As a lonf time edh player I can assure you, nlack has 0 ways of destroying enchantments and exactly one way of destroying artifacts and it's not even close to modern legal. You are looking at Perilous Vault, Scour from Existence, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Argentum Armor, Culling Scales, Lux Cannon, Mockery of Nature, Oblivion Stone, Ratchet Bomb, Spine of Ish Sah, Steel Hellkite, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Universal Solvent, and Worldslayer. So basically just Ratchet Bomb which is very slow and only really useful vs boggles and tokens. Even when I used to take mono black devotipn to fnm, I always has agreen splash for abrupt decay, and others. Unless bloodmoon is popular, there is no down side. There is a reason mono color decs are virtually non existent in modern.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my Sales 50% OFF everything for the next 48 hours.
With the way my deck is configured, I love seeing a Grafdigg cage on the other side of the board. My opponents think it's a slam dunk, all it does is stop me from replaying the second half of a Gravecrawler or a third of relentless dead.
RIP is a little more troubling, but you can just move away from some of the graveyard synergy post board if you expect it....include a couple 4 mana threats like obliterator in mono black or Sorin if your in white as well...Duress sideboard helps here too, as well as the main board hand disruption most people run.
Honestly though, the pull to white is too strong. I hate it personally, it makes my Mana base awful because I think the blue support cards are just better...But until we get something 2cmc on the powerlevel of Tidehollow, wanderer, or even binding mummy, in mono black or another colour we just have to play White, imo.
4 tidehollow sculler
3 relentless dead
4 wayward servant
3 diregraf colossus
3 plague belcher
Non-Creature Spells 11
4 inquisition of kozilek
1 thoughtseize
2 fatal push
2 path to exile
2 dark salvation
Lands 22
Sorry about the formatting, I'm typing from mobile.
Still not sure on the correct number for the sac outlet. I want to make sure I see it, but I don't really want multiples unless it dies to removal. I also don't really like running only 6 removal spells without Liliana as back up, or dropping down my count of Relentless Dead and Cryptbreaker but there's only so much room in the deck
Hmm blessed alliance is interesting. Still not sure if I'd mainboard it but it's good in the sideboard especially if you deal with Deaths Shadow decks.
Brutality is amazing and I'd suggest no less than 2 in the SB. Whether or not you main board it depends on your local meta and your deck
Since the advent of Concealed Courtyard, BW is a pretty smooth color combination. For what it's worth, following is my mana-base from a BW deck I've run:
The Plains-Swamp ratio should probably be flipped here, and the Vault is likely no good here. Three basics might be enough. A very heavy B build might want another Heath or perhaps an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or two. The Vents are pretty nice cards but not mandatory; one could substitute Mutavault but the Vents' mana-fixing is nice.
@Dejadal
Blessed aliance is a good flexible card. Its best against reality smasher, and death's shadows. Its fine vs zoo as well. I think brutality is the better card, but they do different things.
@pzbw7z
I think having marshflats as your fetch is very important and ultimately worth the investment. It doesn't come up in every matchup, but against bloodmoon decks its the difference between winning and losing. I would also go to 1 plains. You want to be able to recast gravecrawler as many times as possible. 0-1 urborg is the right number. It should be in the deck if you want to run colorless lands. I'm not fond of fetid heath. If you have cards costing double white out of the sb then it is worth while, but otherwise its a liability. Finally I prefer mutavault as my manland of choice since it gets back gravecrawler, but if you are running only BB and BW costing 2 drops, vents might be necessary. I would heavily consider 1-2 isolated chapel's, but It depends on how deep into white you are going. Also I would cut vault, it's the worst of all those lands and generally a worse mana sink than other options such as Westvale Abbey, or just another vents.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my Sales 50% OFF everything for the next 48 hours.
Alright so I was waiting until the end of spoilers to post this. I had a big brainstorm on BG zombies because of the newly spoiled cards. My thought process is that all of the powerhouse zombie cards are 3cmc. Looking at each mana cost for the zombie tribe in monoblack we see:
There is clearly a huge discrepancy towards the 3 drop slot. This is where the most powerful creatures are, and discounting the lords who are too slow to see play anyways it still leaves us with more 3-drops than we can really handle. Moving into BG colours we can add Lotleth Troll to the creature suite as well as a ton of support cards to completely skip the weak 2-drop slot like Birds of Paradise/Elves of Deep Shadow, Collected Company, and a whole lot of premier removal. The point of the deck would be to either go straight to 3 mana with a turn 1 manadork or to win off the back of Collected Company dumping threats into play. With the spoiling of Plague Belcher bringing more power to the 3-drop slot this deck was looking more promising, I was even going to post a list too! But since the full set reveal it really seems that BW Zombies has got a large enough push and perhaps can fill out the 2-drops that the deck so desperately needs and render all other versions obsolete.
