Only a Zombie deck could easily generate the recursion necessary to really abuse Anathemancer. Without recursion - and his Unearth is just too costly to be considered - he's probably not worthwhile at only one point of damage per land.
R is a viable splash if perhaps not the best. I've also long had an urge to play Tymmy.
Red is the only splash i haven tried yet, because blackcleave cliffs is too pricey for me to invest into just to try out the splash, but mainly because it doesn't offer any obvious tribal goodies.
The good red cards i can think of are blood moon in the sideboard, which would help vs tron and big mana decks. These are hard matchups in my experience so there's that. Faithless looting also might be good, we have plenty of turn one plays already but it migth be ok. Lightning bolt would have been appealing pre fatal push, but right not it doesn't seem needed anymore.
Maybe a version with both anathemancer and geralf's messenger plus lightning bolt for extra reach damage would be a decent place to start? The main issue is red doesn't offer any ways to get rid of enchantments, which every other splash do.
Is Snapcaster Mage any good in this deck? I have a manabase for grixis delver and the snaps and kind of want to try this archetype out. I've also got inqusition of kozilek
Thank you. I'll try running it this FNM, maybe give a report on my matchups
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern:
URB Grixis Delver URB
WUB Ad Nauseam WUB
(On Lantern Control)"A guy who literally just sits there and mills cards he doesn't like from your library while he slowly, slowly kills you this way."
"If a person's profile includes anime or My Little Pony, feel free to ignore everything they say."
I've always liked zombies, but I've never been able to make them work. But, here I am giving it another shot. At least I get an "A" for effort. lol Well, enough about me, lets discuss the deck. The main focus of this Zombie build is to quickly swarm the battlefield with re-animating Zombies and friends supported by Waste Not. Bottom line, I want the opponent to react to me. Either way, I find myself have fun if I lose or win.
The good things I have going for my aggro approach is that Zombies have access to a LOT of great one drops. Next, if I am lucky enough in landing a Waste Not followed by Dark Deal it is all out apocalypses. lol This small combo should help Zombies and friends burst onto the field. But, with limited bandwidth I cannot test it out prior to posting my "great idea."
I also have an alternate support package that is control based. I have no idea how effective it is.
Lastly, here is a neat synergistic creature card interaction for black in general: Smuggler's Copter + Undertaker
If any of you like this build please take it for a spin and let me know how it fared. And, of course, if you have any ways to improve what I'm trying to do please let me know.
There seem to be a couple of decks that posted results with Zombies, I don't know if they can be called "Zombie decks" per say as they feature 14/20 and 13/20 zombies respectively in each list.
There seem to be a couple of decks that posted results with Zombies, I don't know if they can be called "Zombie decks" per say as they feature 14/20 and 13/20 zombies respectively in each list.
Both lists could be improved of course but I like the BG one bettee and seems more tuned and plays more powerful cards.
The latter is the second deck I've seen lately that uses Eldritch Evolution to play Rex. Maybe I should try it. This one has three play-sets or near play-sets of recur-able creatures to sacrifice. Messenger can also be used to get Gary. There's massive B-devotion potential here. It certainly looks like fun. The mana does not suit me, but that's easy enough to tune.
Agreed, the devotion list is neat but I don't understand how they can afford to run Nykthos in a list with almost entirely colored mana costs up through 3 CMC.
Agreed, the devotion list is neat but I don't understand how they can afford to run Nykthos in a list with almost entirely colored mana costs up through 3 CMC.
I think Nykthos is bad in the list and is also unnecessary. Gary is five-CMC but Nykthos can be dead and it's certainly horrible in multiples. I would ditch both and make some other changes to the mana as well. I'd probably want a second Urborg and at least three copies of Twilight Mire plus some number of Blooming Marsh. Two copies of Woodland Cemetery is also at least one too many. Four copies of Overgrown Tomb is also unnecessary in my view. Two is probably enough.
this is just a rough draft but seems to do well in limited testing.
