Beck and Zombie

[KazinMtg]

I've always wanted to make a good zombie infestation deck. I've tried squee/krovikan horror, I've tried madness, I've even gone with treasure hunt with a ton of basics. All of them were fun, nothing competitive.

This new set however, might have given zombie infestation the cards it needs to become the powerhouse it should be: Beck//Call, I'm sure some have already thought of. If you play one beck, you're making a solid string of zombies. If you play 2, you pretty much won the game. Playing 2 becks consistently however, probably not happening.

That's where the 2nd addition comes in: Blood Scrivener . If you only have him, plus your zombie infestation out, you're almost always going to be drawing an extra card every turn, but if you read the card carefully, its not just for the first card drawn every turn. It's for any card drawn! So if you have a Scrivener, and a zombie infestation out, then cast beck, you're going to be making quite a few zombies!

The next step is figuring out what to fill the rest of the deck with. Vengevine/rootwalla shenanigans? Squee/krovikan horror? Possibly just cantrips and control? Here's a very very rough first list:


4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Blood Scrivener
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Beck//Call
2 Call to the Netherworld
22 land

[Brushwagg]

Like the concept, been thinking of some thing simular with VV.

I do have some suggetions though.

Have you given Gravecrawler a look as well as Bloodghast? I know Bloodghast isn't a Zombie but it keeps coming back. Also Gitaxian probe combos great with Therapy. First turn Probe, Therapy. 2nd Turn BG flashback therapy, is pretty good since BG will proabably be back turn 3.

[TraxDaMax]

Was going to suggest something in the lines of Zombardement.dec aswell. Also, 22 lands will definately be too much, especially with 4 BS and 4 Ponder. Something that might be reasonable is adding Gaea's Cradle. Possibly with some Flashback spell or whatever. Anyways, definately a fun thing to explore.

[slave]

I like this idea.

I wonder if Bob could find a place here aswell as Scrivener to help you draw more?
Could be important in early game to find your bits.

[KazinMtg]

I've thought about going with something similar to sam blacks zombie list, but I'm really not sure the deck should be going 4 colors. I mean goblin bombardment would be pretty sweet though, so I'd be willing to try it out.

Is 22 land really too much? I was thinking 4 of them would be wasteland to help with DRS activations, but maybe that's counterproductive in a combo deck?

What do you guys think about a couple dread returns and a flamekin zealot or 2? Possibly a wonder? That way when you combo off, you really combo off. And if we do end up adding red to this, I'm totally throwing in an anger.

[TraxDaMax]

I've thought about going with something similar to sam blacks zombie list, but I'm really not sure the deck should be going 4 colors. I mean goblin bombardment would be pretty sweet though, so I'd be willing to try it out.

Is 22 land really too much? I was thinking 4 of them would be wasteland to help with DRS activations, but maybe that's counterproductive in a combo deck?

What do you guys think about a couple dread returns and a flamekin zealot or 2? Possibly a wonder? That way when you combo off, you really combo off. And if we do end up adding red to this, I'm totally throwing in an anger.

I didn't really mean throwing in red per sé, but now you mention Anger, that does make the whole thing pretty nifty suddenly..

Still, I'm guessing something in the lines of Gaea's Cradle + Craterhoof Behemoth could have you stay in three colors being more consistent, and you could still play like 2 Dread Returns or something so that you don't need the Gaea's to naturally cast Behemoth.

Mind you, just tossing untested and perhaps bad ideas. Food for thought though.

I'm going to throw this on cockatrice and goldfish a bit, see what it does.

4 Bloodghast
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Gravecrawler
4 Blood Scrivener
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Griselbrand

4 Zombie Infestation

2 Life from the Loam

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Careful Study
4 Thoughtseize
4 Beck//Call
2 Dread Return

2 Gaea's Cradle
4 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Undiscoverd Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta

[KazinMtg]

Since we're in blue, what do you think about intuition? Intuition can fetch any combo piece if you really need to go off. It can also fetch dread return and flamekin zealot. Personally I think I like the zealot over the behemoth, because the haste will make the kill a full turn faster, and you should have enough zombies at that point where the extra size shouldn't matter. I do however love the idea of the loam in here. I can see some crazy interactions dredging with beck triggers to get more land to make more zombies to get more triggers to dredge more into a huge cradle activation to do the whole thing over and over again. Yeah, good times. How about something along the lines of this:


4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Blood Scrivener
1 Griselbrand
1 Flame-kin Zealot
2 Dread Return
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Thoughtsieze
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Life from the Loam
2 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Beck//Call

1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Cephalid Colosseum
3 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest