Johanovich
05-19-2012, 04:55 PM
Hey guys,
So me and some of my buddies had a buiding contest to make our next deck in legacy.
Since zombies have a nostalgic meaning to me (one of my first decks) I decided to make a zombie tribal deck. I figured that with the recent addition of gravecrawler it should be possible to make a competitive list. So without further ado, my list:
//Lands
2 Unholy Grotto
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Cavern Of Souls
//Spells
4 AEther Vial
4 Diabolic Intent
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Contamination
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Brainstorm
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Unearth
//Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
2 Lord of the Undead
4 Diregraf Captain
1 Cemetery Reaper
3 Skaab Ruinator
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Festering Goblin
//Sideboard:
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Perish
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
2 Tragic Slip
2 Thoughtseize
2 Mindbreak Trap
Now I first thought of going with a full aggro list which sort of situated between goblins and merfolk, but I figured that it would’t work because of the lack of lackey and lack of 2-cost lords and counters.
Then I noticed the combination of gravecrawler with cabal therapy and diabolic intent, and then the even better synergy with a dead goblin which has always been a favourite of mine: Festering Goblin.
I then decided to go with a toolbox approach with some disruptive effects and vial. So to go on to the card explanation:
-Fetchlands: Fairly obvious
-Duals: I decided to run only 2 underground sea since I run no daze and there are only a few blue cards.
-Unholy grotto: Having a way of bringing back destroyed creatures other than gravecrawler is very strong. Has a nice synergy with nameless inversion.
-Phyrexian tower: With gravecrawler this gives you a way of gaining 2 mana to do something and gain gravecrawler back in the next. Also can be used as a way to ping damage with diregraf captain.
-Urnorg, tomb of yawgmoth: I run 9 lands (including fetch) that don’t produce colored mana by themselves, so this is kind of a must if you want to drop cards that have double black in their manacost.
-Cavern of souls: Uncounterable creatures is always nice to have, but since you can bring most of your creatures back anyway I opted o run only 2.
-Vials: Zombies have a notoriously bad manacurve with almost no decent 1 and 2 drops, so having a vial at 3 to sneak your lords and ruinators into play without having to pay mana is great. Especially ruinator is a beating with this.
-Diabolic intent: 2 mana tutor that requires you to sacrifice a creature. With gravecrawler en festering goblin, this is not a problem. This card allows you to play some 1-offs.
-Cabal therapy: Obviously very big cardadvantage if you play this right. Gravecrawler comes back anyway and one of strongest plays you can make is to go turn 1 festering goblin, turn 2 cabal therapy, flashback therapy to kill a 1-drop in the process and ruin their hand.
-Contamination: A black blood moon to a lot of decks Requires a sacrifice during your upkeep each turn, but thank to gravecreawler this should not be a poblem. With gravecrawler and captain you can ping damage in the process while your opponent searches for answers.
-Jitte: Just an overpowered card in any deck that plays creatures that deal damage to opponents.
-Brainstorm: I have my doubts about playing these, but you need some sort of filtering effect and the decks has 10 cards to shuffle so using brainstorm to its full potential shoud be possible.
-Inversion: Acts in the same way as punishing fire for maverick since it is recurrable with grotto and lord, except you don’t let your opponents gain life. Also has a good application against other tribal decks since it makes them lose their tribal benefits.
-Unearth: Brings back all of your creatures and cycles if you don’t need it.
-Gravecrawler: Automatically 4. This guy makes the deck work.
-Lord of the undead: recurs all of your important cards, boosts you creatures and has a cool name. Only 2 to keep the manacurve in check and you don’t need more with intent.
-Diregraf captain: Pings every time one of your creatures die, so with gravecrawler this is an obvious synergy. Also boosts your zombie horde and has deathtouch which can be crucial to stall the board or kill big critters.
-Cemetery reaper: Lord effect + graveyard remove effect for gravebased decks. Sadly you can only remove creatures and you can’t use his effect immediately, but it’s better than nothing. Probably one of the cards that would go away if I find something better.
-Skaab ruinator: 5/6 Flying beatstick that becomes incredibly overpowered with vial. In times of need he can also be recurred from the graveyard.
-Carrion feeder: 1 Drop that can grow out of control with gravecrawler, but he can’t block an therefore he becomes a liability together with gravecrawler.
-Diregraf ghoul: 2/2 for 1. Not my favourite card in the deck but I needed more 1 cmc critters to keep my curve in check.
-Festering goblin: I love this guy. He can potentially kill a 2/2 of 2 1/1’s. Team him up with diabolic intent or cabal therapy and you have a very annoying little bastard for aggro decks.
The sideboard is composed of just a combination of hate to combat a broad metagame but can be changed.
I haven’t tested this very much (not yet!) but it seems to have the potential to do well. I would think that it has a decent game against decks like Maverick because it can disrupt their early game and take over the game as it goes along. Contamination is very strong in the current metagame.