Been considering adding Gisa and Geralf. Sideboard has been changing a lot, but usually contains some number of hand disruption, Nature's Claim x4 and a few extra Collective Brutality. Thanks for taking the time to poke at this deck, and remember lets "Make Zombies Great Again!"
So basically i'm trading rotting rats and smuggler's copter for 4x tidehollow sculler to increase my disruption. I tried sculler before but in a different shell. Now with Kalitas, traitor of ghet x2 and dark salvation x4 I feel I have enough good topdecks to include sculler. Should help vs difficult matcups such as combo and big mana decks.
Tuesday went 3-1
R1 loss 0-2 vs melira combo. G1 got mana screwed because mutavault was my only other land after the first, had sculler but drew the other colored source too late for his collected company. I may have not played well, deciding to kill my opponent's mana creatures to delay CoCo, which left me without removal for the combo. G2 flooded a bit. I had Kalitas but my opponent immediately drew path to exile, I then drew a bunch of lands and got comboed.
R2 win 2-0 vs green devotion, my opponent had bad draws, I ripped appart his hand from threats both games and he drew nothing but mana accelerant after that.
R3 win 2-0 vs jeskai delver, got to slow down my opponent quite a bit both games, ended up with tons of tokens from colossus for the win. G2 collective brutality and burrenton forge-tender from the sideboard locked up the game.
R4 win 2-1 vs eldrazi tron, G1 mulled to five but got there thanks to a great draw and a poor 7 card hand from my opponent. G2 my opponent assembled tron quickly and got to ulamog, the ceaseless hunger for the win. G3 I had a decent draw and spammed token, while my opponent only drew mana stuff and no threats.
So far i like the deck, white may be my favorite splash because of the great sideboard cards it offers. Not sure i like it better than mono-black yet.
A copy of Darkblast is the best thing in the world for mana dorks. The dredging wouldn't do much harm to a Zombie deck either. Darkblast is also a silver bullet against Affinity and nearly so against Infect.
I just wanted to pop in to thank Ace1 for his regular and helpful posts in this thread. I'm currently trying to build Modern zombies myself, and your lists are a great place to begin brewing.
A copy of Darkblast is the best thing in the world for mana dorks. The dredging wouldn't do much harm to a Zombie deck either. Darkblast is also a silver bullet against Affinity and nearly so against Infect.
Darkblast is intersting for sure. I'll make sure to try it out. Finding the room in my sideboard is the hard part.
I just wanted to pop in to thank Ace1 for his regular and helpful posts in this thread. I'm currently trying to build Modern zombies myself, and your lists are a great place to begin brewing.
Thanks, I'm glad my quest toward finding the perfect zombie is helpful! Hope you enjoy the deck, it is a lot of fun and can do powerful things, and is kind of cheap too. Speaking of which...
The reprinting of liliana of the veil is great news. I've had the card on my radar for quite a while. Now i might be able to afford a couple to try out in my deck. I'd probably play her instead of the 2x fleshbag marauder. Alongside her i would maybe play some number of vengeful pharaoh again, because they go so well together.
Popping in to pump this thread and also say I really appreciate the consistent updates Ace and others are posting. I learned a lot through reading these pages and I think I'm gonna try to put this together. I've been hanging onto playsets of the Eldritch Moon zombies for a while and I'm STOKED to sleeve them up.
In regards to Dark Salvation, is it worth all 4 slots if I were putting a monoB build together to start? -1/-1 or -2/-2 seems pretty weak in the metagame, assuming a small board. I dunno how prone to removal the deck is (seems not very) but it feels like a sluggish topdeck if I'm behind. Maybe I'm wrong? I liked your list with Vengeful Pharaoh and Stinkweed Imp, it looked spicy. Also what are thoughts on playing some split of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek totalling 5? Just asking cause missing the big spells from green decks could be harsh.
Last question, how does this fare against burn? Just from reading I haven't seen it a ton in the write-ups, and it sounds horrid haha.
