It's a rough list, but if I was to dwell on it, I'd want some sort of recursion effect, profane command being a personal favorite that would love to shoehorn a slot or two for some added reach as well.
I think Wretched Banquet is a very good card for this kind of deck. Now that Wild Nacatl got hit with the ban-hammer, a tribal zombie (supplemented with various lords) will almost always have high-powered zombies on the field (3+ power). This makes Wretched Banquet a very nice piece of removal that can almost always be used to kill your opponent's creatures...
The thing is, the Zombies' power may not be high enough. Against Zoo, their KotRs almost always have at least 3 power the turn they ETB and quickly outpace that. Goyfs can turn into 4/5s or worse in the blink of an eye. Wretched Banquet can't really hit those guys.
At least against Jund, you can smack Bob around with it.
Ok guys, now we have Gravecrawler! This is basically THE reason to run lords. when he inevitably comes back we want him big and awkward for the opponent. I must admit, i used quite a few parallels to the modern goblins I've been messing around with and the main problem is REACH. zombies seems to have no reliable way to kill an established opponent while in top deck mode. I'm hoping Gravecrawler will help provide teh CA needed for Zombies to stand up to Merfolk, goblins, and elves in the tribe department.
Some choices: Aether vial - the obvious lord dropping bomb
Withered Wretch - the best 3 drop we can send in on a vial at 2. Seriously the king of our 3 slot. he hurts:
bloodghast(pox)
KotR(zoo)
Tarmo(zoo/jund/NLU/other green beatings),
storm mana(hilarious to rip the necessary seething song out of a Past in Flames graveyard)
eldazi(tron decks? in response to the shuffle trigger of course because it's not a replacement effect)
Death Baron/Lord of the Undead/badmoon - I thought 8 lord effets was a good amount to make some sizable Gravecrawlers. Notice the lack of undead warchief? He's a trap. Like Siege-gang in modern goblins. He's too slow and not as explosive as he can be in legacy. And more obviously, no cemetery reaper. He's simply the worst lord we're offered(cept the m12 artifact one) and his ability is worse than withered wretch.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - i've noticed quite a few decks running this for mana fixing. "lolz, I played it first you now miss a land drop and I lose practically nothing" This is obviously an experiment, but it really doesn't hurt us to run it as a 1-of.
Testing to come in the future.
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When does lightning bolt kill Emrakul? When your opponent's at three.
Did you try Unbreathing Horde? with lords and bad moon he is unkillable short of a destruction effect. Just a thought
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Trolling can be defined as "A art, one specifically designed to misdirect, anger, or confuse others by reporting meaningful information in a clear, coherent way."
One day I will go infinate on a token combo then drop Scramble verse and watch as the trolling begins. That day will be a good day.
A singleton each of Profane and Austere Command, a few Thoughtseizes, and a suit of zombies of your choice and I think it would make a decent aggro deck.
B/W is probably the best choice with mono black being the other likely option.
What do you think of black cat? If they kill it it's a 2 for 1 for us and with Death Baron and Lord of the Undead it's repeatable and a good chump blocker.
While green brings a bit more aggro with Putrid Leech, white brings more control with Tidehollow Sculler. You tout that green makes a better aggro build, but really, it's an aggro deck regardless of the color splash. White just turns it a bit more to the control side, imo.
I also built a zombie deck for modern these days and want to share it. maybe someone can help me make it better.
It's a aggro zombie deck with a pack of AEther Vial.
I still have no sideboard.
i am not sure if i should run korlash. i mean he is not too bad and is realy good when i get a second one. but for 4 mana? maybe i could add some draw with Sign in Blood?
or some other zombies? Cards i want to test are: Geralf's Messenger and Unbreathing Horde and Profane Command
what do you think i could add or drop? can or should i add more aggroparts?
I believe he meant something along the lines of Zombie Trailblazer. Swampwalk is fairly common in zombie abilities, and 1 land to accomplish this does not hurt.
I've been wanting to build zombies again ever since my first zombie deck - my very first Magic deck - was stolen, years ago. I had come up with a Rooftop Storm + Cloudstone Curio engine, but it's the same as many of the strategies that exist in Modern: very cool on the paper, unforgivably slow and frail when brought to the real world.
I see that a lot of the decks here are focusing on the lords... how about adding blue to the mix? We get yet another lord in Diregraf Captain, as well as a nice Vengeful Dead effect for punishing opposing board sweepers.
