If your willing to spend some money on a super powerful card invest in one copy of Mind Twist, it absolutely destroys opponents, I think it costs like $8 to $10.
This deck looks like it really doesn't need Dark Ritual, I would take it out and add four more creatures, particularly four more lords like Death Baron.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--------------------------------------
"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
I can't believe I forgot Mortify, it was in my original Plan, but I just forgot it. I don't plan on putting Vindicate in here for a while, but right now mortify and Unmake will have to do.
Yeah the arena seems better, I knew I wanted some decent draw in there, but I wasn't sure what. It seemed solid, but the arena seems more solid.
Castigate was in the orginal plan too, but then I was thinking about how it would trash my opponent's yard and what not, but I guess it all works out so long as they aren't targeting my yard
After recieving a few of the new zombie cards, I decided to revamp my old zombie deck into this. So far, it seems to be a brutally efficient deck, losing only to Fairies, and rarely at that. The main idea behind it is to methodically wipe out the opponent's side of the board with zombie token generation and sacrifice.
One of the ideas I'm mulling over is whether the deck needs the Noxious Ghouls or not, considering the one sided Call to the Grave. I've been thinking of moving the Nested Ghouls to the mainboard for additional token generation. Waning Wurm is another zombie I've been looking at for that spot, as the vanishing can actually work in my favor with Quest for the Gravelord.
Changed out the Noxious Ghouls for some Skinrenders, and I believe the works better with them. Though the effect only targets one creature, it's permanent and it doesn't affect the Grave Titans.
That Phyrexian Crusader deals its damage as poison counters is exactly the reason for its inclusion in the sideboard. My meta has plentiful decks that are protection based, gain rediculous amounts of life, or produce white/green tokens. Having a creature that can give me a win through all that protection or life is highly valuable to me. As for the Undead Warchief, I won't deny that I've thought about him plenty of time, but I'm sure he's needed in the deck. Most of my zombies are 1 or 3 cmc creatures, with only 4 being outside that range (The Grave Titans aren't actually zombies). I find the removal potentional on the Skinrender to be more valuable to me.
Why isn't Unearth in the primer D:
It can resurrect almost every lord in zombie tribal, and a lot of other zombies, plus cycle
And what about this guy?
i used to have a zombie deck with this guy. Ppl in legacy got crazy 'bout him.
I'll post my actual zombie deck later
Strategy is simple: Make SURE your opponent dies before you do. Turn 1: Festering Goblin, turn 2: drop a land and Dark Ritual into an Undead Warchief on turn 2 and attack with your 3/2... Repeat. Shepherd of Rot can really get your life down. Get it back with Escaped Null that probably only cost 2 or 3 mana to bring out depending on how many Undead Warchiefs are out.The Doom Blades have got me yelled at by like 3 of my friends, I like them only for the fact that when you have a big Zombie out, chump blockers can be a buzzkill. I'm looking to get some Go for the Throats but I'm not too concerned about it yet. Creature removal is the only thing this deck can't stand, I'm working on a way around it but it's hard... Let me know what you think and if you have any further suggestions. =D
well planeswalkers, are usually a good idea, they draw attention away from u. provide us with a deck list, or at least a bear bones idea of what u would like to run, use deck tags so we can better help u.
Ok, then I've got a suggestion for your casual deck construction rules:2. No one's deck runs any answers to anything. Killing creatures, countering spells, destroying lands, redirecting abilities, forcing discards: all that stuff is totally not fun.
5. No one actually loses. Winning is fun, and we want everyone to have fun, so the first one to zero life points just wins, and so does everyone else. Then we can shuffle up and have more fun!