Popping in to pump this thread and also say I really appreciate the consistent updates Ace and others are posting. I learned a lot through reading these pages and I think I'm gonna try to put this together. I've been hanging onto playsets of the Eldritch Moon zombies for a while and I'm STOKED to sleeve them up.
In regards to Dark Salvation, is it worth all 4 slots if I were putting a monoB build together to start? -1/-1 or -2/-2 seems pretty weak in the metagame, assuming a small board. I dunno how prone to removal the deck is (seems not very) but it feels like a sluggish topdeck if I'm behind. Maybe I'm wrong?
The thing is dark salvation counts the total number of zombies you have, so even if you cast it for x = 1 with 3 mana, i will almost never be only -1/-1. When behind it is a great topdeck because it will provide you with lots of bodies, especialy when flooding. You can definitely play less then 4 at first if you don't feel like the card is great.
I liked your list with Vengeful Pharaoh and Stinkweed Imp, it looked spicy.
It is fine, but i've been looking to reduce the deck's dependance on the graveyard. I kept the most important graveyard cards thought, and if your meta doesn't pack that much hate vengeful pharaoh is good.
Also what are thoughts on playing some split of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek totalling 5? Just asking cause missing the big spells from green decks could be harsh.
That is fine. I DO prefer inquisition of kozilek because the life loss is a big deal. Having the life advantage with few pain from lands and spells is good often. With cryptbreaker every life point is a card we can draw.
Last question, how does this fare against burn? Just from reading I haven't seen it a ton in the write-ups, and it sounds horrid haha.
Not so bad. Game one is hard if they have lots of gas. Kalitas, traitor of ghet can take over the game if you draw it. Game 2-3 collective brutality from the sideboard helps a ton, you can even maindeck the card depending on your meta. I chose to send it to the sideboard, the gitaxian probe ban reduce the amount of decks it was great against.
Monday went 3-1
R1 win 2-0 vs mono black stuff, the guy was getting back into the game and his deck was a pile of stuff he had…
R2 win 2-0 vs u/b delver
R3 loss 1-2 vs abzan hardened scales modular, lost G2-3 because I never drew the 3rd land both games, despite me drawing off of cryptbreaker and both games lasting a long time, frustrating.
R4 win 2-0 vs jeskai nahiri, G1 my opponent was mana screwed, G2 double sculler ripped his hand and my opponent flooded.
Thursday went 3-1
R1 win 2-0 vs CoCo melira combo, my opponent was very unlucky G1 with 2 collected company that gave him a single noble hierarch. G2 I was able to stabilize and blasting station + gravecrawler took down his board
R2 win 2-0 vs scred red, we went on topdeck both games, I was able to deal with all his planeswalker thanks to recurring gravecrawler and dark salvations for a bunch of tokens.
R3 win 2-1 vs eldrazi bant, G1 I lost to eternal witness + eldrazi displacer combo, G2 my opponent kept because he had rest in peace, but was threat light. The card ended up not mattering. G3 I was able to beat worship + rest in peace by turbo drawing removal with cryptbreaker. My opponent made a few bad attacks with reality smashers which allowed me to kill his board faster.
R3 loss 1-2 vs elves, G1 my opponent kept a greedy hand and got punished. G2 I didn't find removal for his ezuri, renegade leader. G3 was close but as I was stabilizing my opponent topdecked collected company for lethal with shaman of the pack.
Really enjoyed the white cards in the sideboard, but i'd go back to mono-black if something similar to sculler but just black was printed. The disruption density is now pretty high and I enjoy it quite a lot.
That's awesome, I really like how much disruption you've fit into the shell. Thanks for the report.
I've always been curious about how some zombie cards perform in practice. Forgive me if this has been covered previously: at what X value do you usually cast Dark Salvation and what -X/-X do you hit in typical games? And how does Blasting Station perform? I guess with Gravecrawler Blasting Station means B = 1 DMG. Is it still useful outside of that interaction? What size is Colossus and how many tokens does he usually poop out in a game?
That's awesome, I really like how much disruption you've fit into the shell. Thanks for the report.