Before playing Zombies didn't mean much for the tribal tag because with all of the lords costing too much to be played, we weren't using the tribe to its full potential. Now playing BW means that you are not diluting your deck with non-Zombie cards just to make it work. BW cards that get added include:
This gives us 1 more good option to round out the 2-drop slot with Wayward Servant while still having the option of Binding Mummy if needed. Removal almost seems too good with Fatal Push, Path to Exile, and now Time to Reflect rounding out anything else we could need. I also really really like Tragic Slip as a card, since the BW deck could really go full sacrifice-mode and continually drain the opponent through Geralf's Messenger and Wayward Servant, resetting Messenger with Plague Belcher and Festering Mummy (or Fume Spitter which is arguably the better card since it can be activated at will). I still don't like that the single card power is is very top-end heavy, but the curve of the deck can certainly look like:
Keeping the curve at 3cmc isn't the end of the world since there is no shortage of things to do with our mana through Gravecrawler, Cryptbreaker, and Relentless Dead. I see this as a deck that can get a few hits in early and then will be overpowered by other decks. It will win the games through draining the opponent for those last 7-10 health while chumping the rest of the board. I can see running out of resources to be a thing post sideboarding when gravehate is brought in. Hopefully Cryptbreaker is enough on it's own, I'll have to play with it more to see with the new zombie ratios. The deck also desperately needs a sac outlet so Cartel Aristocrat will be the best choice. It has some neat interactions with the Plague Belcher trigger and such. It can chump for days which is nice.
Lastly an honorable mention I want to give is to the new Bone Picker. Because this deck is going to be killing things so often it may be a good card. It's no zombie, but it would likely come down turn 3 with another 2-drop or 3-drop after we ram a Gravecrawler into the opponent. I'll keep it in the back pocket for now.
The super rough list I'm starting with looking at is:
It has disruption in the form of 4 T1 discard and then 3 other T2 discard. Removal for everything in the format, and 9 threats at the top end of the curve that each bring their own angle of attack to the deck. I think directions to take will be to drop the 1 mana discard for more Tidehollow Sculler and slip in more Cartel Aristocrat somehow. I like Collective Brutality as a 1-of since it is useful in any situation, and Dark Salvation since drawing it late you can just dump a ton of mana into it or if you are ahead on board it is another 1 mana removal spell.
I'll play around with the deck in the coming weeks and see what I like/don't like.
Sorry about the formatting, I'm typing from mobile.
Still not sure on the correct number for the sac outlet. I want to make sure I see it, but I don't really want multiples unless it dies to removal. I also don't really like running only 6 removal spells without Liliana as back up, or dropping down my count of Relentless Dead and Cryptbreaker but there's only so much room in the deck
I don't see an issue with lowering the Relentless Dead count, it's not as good as the other 2 drops in my opinion, especially if you choose to go with Aristocrat as your sac outlet. If you can find room for Lilly the Last hope it definitely helps you from a lot of angles - increases your redundancy of key creature pieces without having to run 4 copies or 4+ x number of sub-optimal versions without reducing your threat density. You can also use it as a pseudo sac outlet turning her +1 into "+1 Drain opponent = how many Servant/belcher you have in play".
Time to Reflect (Yes it is conditional, but it is essentially Path to Exile 5-8. The only problem is the wording of the card forces you to cast it post-damage so you are still trading creatures.)
No, you can cast it before damage, after blockers are declared, so you don't have to trade off creatures. It would be trash otherwise.
Time to Reflect (Yes it is conditional, but it is essentially Path to Exile 5-8. The only problem is the wording of the card forces you to cast it post-damage so you are still trading creatures.)
No, you can cast it before damage, after blockers are declared, so you don't have to trade off creatures. It would be trash otherwise.