.
u put 5 shepherd of rot????
anyway, zombie decks want a couple things, 1. to shart out alot of zombies as fast as possible 2. card advantage to keep ur hand full or threats 3.and probably the most zombie like function, recursion. there zombies, just cuz there in a graveyard shouldn't mean there down and out.
you need some tempo, like maybe a one drop, my fav would have to be putrid imp he is good. after that carrion feeder is very usefull,i.e. sac a undeadwarcheif to him instead of get him path'ed or Stp. carnophage if u really wanna go sui aggro. apprentice necromancer is cool for a 2 drop, i used to run blind creeper in my zombie deck. cabal interrogator if u want a little control, but he sucks up your mana when u often should be using it do dump out zombie loaf's. dregscape zombie is ok too.
as for spells, i think cruel revival is ok, but u could use those slots for better things. i like reaping the grave for 2 reasons, instant and storm. late game when u got som juicy zombie jerky in the yard, do an end step reaping after they played a couple spells amd bam u just got back 2-3 zombies easy. tendrils of corruption is good removal. unmake works too. but id defiantly put some cabal coffers to help crank out those zombies, and while ur at it consume spirit works well with coffers as a finisher. as for card advantage, id go with phyrexian arena the tendrils and consume will help off set the lose of life too.
Ok, then I've got a suggestion for your casual deck construction rules:2. No one's deck runs any answers to anything. Killing creatures, countering spells, destroying lands, redirecting abilities, forcing discards: all that stuff is totally not fun.
5. No one actually loses. Winning is fun, and we want everyone to have fun, so the first one to zero life points just wins, and so does everyone else. Then we can shuffle up and have more fun!
.
Fairly straight forward deck. All of the creatures grant abilities to zombies/other zombies, so once multiples get out, they should be formidable pretty quick. Zombie Master gives all zombies Swampwalk, so that, in conjunction with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth should be very threatening. Not including Geth, Lord of the Vault is killing me...
Necromancer's Covenant just looks too fun to not include; Lifelink would seemingly be brutal, to say nothing about how many 2/2 zombie creatures I might get.
I really wanted to run Graveborn Muse but in MP, I figure I'd probably kill myself without something to protect me from it, which I'm not sure I have room to spare
The curve is just terrible...you have 24 cards @ 3CMC, and no plays before that except a singleton Sol Ring. Either go Aether Vial or drop the curve.
Crib Swap - I see your reasoning for including this, but Nameless Inversion is much better. Zombie Master and Lord of the Undead pump your opponents' zombies as well, thus giving that Changeling token the bonus. I don't think you want a Pumped, Regenerating, Swampwalking token facing you.
The curve is just terrible...you have 24 cards @ 3CMC, and no plays before that except a singleton Sol Ring. Either go Aether Vial or drop the curve.
I generally break down my decks by early game plays and mid/late game plays. 3-cmc is generally my cutoff for early game plays. By turn 3, substantially all of deck becomes live, which I have an ~85% chance of drawing 3 or more lands by turn 3. And this is a terrible curve? I guess I'm confused.
Beyond playing a land, turn 1 often has no activity in my meta. I'm often willing to gamble that doing nothing in turn 2 isn't too terrible, for even if one of my opponents plays a creature during turn 2, at worst, I'll take 1 hit before going online. If I am taking my turn first/earlier, I'll most likely be able to cast a creature in response. Then, this deck should play out fairly solidly. I'm not too worried about the curve here at all.
Crib Swap - I see your reasoning for including this, but Nameless Inversion is much better. Zombie Master and Lord of the Undead pump your opponents' zombies as well, thus giving that Changeling token the bonus. I don't think you want a Pumped, Regenerating, Swampwalking token facing you.
Great point. I'm making that switch, which not only fixes the problem you noted, but also allows me to go G instead of W.
EDIT: I thought the primer was essentially for 1 on 1 decks, which was essentially confirmed by the lack of movement of other MP decks that might otherwise qualify for the primer. Has this changed or something?
Revision of my Undead Grixis Control deck. I've tried to build around Thraximundar, so keep that in mind. And I might be under 60, so forgive me for not double-checking because I had four wisdom teeth pulled today.
Blightning for duels, Syphon for multiplayer. Drudges and Fleshbags for early creatures, with a bonus for Drudge if Death Baron is out. LotU to get back the Fleshbags mainly, others if I need to. All the creature sacrifice to get around "protection", and to boost Thraxi. Some good countermagic, discard / draw, and a couple fun spells at the top end of the curve. A basic mana base for now, 'cause if I start putting this together soon, it'll take a little while without an insane mana base.
