MTG Salvation

Hey guys. Looking for a little input to make this deck a little more competitive but not some much so that it isn't fun. I think the biggest worry for me is keeping it cheap. Thanks for the feedback



Edit: Put into better format for viewing.

Alright, brace yourself for major revisions. This deck has a lot of room for improvement. (If you're interested in even semi-competitive cheap deck-building, I'd suggesting sticking to one or two colours to keep the mana base on budget. You could easily drop red from this deck and go with Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as your commander, or go mono-black with Ghoulcaller Gisa or Balthor the Defiled.)


The biggest issue I can spot is that you're running way, way too many instants and sorceries. For this to be a Zombie deck of any variety, it needs a lot more zombies. The good news is that zombies are a pretty strong tribe with a lot of the best lords in the game, like Undead Warchief, Death Baron, [[Risen Executioner]], Diregraf Captain and Lord of the Undead and powerful synergies like Graveborn Muse, Vengeful Dead, Gempalm Polluter, Lich Lord of Unx, Relentless Dead, Diregraf Colossus, and Shepherd of Rot. Havengul Lich is a really cool card who just happens to be a Zombie. Deadapult is kind of questionable, but it's a hit thematically (and the name is great).

Lord of Tresserhorn is a neat commander, but Sedris, the Traitor King or Marchesa of the Black Rose are more suited to a graveyard-based deck as zombies will inevitably end up being.

Zombies are also excellent at forming large groups. Army of the Damned and Endless Ranks of the Dead are essential, and are really nasty with Call to the Grave. Grave Titan will also ensure that you stay well supplied with zombies.

Red has very little to do with zombies, but some stuff like [[Ogre Battledriver]], [[Hammer of Purphoros]], [[Gratuitous Violence]] and [[Shared Animosity]] will really help give your deck some more punch in combat.

Your base could be gussied up a little for pretty cheap. Dragonskull Summit, Sulfur Falls, Drowned Catacomb, Smoldering Marsh and Sunken Hollow are all pretty affordable, along with a host of other budget two-colour lands like Auntie's Hove;. Some worse lands like Rupture Spire and Shimmering Grotto could be replaced with mana rocks like Dimir Signet and [[Rakdos Signet]], Talisman of Indulgence and Talisman of Dominance, plus the old standby Sol Ring and probably also Fellwar Stone if you plan on mostly playing multiplayer.

I would cut



Most of these spells just aren't efficient enough, don't have any synergy with the zombie theme, or are just plain worse than other options (e.g., Control Magic is way better than Mind Control, but even Control Magic isn't worth running). Don't go overboard with counter spells (Arcane Denial and Counterspell should be all you need) and one-shot graveyard-to-hand spells. A card like Phyrexian Reclamation is worth four or five Dead Reckonings, for example.

Anyway, hope I didn't scare you off with my huge litany of suggestions. I really like your Grixis zombies idea and I want to see it do well

Actually that was exactly what I wanted to hear. I knew this deck was pretty bad, I just didn't know where to start improving. I took you're advice and added some of the cards you suggested. Also went and found a couple that just look fun to play. Not sure how well they fit but I couldn't find any other zombies that really stuck out to me. It is still a few cards short. So hows this look to you?

Bump...

The first thing I can say is that your 5 and 6 drops should be capable of winning games. Look at some of the awesome 5/6 drops you have:


All of those cards are capable of winning a game if left unchecked. Then you got stuff like:


Those won't win games on their own merits.

Also, you chose Marchesa just to keep her colours but I think it's a lazy choice. You aren't abusing her inherit mechanics, like Solrune's Marchesa EDH. You don't need to copy+paste his list exactly, but there's a lot of synergy between his Commander and the rest of the cards. I feel like you're just using the same colours in a deck. You'll have more fun with Marchesa if you go with her abilities instead of just her colour identity.

For example, here are some Zombies that use +1/+1 counters from a quick gatherer search:


Granted, all of these might not be the best but they'd be way more synergistic than what you currently got.

Also, you're playing a Zombie deck and you're not using Gray Merchant of Asphodel? Damn man.

This is without touching your Spells section, which I think has too much Single Target stuff instead of good sweepers.