I've always been curious about how some zombie cards perform in practice. Forgive me if this has been covered previously: at what X value do you usually cast Dark Salvation and what -X/-X do you hit in typical games?
Typically x equals 1 or 2. You usually play it turn 3 for 3 mana, giving -3/-3 or -2/-2 to a creature depending on if you hit one drop into two drop. And then later in the game i often cast it for x equals 2, killing most stuff since you should have a few zombies out by then. Then, sometimes you cast it for x equals zero when you really need to use the rest of your mana the same turn. And sometimes you x equals 3 or more in long grindy games.
And how does Blasting Station perform? I guess with Gravecrawler Blasting Station means B = 1 DMG. Is it still useful outside of that interaction?
Keep in mind that with diregraf colossus out you get a token out of every gravecrawler you cast too, which you can use to build your board or deal extra damage with station if you need to.
Being able to sac any zombie is often useful vs exile effects, you'd rather send the zombie to the graveyard than have a land for path to exile a lot of the times.
You can get loops going with relentless dead. Sac it then use both abilities to get itself and another zombie back every turn. You can lock up the draw step with it and tidehollow sculler + 5 mana. You can lock up the board, killing opposing creatures every turn with it and flesbag marauder + 6 mana. You can bring back diregraf colossus and stack the triggers so that colossus get the extra counter while relentless dead is still in the graveyard, waiting for the other trigger to resolve.
You can also just dome your opponent with extra zombies in a stalemate. And it works pretty well with kalitas, traitor of ghet, just sac anything to kill an x/1, get the zombie token, kill another x/1 with it, etc.
What size is Colossus and how many tokens does he usually poop out in a game?
When curving out he is often 2/2 on turn 3, but he is still fine. Your future collosus will be bigger as the game goes longer. When playing vsd red decks you can hold on to them until you get 2 zombies in the graveyard so that it survives lightning bolt. Cryptbreaker can help make them bigger for that purpose by binning zombies. Having gravecrawler in the graveyard while casting it feels good because it make collosus bigger and you get the cast trigger when you play crawler from the graveyard.
The real reason you play colossus is the token spamming. He can get you quite a lot of those, i very often end up with 5+ extra tokens from it, and when you have multiple it gets degenerate quite fast. The fact that gravecrawler and relentless dead can come back allows you to abuse this ability. For exemple you can attack with gravecrawler and if to opponent blocks (which they will have to do at some point) you just cast it back from your graveyard and get an extra token. Or you just hold back relentless dead to make opposing attacks bad, since if you chump with it you can pay both abilities, get a zombie back plus recast dead for value on your turn.
@Ace1 I have noticed that you run Wail of the Nim in your sideboard (I'm referring to your mono B version). Would you mind elaborating on the situations/mathups it comes in for? Possibly as a counter to Anger of the Gods?
@Ace1 I have noticed that you run Wail of the Nim in your sideboard (I'm referring to your mono B version). Would you mind elaborating on the situations/mathups it comes in for? Possibly as a counter to Anger of the Gods?
Yes, the main reason is to counter anger of the gods, or other non wrath of god/damnation sweepers. It is the only card available in mono black that does that. The other mode is also useful very often, if not more than the first. Dealing one to everything instant speed is super powerful vs decks like elves and affinity, and the entwine can save cryptbreakers or it can be used to have a advantage in combat. It just has double function and saves sideboard space, being protection from sweepers and a mini sweeper by itself. Now i know the card isn't efficient, but the combinaison of effects is unique in this color, so it is valuable.
Sweet, thanks for the quick reply. I will try it out! On a sad note, I am for some reason unable to get my hands on copies of rotting rats (I have all the other cards though), so I will be trying out Black Cat in its place. Fortunately we can get the same draw step lock with it.
I like the inclusion of Vehicles in the game. And I think Scrapheap Scrounger has a place. It can allow for wrath effects, and with bloodghast and other recurring creatures, it doesn't hurt the deck as much as the opponent.
Scrapheap Scrounger doesn't make sense to me in this deck. I don't want to exile my creatures, I want to keep getting them back, which is something we can do with our sac outlet.