Maybe swap in reassembling skeleton for the drudge? Would give you a little more late-game play while still providing some defense early on. Drudge is just bad if it hits the graveyard, at least the former is re-playable. Also, I think you either need to A) drop lord of the undead in favor of more grixis zombies (shambling remains, anathemancer etc.), or B) load up on more zombies to support lord of the undead. You could easily support this by making 2-3 of your removal spells Nameless inversion, recurrable with lord of the undead. As it is now, you just don't have much to recur with lord of the undead save for the marauders (which you can easily cut down to 2-3 of). Check halted's op for some other strong r/b zombies and a skeleton grixis build.
Also, since you're running control, you may want to consider lich lord of unx. His ability to generate tokens early provides the defense you need currently in skeletons, and his latter ability just melts your opponents face in the late game. Definitely a good guy for grixis decks.
Use grixis panorama over expanse. It's just better than terramorphic for you as it can leave mana up for mana leak on turn two. This should be reason enough alone!
I've also found this list (quite different from your own) that runs r/b zombies:
This is my very first deck that I ever made all those years ago and have improved on it since then. I still wish to improve on it and would like to hear some suggestions if you kind folk wouldn't mind.
I rarely ever use the Gravediggers unless I lose both of my Lord of the Undead and then I just use one to bring him back to my hand.
Also, I want to drop one of the Infectious Horrors to add another Lord of the Undead.
Grave Titan is in my sideboard, I ran him for a while and at the request of my friends removed him. Getting him out turn one seemed a bit unfair for casual play. Or so they said.
Comments or suggestions? As stated above I would love to improve this deck even more.
Demonic Tutor is restricted, and for good reason (unlike cards like Ponder in casual formats).
That means that most playgroups will not agree on you playing a whopping 4 of them.
Also, I'm missing Nameless Inversion. It's removal, gets cheaper from the Warchief, recurs with Lord of the Undead, AND pumps up Soulless One!
Instead of Gravedigger I play Grave Defiler. It doesn't return the one creature you want, but for 4 mana it gives you around 2 new Zombies.
Hello, all.
Lurked the forums for a long while, decided to finally post up something.
Been working on a zombie deck for a bit now but can't get a solid strategy down. Trying to get bigger guys into the grave early using the imp or infestation, and using exhume and unearth to recur, then swing with swampwalkers. I am proxying alot of cards ATM, so I'm trying to decide what yet to buy still.
Gempalm polluter
twisted abomination
balthor the defiled
buried alive
patriarch's bidding
living death
noxious ghoul
jet medallion
soulless one
You'll notice that these cards interact to allow massive reanimation, rather than using spells that only affect one creature in your graveyard. I used to have this deck, but my buried alive are currently being used! The skeleton was something like:
Thanks for the suggestions, man. I've actually looked at alot of those cards mentioned, and Patriarch's Bidding really seemed like a winner. Just fill up your GY nice and full, and BAM. What I'm really trying to go for is to have the deck actually feel like there's zombies, coming back from the dead and attacking in swarms. My dilemma is trying to decide on the right cards/balance for the list.
Got you. Are you going specifically for flavor or playability? The list is all about what zombies are known for! ;p Fill the grave, reanimate, devour everything in one swoop! The list is still very playable you just need to fill the remaining slot to suit your meta.
If you are going for strictly flavor, it may be fun to look into singleton deck building. You would have much more zombies and spell variety, and consequently some more flavor. It would be cheaper to build; however, it would also be much less consistent.
EDIT: About "balance."