The numbers are weird, because i tried to squeeze a maximum of good stuff here. I'm trying to diversify my sac outlets because drawing 2 is less bad if they don't do the same thing. After testing i might settle on one to go 3 of.
The numbers are weird, because i tried to squeeze a maximum of good stuff here. I'm trying to diversify my sac outlets because drawing 2 is less bad if they don't do the same thing. After testing i might settle on one to go 3 of.
Can't wait to sleeve up these new bad boys!
I like the idea of diversifying the sac-outlets but only contingent on if you value Viscera Seer and Blasting Station higher than Cartel Aristocrat; Seer/Station seems bad in multiples, Aristocrat is probably fine as a 2-of.
My numbers are skewed as well in order to allow Liliana, the last hope + Thought Scour to work as a graveyard toolbox. I think having access to the 4 Thoughtscour should let me trim down on the land count.
The plan is be aggressive in G1 to gain some points against the big mana decks but to be able to move into the control role against the fair matches in postboard games. Take out the 1 drops and a lillys or two(and therefore most of the graveyard reliance) put in Cryptbreakers, Sorins, Belcher, disruption etc for a longer game.
With all the drain triggers this feels like an aristocrat deck, but with actual powerful creatures instead of puny 1/1s... Feels like i want aether vials but not sure what to cut. Still 4x relentless dead because they come back again and again for more triggers!
This other list pack all the interaction and has maximum consistency:
Basically my w/b list plus wayward servant. The deck wasn't bad pre-amonkhet but something was missing. Maybe we don't need that much and the 2 drop is what i was looking for?
IMO the maximum drain idea is cute (and I love the idea of non-whimpy zombicrats) but you are too congested at 3 CMC to justify bringing in a 3rd color, Blue, for Diregraf Captain. Maybe replace Diregraf Captain in the first list with Tidehollow Sculler for a nice sweetspot of interaction and drain with a milder & more consistent manabase?
I think it's ok to shave Dark Salvation down, it feels a little bit win-more now that we have better cards. Plus, if you still need more removal you have Path. one other idea is using Damnation instead of sac outlets like Viscera Seer, possibly combined with Collective Brutality and Colossus. You don't get loops that way but you do get a hard reset if you're behind vs creature decks.
Lastly, I don't think the deck has any room for colorless utility lands, even with Urborg, due to the number of double colored two-drops and geralf's messenger. It's going to have a deleterious effect on your tempo if you draw it as anything other than your 4th land drop.
I'm still trying to figure out the optimal usage of the 3 CMC slots. Early impressions: it seems like Plague Belcher is the best zombie here? 3 for a 5/4 menace + drain, and we can use the drawback of the -1/1 counters to set up a quick drain loop. Diregraff colossus seems a little clunky without building around, but perhaps the payoff is worth it. Liliana, The Last Hope seems like an almost mandatory inclusion IMO since she can be removal, GY filling / card advantage, or even a win con. I guess you could even use her +1 on gravecrawler for a quick drain in lieu of a sac outlet?
Yes maybe mutavaults have become a liability. I do not play geralf's messenger in my w/b version so maybe 20 colored sources for double color on turn 2 is ok, but the safe option is to play 100% colored sources for sure.
I don't know people's experience with dark salvation but i just love the card. In the b/w version i posted, the strategy is to go as wide as possible, making wayward servant optimal. This is also why i opted for diregraf colossus as my 3 drop of choice. I have 24 zombies to trigger them both, plus another 4x salvation to trigger servant.
I also like the flexibility of the card (dark salvation). I'm very happy to play it for x = 0 when missing land drops, just to kill something small and survive. Late game it can kill nearly anything and i love to topdeck it and turn the tables in my favor just because of the zombies. Creatures + removal on the same card is very strong!
Another aspect of my go wide strategy is to dodge hate. Rest in peace is always good vs us but my version is less destroyed by it. Plague belcher is super awkward vs hate, both because the die triggers can be negated and because you are almost forced to put the counters on itself. Geralf's messenger is also bad vs hate. In my version diregraf colossus and dark salvation don't care much about rip/leyline of the void/etc (sure colossus won't get big, whatev). The upside of belcher/messenger are probably high enough, they are powerful for sure and graveyard strategy are still very strong in modern. But there are pros and cons to each version, and i prefer to take the go wide/not get crushed by hate route.