I like the inclusion of Vehicles in the game. And I think Scrapheap Scrounger has a place. It can allow for wrath effects, and with bloodghast and other recurring creatures, it doesn't hurt the deck as much as the opponent.
Scrapheap Scrounger doesn't make sense to me in this deck. I don't want to exile my creatures, I want to keep getting them back, which is something we can do with our sac outlet.
Agreed, and i don't like bloodghast either. We want all our stuff to be zombies because they are the backbone of our synergies. You COULD run a deck with ghasts and scrounger for value, but that would be another deck entirely.
I really like my creature core as I'm really trying overwhelm my opponent with a zombie horde. And, I am willing to allot one additional slot (four cards) for more creatures i.e. Kalitas and Colossus. But, I want to focus on my support right now as I feel the deck will lose 10 out of 10 times. Why? I lack disruption. That's why there are 12 cards missing. I do not think focusing on hand or graveyard disruption will help, which leaves field disruption. But, I do not know what is the best combination of field removal spells.
Ditching diregraf ghoul, shamble back and vile rebirth would be a good start. In this modern age a 2/2 for one isn't good enough anymore, especially since the graveyard hate is very situational, and it doesn't even deal with non-creature stuff.
For more insight and general guidelines on how i personally view the deck you can go a page back on this thread and look at the result of my testing. I've tried a few different splashes and have played a lot with mono-black and white-black.
For golgari you forgot Lotleth Troll and Putrid Leech. I think the BG Devotion zombies list that D90Dennis14 posted is a good representation of what BG zombies should look like. Being able to search for win conditions with Eldritch Evolution seems like it would be really good.
Thank you. I'll try running it this FNM, maybe give a report on my matchups
I've always liked zombies, but I've never been able to make them work. But, here I am giving it another shot. At least I get an "A" for effort. lol Well, enough about me, lets discuss the deck. The main focus of this Zombie build is to quickly swarm the battlefield with re-animating Zombies and friends supported by Waste Not. Bottom line, I want the opponent to react to me. Either way, I find myself have fun if I lose or win.
4x Relentless Dead
4x Bloodghast
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Gravecrawler
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
4x Cryptbreaker
4x Waste Not
4x Dark Deal
4x Shamble Back
4x Vile Rebirth
3x Mutavault
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
16x Swamp
I also have an alternate support package that is control based. I have no idea how effective it is.
4x Collective Brutality
4x Smallpox
4x Fatal Push
If any of you like this build please take it for a spin and let me know how it fared. And, of course, if you have any ways to improve what I'm trying to do please let me know.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS
"BR Zombies" - https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-wbr-33176
"BG (Devotion) Zombies" - https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-b-g-devotion
Both lists could be improved of course but I like the BG one better and seems more tuned and plays more powerful cards.
The latter is the second deck I've seen lately that uses Eldritch Evolution to play Rex. Maybe I should try it. This one has three play-sets or near play-sets of recur-able creatures to sacrifice. Messenger can also be used to get Gary. There's massive B-devotion potential here. It certainly looks like fun. The mana does not suit me, but that's easy enough to tune.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
I think Nykthos is bad in the list and is also unnecessary. Gary is five-CMC but Nykthos can be dead and it's certainly horrible in multiples. I would ditch both and make some other changes to the mana as well. I'd probably want a second Urborg and at least three copies of Twilight Mire plus some number of Blooming Marsh. Two copies of Woodland Cemetery is also at least one too many. Four copies of Overgrown Tomb is also unnecessary in my view. Two is probably enough.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Relentless Dead
3 Cemetery Reaper
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Dismember
2 Fatal Push
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Watery Grave
1 Forest
8 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
this is just a rough draft but seems to do well in limited testing.
Been considering adding Gisa and Geralf. Sideboard has been changing a lot, but usually contains some number of hand disruption, Nature's Claim x4 and a few extra Collective Brutality. Thanks for taking the time to poke at this deck, and remember lets "Make Zombies Great Again!"