For purposes of your own list, lord of the undead should be auto four-of. In what game don't you want him? Def get 2 more of these, they are arguably the best zombie lord. Zombie master is a 3-of at most. My vial zombies deck uses him with 2 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth to enable swampwalk for my entire team. You don't need more than 3 as his abilities don't stack. Get one more. If you're playing undead warchief, make him 4-of. Zombie trailblazer is fun, but lose him in favor of one more zombie master. He and urborg are all you need. Gangrenous zombies is a little underwhelming in my opinion. I would play him only if you're meta is aggro-infested. Otherwise, he's going to clear your board just as often. unless you have grotto around to rebuild, this will be tough to dig out of. Zombie infestation is really only good in dedicated zombie madness lists. If you want to get zombies in the grave fast, use putrid imp and buried alive. Graveborn muse -2 and carrion feeder +2. The feeder is a really good zombie card, one of the best one drops ever in my opinion. He combos great with festering goblin, that'sanother consideration for four-of. Festering goblin + carrion feeder is pretty good vs. aggro lists. I don't know about unearth here, it doesn't even get every creature in the deck. I would stick with exhume if you go this route, and play it with creatures like twisted abomination and gempalm polluter, who A) put themselves in the grave for you (don't need an enabler), and B) do useful things when they do! You are running far too few swamps for your current deck. Should be somewhere from 22-24 with this many 3 and 4 cmc cards. Twisted abomination would go a long way to fix your mana, while still facilitating the overall strategy of your deck. Unless your a stickler for consistency, it may be a good idea to swap out for nameless inversion for 1 doom blade/terror effect. As the games move on, you won't have any great answers to anything 4+ toughness.
Live in Northern AZ? Lets play some Legacy! Catch me on MODO!
Awesome sig by the one and only DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios
I like Phyrexian Arena over Night's Whisper.
On lands I really like the Eventide / Shadowmoor dual lands, and I am pretty sure they are fairly cheap, the black / white one is Fetid Heath.
I would go with Castigate or Hymn to Tourach over Unburden.
If your willing to spend some money on a super powerful card invest in one copy of Mind Twist, it absolutely destroys opponents, I think it costs like $8 to $10.
This deck looks like it really doesn't need Dark Ritual, I would take it out and add four more creatures, particularly four more lords like Death Baron.
--------------------------------------
"STAY CLEAR OF WHITE POWDER"
311 "Who's Got the Herb"
--------------------------------------
Revised list so far...
2 Necromancer's Covenant
2 Unmake
4 Castigate
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mortify
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Gempalm Polluter
2 Cemetery Reaper
2 Undead Gladiator
I can't believe I forgot Mortify, it was in my original Plan, but I just forgot it. I don't plan on putting Vindicate in here for a while, but right now mortify and Unmake will have to do.
Yeah the arena seems better, I knew I wanted some decent draw in there, but I wasn't sure what. It seemed solid, but the arena seems more solid.
Castigate was in the orginal plan too, but then I was thinking about how it would trash my opponent's yard and what not, but I guess it all works out so long as they aren't targeting my yard
All good suggestions. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks a million to SB4 and High~Light Studios.
Also, ich habe gehoert du magst mudkipen.
20 Swamp
3 Unholy Grotto
Creatures-23
4 Festering Goblin
4 Putrid Imp
4 Cemetery Reaper
4 Death Baron
3 Noxious Ghoul
3 Grave Titan
1 Gempalm Polluter
4 Quest For the Gravelord
4 Go For the Throat
3 Call To the Grave
Artifacts-3
3 Nim Deathmantle
4 Doom Blade
4 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Nested Ghoul
3 Zombify
1 Gempalm Polluter
After recieving a few of the new zombie cards, I decided to revamp my old zombie deck into this. So far, it seems to be a brutally efficient deck, losing only to Fairies, and rarely at that. The main idea behind it is to methodically wipe out the opponent's side of the board with zombie token generation and sacrifice.
One of the nice interactions in the deck is with Nim Deathmantle and Call to the Grave allowing me to sac a Grave Titan and return it as a zombie. Originally Zombie Infestation held Call to the Grave's spot, but I slowly realized that I was hardly discarding anything from my hand to generate tokens from it.
One of the ideas I'm mulling over is whether the deck needs the Noxious Ghouls or not, considering the one sided Call to the Grave. I've been thinking of moving the Nested Ghouls to the mainboard for additional token generation. Waning Wurm is another zombie I've been looking at for that spot, as the vanishing can actually work in my favor with Quest for the Gravelord.