Nantuko husk is a nice option, probably the only playable zombie sac outlet for now. But i just think the value from blasting station is too high. Having a zombie pump itself is way less powerful than machine gunning creatures or face. I also don't need my sac outlet to eat my whole board the same turn, as you would want to be able to do in plague belcher/diregraf captain/geralf's messenger versions. Station also goes best with diregraf colossus for the option of double gunning down stuff with gravecrawler.
... Plague belcher is super awkward vs hate, both because the die triggers can be negated and because you are almost forced to put the counters on itself. ...
I actually hadn't considered this. I mean 3/2 menace isn't nothing, but it isn't much, and again a little better in aggro. But yea, that dies trigger though. I guess Belcher won't make it into my sideboard for any reason.. I'll probably start 3-4 in the main for testing purposes, but I can see dropping this to 2. It doesn't solve as many of the issues I had originally thought. Dang.
It is basically a "Mono Black Devotion" deck with less devotion payoff.
maybe that's the key to the deck. I still think Zombies needs to take advantage of Bridge from Below somehow someway.
So how I see it is we have two routes. As zombies alone we do not have the sufficient cards to cover our missing slots thus a deck which placed top 8 that uses the vital vampire cards and B devotion works.
Thus if we want a mono black zombie to work we DO have to be a pseudo Aggro b devotion; however for those who want to dip into white, I feel like you HAVE to become a pseudo zombie aristocrat deck.
With the cards we have available right now, zombies by themselves will never be viable, for now we have to depend on other cards to cover what zombies don't have available to them.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
RIP is a little more troubling, but you can just move away from some of the graveyard synergy post board if you expect it....include a couple 4 mana threats like obliterator in mono black or Sorin if your in white as well...Duress sideboard helps here too, as well as the main board hand disruption most people run.
Honestly though, the pull to white is too strong. I hate it personally, it makes my Mana base awful because I think the blue support cards are just better...But until we get something 2cmc on the powerlevel of Tidehollow, wanderer, or even binding mummy, in mono black or another colour we just have to play White, imo.
Have you ever been across the table from Wurmcoil engine? I have to fight one almost every week and I would hate to do it without Path/Unmaking.
Also Tidehollow Sculler is way too strong of a T2 play to pass up, and Wayward Servant makes white even more relevant
This isn't my current BW list, just an idea that I'm still trying to balance out the curve on
Creatures 27
4 gravecrawler
3 cryptbreaker
3 viscera seer (/cartel aristocrat)
4 tidehollow sculler
3 relentless dead
4 wayward servant
3 diregraf colossus
3 plague belcher
Non-Creature Spells 11
4 inquisition of kozilek
1 thoughtseize
2 fatal push
2 path to exile
2 dark salvation
Lands 22
Sorry about the formatting, I'm typing from mobile.
Still not sure on the correct number for the sac outlet. I want to make sure I see it, but I don't really want multiples unless it dies to removal. I also don't really like running only 6 removal spells without Liliana as back up, or dropping down my count of Relentless Dead and Cryptbreaker but there's only so much room in the deck
Brutality is amazing and I'd suggest no less than 2 in the SB. Whether or not you main board it depends on your local meta and your deck
The Plains-Swamp ratio should probably be flipped here, and the Vault is likely no good here. Three basics might be enough. A very heavy B build might want another Heath or perhaps an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or two. The Vents are pretty nice cards but not mandatory; one could substitute Mutavault but the Vents' mana-fixing is nice.
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
Blessed aliance is a good flexible card. Its best against reality smasher, and death's shadows. Its fine vs zoo as well. I think brutality is the better card, but they do different things.
@pzbw7z
I think having marshflats as your fetch is very important and ultimately worth the investment. It doesn't come up in every matchup, but against bloodmoon decks its the difference between winning and losing. I would also go to 1 plains. You want to be able to recast gravecrawler as many times as possible. 0-1 urborg is the right number. It should be in the deck if you want to run colorless lands. I'm not fond of fetid heath. If you have cards costing double white out of the sb then it is worth while, but otherwise its a liability. Finally I prefer mutavault as my manland of choice since it gets back gravecrawler, but if you are running only BB and BW costing 2 drops, vents might be necessary. I would heavily consider 1-2 isolated chapel's, but It depends on how deep into white you are going. Also I would cut vault, it's the worst of all those lands and generally a worse mana sink than other options such as Westvale Abbey, or just another vents.
