[Primer] Wild Zombies

[ACME_Myst]

Legacy Wild Zombies Primer

Introduction
Over the past few months, my team has been working on porting Wild Zombies to Legacy.
First of, let's do some history lessons for the people who don't know the idea of the deck:

The original version of the deck was an old (2001) extended build.
Some information about this deck can be found here (http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=GPLV01%5C792ymg).

In 2005, Andrew Oyen placed 1st at a Vintage tournament, winning a mox ruby. His report and decklist can be found here (http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/10789.html).

Decklist
Now, with the history of the deck out of the way, let's show our decklist. The sideboard is just a quick draft to give an idea, we haven't really set it in stone yet.


//Land (22)
3 Bayou
2 Taiga
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Volrath's Stronghold
2 Barbarian Ring
4 Tranquil Thicket

//Creatures (19)
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Krovikan Horror
3 Nimble Mongoose

//Spells (19)
4 Life from the Loam
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Firestorm
3 Darkblast

//Sideboard (15)
1 Plateau
4 Duress
3 Ray of Revelation
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Coffin Purge


What exactly is Wild Zombies?

Wild Zombies is a deck designed to abuse Wild Mongrel and Zombie Infestation to the biggest possible extend. It uses cards like Life from the Loam, Squee, and Krovikan Horror too have an enormous hand to pitch to your discard outlets. While doing this, it uses cards like Firestorm, Cabal Therapy and Darkblast to clear the way for it's creatures.

Card Explanations
- 5 Duals, 6 Fetch: Because colorfixing and deckthinning is good ;)
- 4 Basics: Getting yourself wastelanded out of the game sucks. These guys prevent that.
- 4 Tranquil Thicket: These cycle, allowing you to dredge LftL/Darkblast back into your hand, or just draw a card. Insane draw engine with Life from the Loam.
- 2 Barbarian Ring: Kills nearly all the creatures you care about in the format, or just throw them at your opponents' head for the last points of damage. Get's really scary with Loam as well.
- 1 Volrath's Stronghold: Just in case the game goes long, it's nice to have a card that can return Mongrels/Gooses.

- 4 Basking Rootwalla, 3 Nimble Mongoose: These guys beat. 0 Mana 1/1's, and 1 mana 3/3 untargettables are great. Wally's are also the most frequent Therapy flashback victim if you don't have ZI out.
- 4 Wild Mongrel: Grows really really big, really really fast. Then eats your opponent.
- 4 Squee, 4 Krovikan Horror: This is half of the handfill engine of the deck. Pitch them to Mongrel or ZI each turn, and have them return to you hand to do it again.

- 4 Life from the Loam: This is the other half of the handfill engine. It returns cards to pitch to Mongrel and ZI. If makes sure you make all your landdrops. It also fills you graveyard with Squee's and Horrors. Basicly, it does everything you want too happen. However, the card is not needed too win. I've had my Loams Extirpated in the early game, and still won. It's a nice plus if you do have them though.

- 4 Zombie Infestation: Makes lots and lots of tokens.

- 4 Cabal Therapy: These disrupt your opponent (Bet you didn't know that ;) )
- 4 Firestorm: Great creature removal. Pitching Squee's, Horrors and Wally's too blow up the other persons board, and hitting him for 5 at the dome is just unfair. Can also be used as a finisher, blowing up all you own creatures but doing the final points of damage to your opponent.

- 3 Darkblast: These kill most creatures in the format, as well as helping you fill your graveyard with usefull stuff.


Why play Wild Zombies?
First of all, the deck is a blast too play. I realize that there are actually people that play Wombat, so being fun doesn't seem to be the reason people play certain decks ;). Read on..

The best thing about this deck is the fact that it can beat fast and hard, while keeping control of the board, mostly starting from turn 2. Our list has been designed to kill aggro-control and control variants like Fish, ********, Deadguy and Landstill. If these decks make up a big part of your metagame, Wild Zombies could be a solid deckchoice.

Matchups
We don't have actual percentages yet too back this up, but here is the general idea:

Good Matchups:
- ********
- Fish
- Deadguy
- Most other aggro-control

Even Matchups:
- Solidarity
- Faery Stompy
- Slower combo

Bad Matchups:
- Goblins.
- Super fast combo.
- Stax

Results so far
There is only one actual tournament in which this deck got played, the SCG Legacy Winter Tournament.
The build I played was a little different from the one posted here, running MD duress over darkblast. I've finished in 13th place out of about 60 players at the beginning, with a 4-2 match record.

Despite not so much actual tournament data, testing has been very promising. We now feel that it's time too release the list, and letting the people at these and other forums have a shot at it.

[Radley]

Ashen ghoul seems to be solid. Even better against landstill.

How about addingatleast 1 Ichorid?

Wasteland would be a solid addition because of LFTL.