20 Swamp
3 Unholy Grotto
Creatures-23
4 Festering Goblin
4 Putrid Imp
4 Cemetery Reaper
4 Death Baron
3 Skinrender
3 Grave Titan
1 Gempalm Polluter
4 Quest For the Gravelord
4 Go For the Throat
3 Call To the Grave
Artifacts-3
3 Nim Deathmantle
4 Doom Blade
4 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Nested Ghoul
3 Zombify
1 Gempalm Polluter
Changed out the Noxious Ghouls for some Skinrenders, and I believe the works better with them. Though the effect only targets one creature, it's permanent and it doesn't affect the Grave Titans.
It can resurrect almost every lord in zombie tribal, and a lot of other zombies, plus cycle
And what about this guy?
i used to have a zombie deck with this guy. Ppl in legacy got crazy 'bout him.
I'll post my actual zombie deck later
:symw::symb:Steel Wb Weenie
Call to the graveX2
Stitch togetherX4
Nim deathmantelX2
Buried aliveX4
Quietus spikeX2
Lim-dul the necromancer
Geth lord of the vault
Death baronX2
Balthor the defiled
Deathbringer thoctarX4
Fleshbag marauderX2
Phylactery lichX2
Undead warchiefX2
Walking desecrationX4
Liana vessX2
Grave titan
One Drops:
Festering GoblinX 4
Maggot CarrierX 2
Carrion FeederX 2
Two Drops:
Shepherd of RotX 2
Dregscape ZombieX 4
Three Drops:
Death BaronX 2
Cemetery ReaperX 2
Lord of the undeadX 2
Four Drops:
Undead WarchiefX 4
Soulless OneX 2
Escaped NullX 2
Other Spells:
UnearthX 2
Dark Ritual X 2
Doom BladeX 4
Grave PactX 1
DisentombX 1
Gempalm PolluterX 2
Bad MoonX 2
Strategy is simple: Make SURE your opponent dies before you do. Turn 1: Festering Goblin, turn 2: drop a land and Dark Ritual into an Undead Warchief on turn 2 and attack with your 3/2... Repeat. Shepherd of Rot can really get your life down. Get it back with Escaped Null that probably only cost 2 or 3 mana to bring out depending on how many Undead Warchiefs are out.The Doom Blades have got me yelled at by like 3 of my friends, I like them only for the fact that when you have a big Zombie out, chump blockers can be a buzzkill. I'm looking to get some Go for the Throats but I'm not too concerned about it yet. Creature removal is the only thing this deck can't stand, I'm working on a way around it but it's hard... Let me know what you think and if you have any further suggestions. =D
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=6350576#post6350576
I reject your reality and substitute my own
i think thats help for the planeswalker question
cruel revival use too much mana, there are a lot of better removal like grasp of darkness and go for the throat
Deck Building Primer - Casual
Sliver Primer - Casual Share your tips with us !!
Want To Buy List Please Check !!
Now Playing:
Excaliboros R(R/W)W / Maverick G(G/W)W
Bant Pro Excalibur (G/U)W(G/U) / Merfolk (W/U)U(U/B)
anyway, zombie decks want a couple things, 1. to shart out alot of zombies as fast as possible 2. card advantage to keep ur hand full or threats 3.and probably the most zombie like function, recursion. there zombies, just cuz there in a graveyard shouldn't mean there down and out.
you need some tempo, like maybe a one drop, my fav would have to be putrid imp he is good. after that carrion feeder is very usefull,i.e. sac a undeadwarcheif to him instead of get him path'ed or Stp. carnophage if u really wanna go sui aggro. apprentice necromancer is cool for a 2 drop, i used to run blind creeper in my zombie deck. cabal interrogator if u want a little control, but he sucks up your mana when u often should be using it do dump out zombie loaf's. dregscape zombie is ok too.
as for spells, i think cruel revival is ok, but u could use those slots for better things. i like reaping the grave for 2 reasons, instant and storm. late game when u got som juicy zombie jerky in the yard, do an end step reaping after they played a couple spells amd bam u just got back 2-3 zombies easy. tendrils of corruption is good removal. unmake works too. but id defiantly put some cabal coffers to help crank out those zombies, and while ur at it consume spirit works well with coffers as a finisher. as for card advantage, id go with phyrexian arena the tendrils and consume will help off set the lose of life too.