1cmc:
- Gravecrawler
- Cryptbreaker
- Dread Wanderer
- Diregraf Ghoul (not played anymore)
2cmc:
- Relentless Dead
3cmc:
- Geralf's Messenger
- Plague Belcher
- Diregraf Colossus
- Unbreathing Horde
- Prized Amalgam (technically 0cmc)
- Lord of the Accursed
- Cemetery Reaper
- Death Baron
- Lord of the Undead
- Nantuko Husk
- Fleshbag Marauder
There is clearly a huge discrepancy towards the 3 drop slot. This is where the most powerful creatures are, and discounting the lords who are too slow to see play anyways it still leaves us with more 3-drops than we can really handle. Moving into BG colours we can add Lotleth Troll to the creature suite as well as a ton of support cards to completely skip the weak 2-drop slot like Birds of Paradise/Elves of Deep Shadow, Collected Company, and a whole lot of premier removal. The point of the deck would be to either go straight to 3 mana with a turn 1 manadork or to win off the back of Collected Company dumping threats into play. With the spoiling of Plague Belcher bringing more power to the 3-drop slot this deck was looking more promising, I was even going to post a list too! But since the full set reveal it really seems that BW Zombies has got a large enough push and perhaps can fill out the 2-drops that the deck so desperately needs and render all other versions obsolete.
Before playing Zombies didn't mean much for the tribal tag because with all of the lords costing too much to be played, we weren't using the tribe to its full potential. Now playing BW means that you are not diluting your deck with non-Zombie cards just to make it work. BW cards that get added include:
- Binding Mummy (lock stuff down for us to attack uninterrupted)
- Wayward Servant
- Time to Reflect (Yes it is conditional, but it is essentially Path to Exile 5-8.)
This gives us 1 more good option to round out the 2-drop slot with Wayward Servant while still having the option of Binding Mummy if needed. Removal almost seems too good with Fatal Push, Path to Exile, and now Time to Reflect rounding out anything else we could need. I also really really like Tragic Slip as a card, since the BW deck could really go full sacrifice-mode and continually drain the opponent through Geralf's Messenger and Wayward Servant, resetting Messenger with Plague Belcher and Festering Mummy (or Fume Spitter which is arguably the better card since it can be activated at will). I still don't like that the single card power is is very top-end heavy, but the curve of the deck can certainly look like:
1cmc: Gravecrawler, Cryptbreaker, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Path to Exile, Fatal Push
2cmc: Relentless Dead, Wayward Servant, Tidehollow Sculler, Cartel Aristocrat, Collective Brutality
3cmc: Geralf's Messenger, Plague Belcher, Diregraf Colossus
Keeping the curve at 3cmc isn't the end of the world since there is no shortage of things to do with our mana through Gravecrawler, Cryptbreaker, and Relentless Dead. I see this as a deck that can get a few hits in early and then will be overpowered by other decks. It will win the games through draining the opponent for those last 7-10 health while chumping the rest of the board. I can see running out of resources to be a thing post sideboarding when gravehate is brought in. Hopefully Cryptbreaker is enough on it's own, I'll have to play with it more to see with the new zombie ratios. The deck also desperately needs a sac outlet so Cartel Aristocrat will be the best choice. It has some neat interactions with the Plague Belcher trigger and such. It can chump for days which is nice.
Lastly an honorable mention I want to give is to the new Bone Picker. Because this deck is going to be killing things so often it may be a good card. It's no zombie, but it would likely come down turn 3 with another 2-drop or 3-drop after we ram a Gravecrawler into the opponent. I'll keep it in the back pocket for now.
The super rough list I'm starting with looking at is:
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Gravecrawler
3 Relentless Dead
2 Wayward Servant
2 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Cartel Aristocrat
3 Geralf's Messenger
3 Plague Belcher
3 Diregraf Colossus
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
Sorceries (6)
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
1 Dark Salvation
Lands (22)
4 Marsh Flats
4 (Any B/x fetch)
2 Godless Shrine
4 Concealed Courtyard
1 Shambling Vent
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of the Archangel/Westvale Abbey/Some utility land??