[edgewalker]

Except, if you add all those card, why not just play ichorid? I'll also be the first to tell you that as cool as the deck is, it's fragile and isn't all that great. I have a hard time believing the deck has any decent match-ups against the format's defining decks. You play very few answers to lackey and very few answers to combo outside of a decent clock.

[URABAHN]

What exactly is Wild Zombies?

Wild Zombies is a deck designed to abuse Wild Mongrel and Zombie Infestation to the biggest possible extend. It uses cards like Life from the Loam, Squee, and Krovikan Horror too have an enormous hand to pitch to your discard outlets. While doing this, it uses cards like Firestorm, Cabal Therapy and Darkblast to clear the way for it's creatures.

I thought the point of the deck was to generate card advantage and Zombies with Bazaar of Baghdad, Squee, Krovikan Horror, and Zombie Infestation? Your link to SCG doesn't work, so I can't see the Type 1 Decklist you're referring to, but I don't remember it running Wild Mongrel. Do you pretty much scoop to Pithing Needle game 1?

[ACME_Myst]

Ashen ghoul seems to be solid. Even better against landstill.
How about adding atleast 1 Ichorid?

Yes, we tested Ashen Ghoul. It was funny, but at the times that you could reliably have him buried under 3 other creatures, you already have an outlet + Loam out, at which point you should be winning anyway.
And we don't nearly run enough black creatures to support Ichorid.



I have a hard time believing the deck has any decent match-ups against the format's defining decks. You play very few answers to lackey and very few answers to combo outside of a decent clock.


O rly? So I run no answers to first turn Lackey, except for 4 Firestorm, 3 Darkblast, 3 Mongoose and 4 Basking Rootwalla. That's on the draw. On the play, you can add 4 Wild Mongrel, and 4 Zombie Infestation to that list. Assuming you're on the play 50% of the time, that's an average of 18 answers to first turn Lackey.

To comment on your view of the combo matchup, yes, it's not that good. I only run 4 Therapy, and 4 Duress post-board. Assuming combo doesn't block, I also have a 4 turn clock. Yes, they can race this, and yes, they can probably still win through Therapy and Duress. But how good do you want the combo matchup for an aggro deck to be? I thought the whole point of combo was to crush all over aggro in the first place?



I thought the point of the deck was to generate card advantage and Zombies with Bazaar of Baghdad, Squee, Krovikan Horror, and Zombie Infestation? Your link to SCG doesn't work, so I can't see the Type 1 Decklist you're referring to, but I don't remember it running Wild Mongrel. Do you pretty much scoop to Pithing Needle game 1?


Yes it is. Now in legacy, we obviously don't have Bazaar. Now, rephrasing your first sentence, we get:
"I thought the point of the deck was to generate card advantage and Zombies with Squee, Krovikan Horror, and Zombie Infestation?".

Now compare this to this sentence:
"Wild Zombies is a deck designed to abuse Wild Mongrel and Zombie Infestation to the biggest possible extend. It uses cards like Life from the Loam, Squee, and Krovikan Horror too have an enormous hand to pitch to your discard outlets."

So yes, that is the point of Wild Zombies ;). I fixed the link, you should now be able to see it. And yes, that list does run Wild Mongrel.
On the Needle argument, do you really think an opponent who doesn't know what you're playing goes: land, needle @ ZI, go? By the time they get to lay a Needle in game 1, you should already have a discard outlet. You should then already have some tokens on the board, or at least have done some heavy damage. Either drawing your way into another outlet, or beating with your other creatures (or your 'Grizzly Bears' Mongrel, it still hits for 2 per turn) can still win you that game.

[Zilla]

This is essentially a purely aggro deck. Can you explain why the (exccedingly slow) LftL engine is superior to, say, Golgari-Grave Troll or Stinkweed Imp? Their dredge is bigger, and in the case of Grave-Troll, it provides an exccedingly potent "late" game finisher. With as many creatures as you're running, he would seem to have a great deal of synergy.

Also, I understand that your sideboard is just a quick draft, but why on earth aren't you running Engineered Plague if Goblins is a tough matchup?

[Mirrislegend]

Been here, done this:

http://mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4736

My primary list is the two-color list on the 5th post. I was just branching into other colors, and chose white because it offered more than red did. However, looking at your primer, maybe red offers less quantity, but more quality.

Either way, Krovikan Horror is just too expensive. Drop all 4, since you already run 4 Squees, and they're too expensive for this deck. Hell, even drop 1 Squee also. Then add in a few more lands, and some Mox Diamonds. It'll really speed up your game, and add consistency to your 4 color build.

Other things you might considering taking from my list:
Dark Confidant, Ghastly Demise, and maybe Werebear (fat is always nice).

Really, I dont see how the core of your deck is better than the core of DeadHeads.dec. I think if you started over with DeadHeads, adding in red with Firestorm and Barbarian Ring recursion, it would come out stronger, faster, and tighter than this and than DeadHeads.

Also, one random card I've seen suggested recently that you may want to consider is Brain Gorgers.