4 Cemetery Reaper
4 Death Baron
4 Zombie Master
4 Lord of the Undead
4 Undead Warchief
4 Vindicate
4 Ambition's Cost
**4 Instant**
4 Crib Swap
**4 Enchantment**
4 Necromancer's Covenant
**1 Artifact**
1 Sol Ring
4 Scrubland
4 Godless Shrine
4 March Flats
4 Unholy Grotto
5 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Fairly straight forward deck. All of the creatures grant abilities to zombies/other zombies, so once multiples get out, they should be formidable pretty quick. Zombie Master gives all zombies Swampwalk, so that, in conjunction with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth should be very threatening. Not including Geth, Lord of the Vault is killing me...
Lord of the Undead and Unholy Grotto allows me to recur zombie cards (the former being far better), as well as Crib Swap, which is the primary reason I'm running W instead of G, as G opens the door for Harmonize and Vulturous Zombie, who's a beast in MP; but recurring Crib Swap can be lethal.
Necromancer's Covenant just looks too fun to not include; Lifelink would seemingly be brutal, to say nothing about how many 2/2 zombie creatures I might get.
I really wanted to run Graveborn Muse but in MP, I figure I'd probably kill myself without something to protect me from it, which I'm not sure I have room to spare
Kokusho, The Evening Star, Exsanguinate and Glen Elendra Archmage have a restriction of 1 per deck.
Crib Swap - I see your reasoning for including this, but Nameless Inversion is much better. Zombie Master and Lord of the Undead pump your opponents' zombies as well, thus giving that Changeling token the bonus. I don't think you want a Pumped, Regenerating, Swampwalking token facing you.
Ambition's Cost should be replaced with Night's Whisper or Sign in Blood to lower the deck's overall CMC.
And not sure about this - but 20 lords? I feel like you're not getting enough from Lord of the Undead and Unholy Grotto this way. Interesting multiplayer Zombies are Entrails Feaster since MP should have lots of targets, Shepherd of Rot - for ridiculous kills, and Fleshbag Marauder for recurring Innocent Blood.
Hope something in there helped.
R: Copypasta Sauce {Browbeat}
UR: Mana Cache , One Spell to Bind them All {Magnetic Theft}
UG: Epic Struggle , All-In-Poison {Metamorphosis}
UW: Planar Overlay , Decree of the Bailiff {Saprazzan Bailiff}
BG: Thought Gorger , Dark Chroma {Umbra Stalker}
UBR: Dwarven Shrine
WUBRG: Dissipation Field , Maelstrom Nexus
I generally break down my decks by early game plays and mid/late game plays. 3-cmc is generally my cutoff for early game plays. By turn 3, substantially all of deck becomes live, which I have an ~85% chance of drawing 3 or more lands by turn 3. And this is a terrible curve? I guess I'm confused.
Beyond playing a land, turn 1 often has no activity in my meta. I'm often willing to gamble that doing nothing in turn 2 isn't too terrible, for even if one of my opponents plays a creature during turn 2, at worst, I'll take 1 hit before going online. If I am taking my turn first/earlier, I'll most likely be able to cast a creature in response. Then, this deck should play out fairly solidly. I'm not too worried about the curve here at all.
Great point. I'm making that switch, which not only fixes the problem you noted, but also allows me to go G instead of W.
I'm dropping it entirely for Harmonize
I'm confused by this comment. All of the creatures I am running are zombies and get the bonus, unless I'm missing something.