1 Plains
4 Swamp
It has disruption in the form of 4 T1 discard and then 3 other T2 discard. Removal for everything in the format, and 9 threats at the top end of the curve that each bring their own angle of attack to the deck. I think directions to take will be to drop the 1 mana discard for more Tidehollow Sculler and slip in more Cartel Aristocrat somehow. I like Collective Brutality as a 1-of since it is useful in any situation, and Dark Salvation since drawing it late you can just dump a ton of mana into it or if you are ahead on board it is another 1 mana removal spell.
I'll play around with the deck in the coming weeks and see what I like/don't like.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
I don't see an issue with lowering the Relentless Dead count, it's not as good as the other 2 drops in my opinion, especially if you choose to go with Aristocrat as your sac outlet. If you can find room for Lilly the Last hope it definitely helps you from a lot of angles - increases your redundancy of key creature pieces without having to run 4 copies or 4+ x number of sub-optimal versions without reducing your threat density. You can also use it as a pseudo sac outlet turning her +1 into "+1 Drain opponent = how many Servant/belcher you have in play".
No, you can cast it before damage, after blockers are declared, so you don't have to trade off creatures. It would be trash otherwise.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
4 gravecrawler
3 cryptbreaker
1 viscera seer
4 tidehollow sculler
4 wayward servant
3 relentless dead
1 cartel aristocrat
3 diregraf colossus
2 plague belcher
1 fleshbag marauder
Sorceries: 7
4 inquisition of kozilek
3 dark salvation
3 fatal push
1 path to exile
artifacts: 1
1 blasting station
lands: 22
4 swamp
4 concealed courtyard
2 godless shrine
4 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
3 cavern of souls
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 mutavault
2 ghost quarter
2 stony silence
2 fragmentize
2 collective brutality
2 zealous persecution
2 surgical extraction
2 burrenton forge-tender
1 fleshbag marauder
Curve:
1cc: 16
2cc: 12
3cc: 7
Xcc: 3
Removal: 8
Discard: 8
Zombies: 24 (+ 3 dark salvation)
The numbers are weird, because i tried to squeeze a maximum of good stuff here. I'm trying to diversify my sac outlets because drawing 2 is less bad if they don't do the same thing. After testing i might settle on one to go 3 of.
Can't wait to sleeve up these new bad boys!
I like the idea of diversifying the sac-outlets but only contingent on if you value Viscera Seer and Blasting Station higher than Cartel Aristocrat; Seer/Station seems bad in multiples, Aristocrat is probably fine as a 2-of.
Here is where I am at:
4 Gravecrawler
3 Dread Wanderer
1 Viscera Seer
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Relentless Dead
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Binding Mummy
3 Plague Belcher
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
Instant/Sorcery (13)
4 Thought-Scour
2 Thoughtseize
4 fatal push
2 Dispel
1 Echoing truth
4 Liliana, The last hope
Land (21)
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
4 Marsh Flats
1 Watery Grave
3 Godless Shrine
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Swamp
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plague Belcher
1 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Cryptbreaker
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Cavern of Souls
1 ceremonious rejection
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Collective Brutality
My numbers are skewed as well in order to allow Liliana, the last hope + Thought Scour to work as a graveyard toolbox. I think having access to the 4 Thoughtscour should let me trim down on the land count.
The plan is be aggressive in G1 to gain some points against the big mana decks but to be able to move into the control role against the fair matches in postboard games. Take out the 1 drops and a lillys or two(and therefore most of the graveyard reliance) put in Cryptbreakers, Sorins, Belcher, disruption etc for a longer game.
Here's a zombie deck that made it to top 8. Looks like it's a good start.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
maybe that's the key to the deck. I still think Zombies needs to take advantage of Bridge from Below somehow someway.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
4 fatal push
Sorceries: 4
4 inquisition of kozilek
creatures: 30
4 viscera seer
2 cryptbreaker
4 gravecrawler
4 relentless dead
4 wayward servant
4 diregraf captain
4 plague belcher
4 geralf's messenger
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
1 watery grave
1 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
6 swamp
4 polluted delta
4 marsh flats
4 cavern of souls
With all the drain triggers this feels like an aristocrat deck, but with actual powerful creatures instead of puny 1/1s... Feels like i want aether vials but not sure what to cut. Still 4x relentless dead because they come back again and again for more triggers!