[ACME_Myst]

This is essentially a purely aggro deck. Can you explain why the (exccedingly slow) LftL engine is superior to, say, Golgari-Grave Troll or Stinkweed Imp? Their dredge is bigger, and in the case of Grave-Troll, it provides an exccedingly potent "late" game finisher. With as many creatures as you're running, he would seem to have a great deal of synergy.

Also, I understand that your sideboard is just a quick draft, but why on earth aren't you running Engineered Plague if Goblins is a tough matchup?


That's because dredging in itself is not the goal of this deck. If you look at Ichorid (the deck, not the card),
you see that dredging in that that is the main focus. Once they dredge their entire deck away, they will
win through recurring creatures. This deck doesn't do that. It runs Loam, because that trades 1 card in hand
and 2 mana, for 3 cards in hand, which can than be pitched to Mongrel/Infestation.

About there not being plagues in the sideboard, this question was asked before. The anser is simply that
in my meta (I live in Holland), Goblins isn't played that much. Like, in a 30 man tournament, you can expect
about 2-4 Goblins players, max. If Goblins would be a bigger part of my meta, like it is in the US, then yes,
I would run E. Plague in the board.




Either way, Krovikan Horror is just too expensive.

How do you mean it's too expensive? I hardly ever hardcast them.



Then add in a few more lands, and some Mox Diamonds. It'll really speed up your game, and add consistency to your 4 color build.

Yes, I was considering this also. I'll test it out. And I only run 3 colors btw ;).

[Radley]

does the 3 creature card requirement of ashen ghoul have to be exactly 3 creatures and no lands, instants or whatever card in between?

I think I'm going friggorid direction by adding ichorid and ashen ghoul. Free creatures a turn is really great fun and makes it possible for a faster kill.

[ACME_Myst]

does the 3 creature card requirement of ashen ghoul have to be exactly 3 creatures and no lands, instants or whatever card in between?

I think I'm going friggorid direction by adding ichorid and ashen ghoul. Free creatures a turn is really great fun and makes it possible for a faster kill.


No it doesn't, it just needs at least 3 creatures to be above it in the 'yard. The problem with running Ichorid is that you need to remove a black creature for it. The only black creatures you would run then are Ichorid itself, Ashen Ghoul, and Krovikan Horror, and you really don't want to remove any of those. If you would add more black creatures, and for example more heavy dredgers like GodzillA proposed, then why wouldn't you just play Ichorid?

[Radley]

No it doesn't, it just needs at least 3 creatures to be above it in the 'yard. The problem with running Ichorid is that you need to remove a black creature for it. The only black creatures you would run then are Ichorid itself, Ashen Ghoul, and Krovikan Horror, and you really don't want to remove any of those. If you would add more black creatures, and for example more heavy dredgers like GodzillA proposed, then why wouldn't you just play Ichorid?

I want to go friggorid way but the red splash in this deck makes it awesome mainly because of firestorm.

I was tempted to add burning wish to search for LFTL and maybe a devastating dreams in the SB but I came up to the conclusion that dredge 3 is not worth it. Golgari grave-troll and imp stinkweed is great, maybe I'd make a friggorid deck that has red splash instead of blue.

[BreathWeapon]

Just because the deck's sole purpose isn't to Dredge doesn't mean that Dredge can't supplement the deck (it does with Life from the Loam and Dark Blast as it is) Grave Troll seems to be solid, twice the drege, twice the number of Krovikan Horrors, Squee, Goblin Nabob and Death Sparks, and the Grave Trolls become huge threats as the game progresses. It's less mana intensive, meaning the deck can use Basking Rootwalla's and Death Sparks, and recurring another creature gives Vampire Hounds a +2/2.

[Radley]

I suggest you use gamble to get squee faster. Golgari and stinkweed will definitely be useful in this deck.

[Sobek]

I worked on a Wild Zombies list based on Mirrislegend's version a long time ago. My list was aweful, and its basically the same overall structure as yours, just not implemented as well, so you really don't want to see it.

However, my biggest problem with the deck was trying to find the perfect equilibrium between enough agression, enough disruption/control, and enough enablers for that agression.

I would consider adding either Imp or Grave-Troll in order to compliment LftL dredging, it will keep your graveyard stocked for LftL and your recurring pals.

[Iranon]

The deck is definitely fun to play.

Since you have a somewhat decent dredge complement, I think the deck could use a lone Anger and Golgari Grave-Troll as throw-ins.

Never mind getting them reliably, the deck can't do that without major consistency issues. But as singletons, you will usually be happy to draw them and ecstatic to dredge them.

[Nihil Credo]

The only slot I find questionable is Darkblast. It's highly inefficient as removal, especially considering that you have no fat outside of a big Mongrel, so a 4/4 on the other side of the board will be a problem for you. I realise dredge can be useful, but wouldn't Ghastly Demise do a much better job?