4 Cemetery Reaper
4 Death Baron
4 Zombie Master
4 Lord of the Undead
4 Undead Warchief
4 Vulturous Zombie
4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Harmonize
**4 Instant**
4 Nameless Inversion
**1 Artifact**
1 Sol Ring
**24 Land**
4 Bayou
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Unholy Grotto
5 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
EDIT: I thought the primer was essentially for 1 on 1 decks, which was essentially confirmed by the lack of movement of other MP decks that might otherwise qualify for the primer. Has this changed or something?
Kokusho, The Evening Star, Exsanguinate and Glen Elendra Archmage have a restriction of 1 per deck.
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Death Baron
4 Lord of the Undead
2 Thraximundar
4 Mana Leak
4 Blightning
4 Syphon Mind
2 Slave of Bolas
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Crumbling Necropolis
8 Swamp
4 Island
4 Mountain
Revision of my Undead Grixis Control deck. I've tried to build around Thraximundar, so keep that in mind. And I might be under 60, so forgive me for not double-checking because I had four wisdom teeth pulled today.
Blightning for duels, Syphon for multiplayer. Drudges and Fleshbags for early creatures, with a bonus for Drudge if Death Baron is out. LotU to get back the Fleshbags mainly, others if I need to. All the creature sacrifice to get around "protection", and to boost Thraxi. Some good countermagic, discard / draw, and a couple fun spells at the top end of the curve. A basic mana base for now, 'cause if I start putting this together soon, it'll take a little while without an insane mana base.
Lemme know what you guys and gals think.
--- Meren of Clan Nel Toth --- Jhoira of the Ghitu --- Prime Speaker Zegana ---
--- Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief --- Ghoulcaller Gisa --- Akroma, Angel of Fury --- Titania, Protector of Argoth ---
Maybe swap in reassembling skeleton for the drudge? Would give you a little more late-game play while still providing some defense early on. Drudge is just bad if it hits the graveyard, at least the former is re-playable. Also, I think you either need to A) drop lord of the undead in favor of more grixis zombies (shambling remains, anathemancer etc.), or B) load up on more zombies to support lord of the undead. You could easily support this by making 2-3 of your removal spells Nameless inversion, recurrable with lord of the undead. As it is now, you just don't have much to recur with lord of the undead save for the marauders (which you can easily cut down to 2-3 of). Check halted's op for some other strong r/b zombies and a skeleton grixis build.
Also, since you're running control, you may want to consider lich lord of unx. His ability to generate tokens early provides the defense you need currently in skeletons, and his latter ability just melts your opponents face in the late game. Definitely a good guy for grixis decks.
Use grixis panorama over expanse. It's just better than terramorphic for you as it can leave mana up for mana leak on turn two. This should be reason enough alone!
I've also found this list (quite different from your own) that runs r/b zombies:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/1687_Must_Eat_Brains_FNM_With_A_Zombie_Deck.html
May be good for some more ideas.
Good luck!
3x Death Baron
2x Lord of the Undead
3x Cemetery Reaper
4x Infectious Horror
3x Undead Warchief
2x Gravedigger
3x Soulless One
3x Noxious Ghoul
3x Grave Pact
INSTANTS
4x Dark Rituals
SORCERY
4x Demonic Tutor
4x Consume Spirit
LAND
2x Cabal Coffers
2x Leechridden Swamp
18x Swamp
I rarely ever use the Gravediggers unless I lose both of my Lord of the Undead and then I just use one to bring him back to my hand.
Also, I want to drop one of the Infectious Horrors to add another Lord of the Undead.
Grave Titan is in my sideboard, I ran him for a while and at the request of my friends removed him. Getting him out turn one seemed a bit unfair for casual play. Or so they said.
Comments or suggestions? As stated above I would love to improve this deck even more.
That means that most playgroups will not agree on you playing a whopping 4 of them.
Also, I'm missing Nameless Inversion. It's removal, gets cheaper from the Warchief, recurs with Lord of the Undead, AND pumps up Soulless One!
Instead of Gravedigger I play Grave Defiler. It doesn't return the one creature you want, but for 4 mana it gives you around 2 new Zombies.
