]Gravecrawler[/card] and more recently [card]Relentless Dead[/card]. While the main goal should still be the usual beatdown in my opinion, one should consider the Contamination lock as a sideplan that works best if the Opponent already had to spend most of his ressources to stop the beatdown. It's not even the case that the deck becomes that much graveyard-reliant since said cards are all good on their own and if the Opponent tries to attack the graveyard, he will most likely be overwhelmed by the Zombie Horde anyway. Both cards Play work well both with Cabal Therapy and Carrion Feeder by the way, but that seems to be more known. Aside from that, another merit or apology of playing a Zombie tribal deck is is the maginificient synergy between [card]Lord of the Undead[/card] and [card]Nameless Inversion[/card]. I have two lists that im currently testing but still uncertain what judgement has to be passed.
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