What do you guys think?
So me and some of my buddies had a buiding contest to make our next deck in legacy.
Since zombies have a nostalgic meaning to me (one of my first decks) I decided to make a zombie tribal deck. I figured that with the recent addition of gravecrawler it should be possible to make a competitive list. So without further ado, my list:
//Lands
2 Unholy Grotto
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Cavern Of Souls
//Spells
4 AEther Vial
4 Diabolic Intent
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Contamination
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Brainstorm
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Unearth
//Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
2 Lord of the Undead
4 Diregraf Captain
1 Cemetery Reaper
3 Skaab Ruinator
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Festering Goblin
//Sideboard:
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Perish
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
2 Tragic Slip
2 Thoughtseize
2 Mindbreak Trap
Now I first thought of going with a full aggro list which sort of situated between goblins and merfolk, but I figured that it would’t work because of the lack of lackey and lack of 2-cost lords and counters.
Then I noticed the combination of gravecrawler with cabal therapy and diabolic intent, and then the even better synergy with a dead goblin which has always been a favourite of mine: Festering Goblin.
I then decided to go with a toolbox approach with some disruptive effects and vial. So to go on to the card explanation:
-Fetchlands: Fairly obvious
-Duals: I decided to run only 2 underground sea since I run no daze and there are only a few blue cards.
-Unholy grotto: Having a way of bringing back destroyed creatures other than gravecrawler is very strong. Has a nice synergy with nameless inversion.
-Phyrexian tower: With gravecrawler this gives you a way of gaining 2 mana to do something and gain gravecrawler back in the next. Also can be used as a way to ping damage with diregraf captain.
-Urnorg, tomb of yawgmoth: I run 9 lands (including fetch) that don’t produce colored mana by themselves, so this is kind of a must if you want to drop cards that have double black in their manacost.
-Cavern of souls: Uncounterable creatures is always nice to have, but since you can bring most of your creatures back anyway I opted o run only 2.
-Vials: Zombies have a notoriously bad manacurve with almost no decent 1 and 2 drops, so having a vial at 3 to sneak your lords and ruinators into play without having to pay mana is great. Especially ruinator is a beating with this.
-Diabolic intent: 2 mana tutor that requires you to sacrifice a creature. With gravecrawler en festering goblin, this is not a problem. This card allows you to play some 1-offs.
-Cabal therapy: Obviously very big cardadvantage if you play this right. Gravecrawler comes back anyway and one of strongest plays you can make is to go turn 1 festering goblin, turn 2 cabal therapy, flashback therapy to kill a 1-drop in the process and ruin their hand.
-Contamination: A black blood moon to a lot of decks Requires a sacrifice during your upkeep each turn, but thank to gravecreawler this should not be a poblem. With gravecrawler and captain you can ping damage in the process while your opponent searches for answers.
-Jitte: Just an overpowered card in any deck that plays creatures that deal damage to opponents.
-Brainstorm: I have my doubts about playing these, but you need some sort of filtering effect and the decks has 10 cards to shuffle so using brainstorm to its full potential shoud be possible.
-Inversion: Acts in the same way as punishing fire for maverick since it is recurrable with grotto and lord, except you don’t let your opponents gain life. Also has a good application against other tribal decks since it makes them lose their tribal benefits.
-Unearth: Brings back all of your creatures and cycles if you don’t need it.
-Gravecrawler: Automatically 4. This guy makes the deck work.
-Lord of the undead: recurs all of your important cards, boosts you creatures and has a cool name. Only 2 to keep the manacurve in check and you don’t need more with intent.
-Diregraf captain: Pings every time one of your creatures die, so with gravecrawler this is an obvious synergy. Also boosts your zombie horde and has deathtouch which can be crucial to stall the board or kill big critters.
-Cemetery reaper: Lord effect + graveyard remove effect for gravebased decks. Sadly you can only remove creatures and you can’t use his effect immediately, but it’s better than nothing. Probably one of the cards that would go away if I find something better.
-Skaab ruinator: 5/6 Flying beatstick that becomes incredibly overpowered with vial. In times of need he can also be recurred from the graveyard.
-Carrion feeder: 1 Drop that can grow out of control with gravecrawler, but he can’t block an therefore he becomes a liability together with gravecrawler.
-Diregraf ghoul: 2/2 for 1. Not my favourite card in the deck but I needed more 1 cmc critters to keep my curve in check.
-Festering goblin: I love this guy. He can potentially kill a 2/2 of 2 1/1’s. Team him up with diabolic intent or cabal therapy and you have a very annoying little bastard for aggro decks.
The sideboard is composed of just a combination of hate to combat a broad metagame but can be changed.
I haven’t tested this very much (not yet!) but it seems to have the potential to do well. I would think that it has a decent game against decks like Maverick because it can disrupt their early game and take over the game as it goes along. Contamination is very strong in the current metagame.
What do you guys think?