4 inquisition of kozilek
4 dark salvation
creatures: 24
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 relentless dead
4 tidehollow sculler
4 diregraf colossus
2 fleshbag marauder
2 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
instants: 4
4 fatal push
2 blasting station
lands: 22
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 Shizo, death's storehouse
4 swamp
4 concealed courtyard
2 godless shrine
2 bloodstained mire
4 polluted delta
2 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
3 contaminated ground
2 fragmentize
2 collective brutality
2 suffer the past
2 zealous persecution
2 big game hunter
2 burrenton forge-tender
So basically i'm trading rotting rats and smuggler's copter for 4x tidehollow sculler to increase my disruption. I tried sculler before but in a different shell. Now with Kalitas, traitor of ghet x2 and dark salvation x4 I feel I have enough good topdecks to include sculler. Should help vs difficult matcups such as combo and big mana decks.
Tuesday went 3-1
R1 loss 0-2 vs melira combo. G1 got mana screwed because mutavault was my only other land after the first, had sculler but drew the other colored source too late for his collected company. I may have not played well, deciding to kill my opponent's mana creatures to delay CoCo, which left me without removal for the combo. G2 flooded a bit. I had Kalitas but my opponent immediately drew path to exile, I then drew a bunch of lands and got comboed.
R2 win 2-0 vs green devotion, my opponent had bad draws, I ripped appart his hand from threats both games and he drew nothing but mana accelerant after that.
R3 win 2-0 vs jeskai delver, got to slow down my opponent quite a bit both games, ended up with tons of tokens from colossus for the win. G2 collective brutality and burrenton forge-tender from the sideboard locked up the game.
R4 win 2-1 vs eldrazi tron, G1 mulled to five but got there thanks to a great draw and a poor 7 card hand from my opponent. G2 my opponent assembled tron quickly and got to ulamog, the ceaseless hunger for the win. G3 I had a decent draw and spammed token, while my opponent only drew mana stuff and no threats.
So far i like the deck, white may be my favorite splash because of the great sideboard cards it offers. Not sure i like it better than mono-black yet.
Frenzy-Affinity-Ghost Quarter-Rock-Tokens- RGWPhyrexian Zoo- WVial KnightsStandard:
BW Knights(Rotated)Pioneer: RW Knights - BW Rally Zombies - UW Heroes
Commander:WUG
Jenara, Asura of War- WGSigarda, Host of HeronsCasualties of economicsLegacy: Good-night, sweet prince. Mono-R Burn
Darkblast is intersting for sure. I'll make sure to try it out. Finding the room in my sideboard is the hard part.
Thanks, I'm glad my quest toward finding the perfect zombie is helpful! Hope you enjoy the deck, it is a lot of fun and can do powerful things, and is kind of cheap too. Speaking of which...
The reprinting of liliana of the veil is great news. I've had the card on my radar for quite a while. Now i might be able to afford a couple to try out in my deck. I'd probably play her instead of the 2x fleshbag marauder. Alongside her i would maybe play some number of vengeful pharaoh again, because they go so well together.
In regards to Dark Salvation, is it worth all 4 slots if I were putting a monoB build together to start? -1/-1 or -2/-2 seems pretty weak in the metagame, assuming a small board. I dunno how prone to removal the deck is (seems not very) but it feels like a sluggish topdeck if I'm behind. Maybe I'm wrong? I liked your list with Vengeful Pharaoh and Stinkweed Imp, it looked spicy. Also what are thoughts on playing some split of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek totalling 5? Just asking cause missing the big spells from green decks could be harsh.
Last question, how does this fare against burn? Just from reading I haven't seen it a ton in the write-ups, and it sounds horrid haha.
CMy Peasant CubeC
On Cubetutor
The thing is dark salvation counts the total number of zombies you have, so even if you cast it for x = 1 with 3 mana, i will almost never be only -1/-1. When behind it is a great topdeck because it will provide you with lots of bodies, especialy when flooding. You can definitely play less then 4 at first if you don't feel like the card is great.