This other list pack all the interaction and has maximum consistency:
4 gravecrawler
4 cryptbreaker
4 tidehollow sculler
4 wayward servant
4 relentless dead
4 diregraf colossus
4 inquisition of kozilek
4 dark salvation
instants: 4
4 fatal push
artifacts: 2
2 blasting station
lands: 22
4 swamp
4 concealed courtyard
2 godless shrine
4 bloodstained mire
2 polluted delta
3 cavern of souls
1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 mutavault
Basically my w/b list plus wayward servant. The deck wasn't bad pre-amonkhet but something was missing. Maybe we don't need that much and the 2 drop is what i was looking for?
I think it's ok to shave Dark Salvation down, it feels a little bit win-more now that we have better cards. Plus, if you still need more removal you have Path. one other idea is using Damnation instead of sac outlets like Viscera Seer, possibly combined with Collective Brutality and Colossus. You don't get loops that way but you do get a hard reset if you're behind vs creature decks.
Lastly, I don't think the deck has any room for colorless utility lands, even with Urborg, due to the number of double colored two-drops and geralf's messenger. It's going to have a deleterious effect on your tempo if you draw it as anything other than your 4th land drop.
3x Cryptbreaker
4x Gravecrawler
2x Cartel Aristocrat
3x Relentless Dead
3x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Wayward Servant
4x Geralf's Messenger
4x Plague Belcher
3x Fatal Push
2x Path to Exile
//Sorcery (5)
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
1x Collective Brutality
//Planeswalker (1)
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
//Land (22)
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Concealed Courtyard
2x Godless Shrine
4x Polluted Delta
4x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
I'm still trying to figure out the optimal usage of the 3 CMC slots. Early impressions: it seems like Plague Belcher is the best zombie here? 3 for a 5/4 menace + drain, and we can use the drawback of the -1/1 counters to set up a quick drain loop. Diregraff colossus seems a little clunky without building around, but perhaps the payoff is worth it. Liliana, The Last Hope seems like an almost mandatory inclusion IMO since she can be removal, GY filling / card advantage, or even a win con. I guess you could even use her +1 on gravecrawler for a quick drain in lieu of a sac outlet?
I don't know people's experience with dark salvation but i just love the card. In the b/w version i posted, the strategy is to go as wide as possible, making wayward servant optimal. This is also why i opted for diregraf colossus as my 3 drop of choice. I have 24 zombies to trigger them both, plus another 4x salvation to trigger servant.
I also like the flexibility of the card (dark salvation). I'm very happy to play it for x = 0 when missing land drops, just to kill something small and survive. Late game it can kill nearly anything and i love to topdeck it and turn the tables in my favor just because of the zombies. Creatures + removal on the same card is very strong!
Another aspect of my go wide strategy is to dodge hate. Rest in peace is always good vs us but my version is less destroyed by it. Plague belcher is super awkward vs hate, both because the die triggers can be negated and because you are almost forced to put the counters on itself. Geralf's messenger is also bad vs hate. In my version diregraf colossus and dark salvation don't care much about rip/leyline of the void/etc (sure colossus won't get big, whatev). The upside of belcher/messenger are probably high enough, they are powerful for sure and graveyard strategy are still very strong in modern. But there are pros and cons to each version, and i prefer to take the go wide/not get crushed by hate route.
Nantuko husk is a nice option, probably the only playable zombie sac outlet for now. But i just think the value from blasting station is too high. Having a zombie pump itself is way less powerful than machine gunning creatures or face. I also don't need my sac outlet to eat my whole board the same turn, as you would want to be able to do in plague belcher/diregraf captain/geralf's messenger versions. Station also goes best with diregraf colossus for the option of double gunning down stuff with gravecrawler.
I actually hadn't considered this. I mean 3/2 menace isn't nothing, but it isn't much, and again a little better in aggro. But yea, that dies trigger though. I guess Belcher won't make it into my sideboard for any reason.. I'll probably start 3-4 in the main for testing purposes, but I can see dropping this to 2. It doesn't solve as many of the issues I had originally thought. Dang.
So how I see it is we have two routes. As zombies alone we do not have the sufficient cards to cover our missing slots thus a deck which placed top 8 that uses the vital vampire cards and B devotion works.
Thus if we want a mono black zombie to work we DO have to be a pseudo Aggro b devotion; however for those who want to dip into white, I feel like you HAVE to become a pseudo zombie aristocrat deck.
With the cards we have available right now, zombies by themselves will never be viable, for now we have to depend on other cards to cover what zombies don't have available to them.