( 0.0 )
=O ((U/R)) O=
(")(")
I'm an AI making Magic cards.
http://www.staalmedia.nl/nexus/#generate
And if you notice your creatures have a tendency to die a lot, Vengeful Dead is great for making sure they keep hurting as they head toward the grave.
My personal suggestions would be unholy grotto, a singleton crypt of agadeem or urborg, tomb of yawgmoth and fleshbag marauder. all are excellent additions.
Lose infectious horror, as it is horrible.
You could consider twisted abomination as landfixer and recurrable with both lord of the undead and unholy grotto.
If you go for the beatdown, add carnophage, stillmoon cavelier and carrion feeder.
Some non-zombie additions would be buried alive and tendrils of corruption
Lurked the forums for a long while, decided to finally post up something.
Been working on a zombie deck for a bit now but can't get a solid strategy down. Trying to get bigger guys into the grave early using the imp or infestation, and using exhume and unearth to recur, then swing with swampwalkers. I am proxying alot of cards ATM, so I'm trying to decide what yet to buy still.
2x Carrion Feeder
4x Putrid Imp
2x Gangrenous Zombies
4x Graveborn Muse
2x Lord of the Undead
4x Shepherd of Rot
2x Zombie Master
2x Undead Warchief
2x Zombie Trailblazer
4x Zombie Infestation
Spells
4x Exhume
4x Unearth
4x Nameless Inversion
Land
16x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Unholy Grotto
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Duress
2x Gangrenous Zombies
1x Snow-Covered Swamp
2x Undead Warchief
4x Withered Wretch
2x Zombie Trailblazer
Suggestions appreciated!
Cards for consideration (zombie-reanimation):
Gempalm polluter
twisted abomination
balthor the defiled
buried alive
patriarch's bidding
living death
noxious ghoul
jet medallion
soulless one
You'll notice that these cards interact to allow massive reanimation, rather than using spells that only affect one creature in your graveyard. I used to have this deck, but my buried alive are currently being used! The skeleton was something like:
4 buried alive
3 phyrexian arena
2 smother
4 noxious ghoul
4 festering goblin
4 withered wretch
4 rotlung reanimator
20 swamp
4 unholy grotto
If you are going for strictly flavor, it may be fun to look into singleton deck building. You would have much more zombies and spell variety, and consequently some more flavor. It would be cheaper to build; however, it would also be much less consistent.
EDIT: About "balance."
For purposes of your own list, lord of the undead should be auto four-of. In what game don't you want him? Def get 2 more of these, they are arguably the best zombie lord. Zombie master is a 3-of at most. My vial zombies deck uses him with 2 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth to enable swampwalk for my entire team. You don't need more than 3 as his abilities don't stack. Get one more. If you're playing undead warchief, make him 4-of. Zombie trailblazer is fun, but lose him in favor of one more zombie master. He and urborg are all you need. Gangrenous zombies is a little underwhelming in my opinion. I would play him only if you're meta is aggro-infested. Otherwise, he's going to clear your board just as often. unless you have grotto around to rebuild, this will be tough to dig out of. Zombie infestation is really only good in dedicated zombie madness lists. If you want to get zombies in the grave fast, use putrid imp and buried alive. Graveborn muse -2 and carrion feeder +2. The feeder is a really good zombie card, one of the best one drops ever in my opinion. He combos great with festering goblin, that'sanother consideration for four-of. Festering goblin + carrion feeder is pretty good vs. aggro lists. I don't know about unearth here, it doesn't even get every creature in the deck. I would stick with exhume if you go this route, and play it with creatures like twisted abomination and gempalm polluter, who A) put themselves in the grave for you (don't need an enabler), and B) do useful things when they do! You are running far too few swamps for your current deck. Should be somewhere from 22-24 with this many 3 and 4 cmc cards. Twisted abomination would go a long way to fix your mana, while still facilitating the overall strategy of your deck. Unless your a stickler for consistency, it may be a good idea to swap out for nameless inversion for 1 doom blade/terror effect. As the games move on, you won't have any great answers to anything 4+ toughness.