It is fine, but i've been looking to reduce the deck's dependance on the graveyard. I kept the most important graveyard cards thought, and if your meta doesn't pack that much hate vengeful pharaoh is good.
That is fine. I DO prefer inquisition of kozilek because the life loss is a big deal. Having the life advantage with few pain from lands and spells is good often. With cryptbreaker every life point is a card we can draw.
Not so bad. Game one is hard if they have lots of gas. Kalitas, traitor of ghet can take over the game if you draw it. Game 2-3 collective brutality from the sideboard helps a ton, you can even maindeck the card depending on your meta. I chose to send it to the sideboard, the gitaxian probe ban reduce the amount of decks it was great against.
4 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 relentless dead
4 tidehollow sculler
4 diregraf colossus
2 fleshbag marauder
2 Kalitas, traitor of ghet
Sorceries: 8
4 inquisition of kozilek
4 dark salvation
instants: 4
4 fatal push
2 blasting station
lands: 22
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 Shizo, death's storehouse
4 swamp
4 concealed courtyard
2 godless shrine
4 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
2 cavern of souls
2 mutavault
1 fragmentize
2 collective brutality
2 suffer the past
2 zealous persecution
2 big game hunter
2 burrenton forge-tender
2 stony silence
2 contaminated ground
Monday went 3-1
R1 win 2-0 vs mono black stuff, the guy was getting back into the game and his deck was a pile of stuff he had…
R2 win 2-0 vs u/b delver
R3 loss 1-2 vs abzan hardened scales modular, lost G2-3 because I never drew the 3rd land both games, despite me drawing off of cryptbreaker and both games lasting a long time, frustrating.
R4 win 2-0 vs jeskai nahiri, G1 my opponent was mana screwed, G2 double sculler ripped his hand and my opponent flooded.
Thursday went 3-1
R1 win 2-0 vs CoCo melira combo, my opponent was very unlucky G1 with 2 collected company that gave him a single noble hierarch. G2 I was able to stabilize and blasting station + gravecrawler took down his board
R2 win 2-0 vs scred red, we went on topdeck both games, I was able to deal with all his planeswalker thanks to recurring gravecrawler and dark salvations for a bunch of tokens.
R3 win 2-1 vs eldrazi bant, G1 I lost to eternal witness + eldrazi displacer combo, G2 my opponent kept because he had rest in peace, but was threat light. The card ended up not mattering. G3 I was able to beat worship + rest in peace by turbo drawing removal with cryptbreaker. My opponent made a few bad attacks with reality smashers which allowed me to kill his board faster.
R3 loss 1-2 vs elves, G1 my opponent kept a greedy hand and got punished. G2 I didn't find removal for his ezuri, renegade leader. G3 was close but as I was stabilizing my opponent topdecked collected company for lethal with shaman of the pack.
Really enjoyed the white cards in the sideboard, but i'd go back to mono-black if something similar to sculler but just black was printed. The disruption density is now pretty high and I enjoy it quite a lot.
I've always been curious about how some zombie cards perform in practice. Forgive me if this has been covered previously: at what X value do you usually cast Dark Salvation and what -X/-X do you hit in typical games? And how does Blasting Station perform? I guess with Gravecrawler Blasting Station means B = 1 DMG. Is it still useful outside of that interaction? What size is Colossus and how many tokens does he usually poop out in a game?
Typically x equals 1 or 2. You usually play it turn 3 for 3 mana, giving -3/-3 or -2/-2 to a creature depending on if you hit one drop into two drop. And then later in the game i often cast it for x equals 2, killing most stuff since you should have a few zombies out by then. Then, sometimes you cast it for x equals zero when you really need to use the rest of your mana the same turn. And sometimes you x equals 3 or more in long grindy games.
Keep in mind that with diregraf colossus out you get a token out of every gravecrawler you cast too, which you can use to build your board or deal extra damage with station if you need to.
Being able to sac any zombie is often useful vs exile effects, you'd rather send the zombie to the graveyard than have a land for path to exile a lot of the times.
