[deck] Zombie Contamination

[SpeedOfDark]

Zombie Contamination

Hey Guys, so the name of the deck is pretty self explanatory.

Zombie Contamination = 4 Gravecrawler + 4 Contamination + 52 cards.

The deck doesn't necessarily have to be mono black, but it does seem like a reasonable starting point given what contamination does. I made up a list off the top of my head below. The list has some stuff that may be too cute, but it looks interesting if for no other reason than giving the contamination middle finger to the opponent consistently and still having a backup plan.

--- Creatures --- (21)
4 Gravecrawler
4 Carrion Feeder
3 Blood Scrivener
3 Entomb
4 Bloodghast
2 Geralf's Messenger
1 Nantuko Husk
--- Spells --- (19)
1 Urborg Justice
1 Ghastly Demise
4 Dismember
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Diabolic Intent
4 Contamination
--- Lands --- (20)
3 Polluted Delta
11 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs

ways to get recurring creatures:
4 Gravecrawler, 4 Bloodghast: pretty self explanatory.
3 Entomb: read as ":b:, play a land: play Bloodghast" OR ":b::b:, have a zombie in play: play Gravecrawler".

ways to get Contamination:
4 Contamination: Awwwww yeah.
2 Diabolic Intent: Cute, but with the amount of recurring creatures, probably works.

sacrifice engines:
4 Carrion Feeder, 1 Nantuko Husk: beaters.

disruption:
4 cabal therapy, 3 inquisition of kozilek: cabal therapy is a given, other discard is debatable.
1 Urborg Justice: might be too cute. If you can consistently get at least get 1 count though, which I'm pretty sure you can, then it should be pretty sweet. There are some cases where you can get one-sided wraths such as sacrifice engine + recurring creature or after an alpha strike.
1 Ghastly Demise, 4 Dismember: generic removal, mostly aimed at deathrite shaman

---

Thoughts, ideas, lists? :O

[mistercakes]

i'd recommend some kind of answer to deathrite shaman. that card can get around contamination for colored mana and get rid of your creatures if you don't have contamination out. you also might want to check out the tin fins deck if you are running entomb as a backup plan (or a sb plan in case contamination is not effective in your matchup)

[bruizar]

This deck is awesome, but I have to ask this:

Why Contamination over Blood Moon? With black mana, people can still cast Deathrite Shaman and therefore remove 1 additional fetch land to pay for Abrupt Decay. Blood Moon makes it impossible for lands to go to the graveyard, which makes Deathrite Shaman useless. It also turns everything into red mana, which is not a colour shared by Abrupt Decay.

EDIT:
What mistercakes said.

[SpeedOfDark]

i'd recommend some kind of answer to deathrite shaman. that card can get around contamination for colored mana and get rid of your creatures if you don't have contamination out. you also might want to check out the tin fins deck if you are running entomb as a backup plan (or a sb plan in case contamination is not effective in your matchup)


This deck is awesome, but I have to ask this:



Why Contamination over Blood Moon? With black mana, people can still cast Deathrite Shaman and therefore remove 1 additional fetch land to pay for Abrupt Decay. Blood Moon makes it impossible for lands to go to the graveyard, which makes Deathrite Shaman useless. It also turns everything into red mana, which is not a colour shared by Abrupt Decay.

EDIT:
What mistercakes said.

Yeah, deathrite shaman is definitely a problem. The list will needs some direct and cheap removal to deal with him.

Why Contamination over Blood Moon? That's a good question. I guess the appeal was that blood moon is only a partial lock whereas contamination is almost a full lock (ignoring deathrite shamans ofc). So, where blood moon can catch the opponent off guard game 1, it is likely to mostly be an annoyance game 2-3 (assuming they fetch for basics), but contamination has the potential to end the game when it resolves regardless of whether the opponent knows its coming. The other reason is that blood moon probably has better shells, whereas contamination probably can't be supported by any other shell except maybe some kind of token shenanigans.

I have to admit blood moon is very interesting though. You could still play goblin bombardment as a wincon, faithless looting and maybe lightning bolt as reach and deathrite shaman cleanup

[TheArchitect]

I'd actually recommend running DRS since 1. Its nuts. and 2. If you have it out and just leave it there it shuts down your opponents DRS. Another good anti DRS card would be disfigure.

[ReAnimator]

I think you for sure want your own DRS, a turn 2 contamination seems really good. Also Dark Ritual might be worth testing but might not be good enough.

Why no Dark Confidants? Scriviners seem worse by a lot (unless this is for budget reasons)

I think you want more fetches and another Urborg, you want to be able to slow roll you fetches when you have bloodghasts on the go.

[Putrid Imp]

Bitterblossom should work well with contamination. It would make the combo less sensitive to GY hate.

Bobs instead of scriveners for sure, few mutavaults for the gravecrawlers.