You can get loops going with relentless dead. Sac it then use both abilities to get itself and another zombie back every turn. You can lock up the draw step with it and tidehollow sculler + 5 mana. You can lock up the board, killing opposing creatures every turn with it and flesbag marauder + 6 mana. You can bring back diregraf colossus and stack the triggers so that colossus get the extra counter while relentless dead is still in the graveyard, waiting for the other trigger to resolve.
You can also just dome your opponent with extra zombies in a stalemate. And it works pretty well with kalitas, traitor of ghet, just sac anything to kill an x/1, get the zombie token, kill another x/1 with it, etc.
When curving out he is often 2/2 on turn 3, but he is still fine. Your future collosus will be bigger as the game goes longer. When playing vsd red decks you can hold on to them until you get 2 zombies in the graveyard so that it survives lightning bolt. Cryptbreaker can help make them bigger for that purpose by binning zombies. Having gravecrawler in the graveyard while casting it feels good because it make collosus bigger and you get the cast trigger when you play crawler from the graveyard.
The real reason you play colossus is the token spamming. He can get you quite a lot of those, i very often end up with 5+ extra tokens from it, and when you have multiple it gets degenerate quite fast. The fact that gravecrawler and relentless dead can come back allows you to abuse this ability. For exemple you can attack with gravecrawler and if to opponent blocks (which they will have to do at some point) you just cast it back from your graveyard and get an extra token. Or you just hold back relentless dead to make opposing attacks bad, since if you chump with it you can pay both abilities, get a zombie back plus recast dead for value on your turn.
Yes, the main reason is to counter anger of the gods, or other non wrath of god/damnation sweepers. It is the only card available in mono black that does that. The other mode is also useful very often, if not more than the first. Dealing one to everything instant speed is super powerful vs decks like elves and affinity, and the entwine can save cryptbreakers or it can be used to have a advantage in combat. It just has double function and saves sideboard space, being protection from sweepers and a mini sweeper by itself. Now i know the card isn't efficient, but the combinaison of effects is unique in this color, so it is valuable.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
Agreed, and i don't like bloodghast either. We want all our stuff to be zombies because they are the backbone of our synergies. You COULD run a deck with ghasts and scrounger for value, but that would be another deck entirely.
4x Relentless Dead
4x Diregraf Ghoul
4x Gravecrawler
4x Cryptbreaker
SUPPORT: 12
4x Fatal Push
4x Vile Rebirth
4x Shamble Back
3x Mutavault
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
16x Swamp
CONSIDERING:
1x Kalitas, traitor of ghet
3x Diregraf Colossus
4x Blood Scrivener
4x Bridge from Below
4x Waste Not
I really like my creature core as I'm really trying overwhelm my opponent with a zombie horde. And, I am willing to allot one additional slot (four cards) for more creatures i.e. Kalitas and Colossus. But, I want to focus on my support right now as I feel the deck will lose 10 out of 10 times. Why? I lack disruption. That's why there are 12 cards missing. I do not think focusing on hand or graveyard disruption will help, which leaves field disruption. But, I do not know what is the best combination of field removal spells.
Currently I'm looking at...
Mono Black: Smallpox, Collective Brutality, Sinister Concoction, Bone Splinters, Smother, Fatal Push, and Inquisition of Kozilek
If we splash we have...
Orzhov: Tidehollow Sculler, Path to Exile
Rakdos: Dreadbore, Terminate, Lightning Bolt
Golgari: Abrupt Decay
I left out three costing cards as I didn't feel that they did enough that one or two costing cards couldn't do already.
What are your thoughts on all this?
I have a lot of other questions, but I'm figuring one at a time. lol
YOUTUBE CHANNEL: GOBOTS
For more insight and general guidelines on how i personally view the deck you can go a page back on this thread and look at the result of my testing. I've tried a few different splashes and have played a lot with mono-black and white-black.
Modern:
BRBightning RackBR
RGoblinsR
WBDeath and TaxesWB
Legacy:
BPoxB