I liked the idea of using Stillmoon Cavalier and Phyrexian Crusader together for their protections... it almost makes me wish the Crusader didn't have infect.
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The card nearly every spoiled Magic player dreams of:
Jace's Trolling ---
Instant
Split Second
Exile target spell, then return Jace's Trolling to its owner's hand.
"Yeah, sure... when pigs fly."
-Mark Rosewater about printing this card
The deck has a ton of synergy aside from the obvious zombie tribal aspect. The mutual discard from Liliana and Smallpox is mitigated by/helps Haakon, Lord of the Undead, Gravecrawler. Gravecrawler, Haakon, and the Messenger are also nice with the sacrifice aspect of Smallpox. Nameless Inversion is recurred by both the Lord and Haakon. All 12 noncreatures function in the capacity of removal which is nice. My biggest concern main deck is the Sangrophage and overall lack of 2 drops. The other one I was considering was Wretched Anurid, but that seems worse. The sideboard is just kind of the thrown together. Thoughtseize helps with the combo matchup. Doom blade is for when you need targeted removal for big guys and also can replace the inversions in the face of gy hate. The Curse is there, in theory, for Splinter Twin (wins the game if it resolves), tokens, and maybe some other matchups. I'm worried that it's too slow and doesn't do enough though. The leyline is there for burn and storm, which seem like really bad match ups. The fact that it isn't castable is relieved somewhat by Liliana and Smallpox.
I would drop sangrophage for Stromgald Crusader. It's castable with haakon, has pro white and can give itself flying, making it far more resilient and useful than sangrophage.
That's a good idea. With all the lords, having that much utility definitely outweighs 1 extra power. It seems like some of the synergies I have are present in the Smallpox Loam list that Todd Anderson posted in his most recent article on SCG. Not that it's particularly relevant, but I was waiting for someone to break burning vengeance + retrace.
I finally got around to building my deck from above (with the crusaders). It seems pretty competitive. The Haakon-Inversion pairing is an absolute machine gun. I completely blew out affinity with it. I have found that I want a little more land and fewer 3 drops because the curve feels off. I'm cutting one of each of the lords for 2 more lands. I may also cut one of the smallpox and maybe one more lord for either a pair of 1 mana discard spells or a pair of doom blade.
4x Stromgald Crusader
4x Tidehollow Sculler
2x Stillmoon Cavalier
2x Glissa the Traitor
4x Lord of the Undead
4x Death Baron
2x Thoughtseize
3x Maelstrom Pulse
4x Path to Exile
4x Mutavault
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Godless Shrine
1x Plains
1x Forest
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Marsh Flats
4x Swamp
1x Isolated Chapel
1x Woodland Cemetery
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
It's a rough list, but if I was to dwell on it, I'd want some sort of recursion effect, profane command being a personal favorite that would love to shoehorn a slot or two for some added reach as well.
edit:deck tags
The thing is, the Zombies' power may not be high enough. Against Zoo, their KotRs almost always have at least 3 power the turn they ETB and quickly outpace that. Goyfs can turn into 4/5s or worse in the blink of an eye. Wretched Banquet can't really hit those guys.
At least against Jund, you can smack Bob around with it.
2 power? YES
They can recur? YES
They can't block? NO
Since all the Zombie lords are 3 cmc, what we really need is a Zombie mana dork.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
4 Stromgald Crusader
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Gravecrawler
4 Withered Wretch
4 Death Baron
4 Lord of the Undead
2 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 thoughtSeize
3 Smother
2 Badmoon
4 Aether Vial
LANDS(21):
20 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Extirpate
4 Leyline of the Void
3 tendrils of corruption
4 Pithing Needle
Some choices:
Aether vial - the obvious lord dropping bomb
Withered Wretch - the best 3 drop we can send in on a vial at 2. Seriously the king of our 3 slot. he hurts:
bloodghast(pox)
KotR(zoo)
Tarmo(zoo/jund/NLU/other green beatings),
storm mana(hilarious to rip the necessary seething song out of a Past in Flames graveyard)
eldazi(tron decks? in response to the shuffle trigger of course because it's not a replacement effect)
Death Baron/Lord of the Undead/badmoon - I thought 8 lord effets was a good amount to make some sizable Gravecrawlers. Notice the lack of undead warchief? He's a trap. Like Siege-gang in modern goblins. He's too slow and not as explosive as he can be in legacy. And more obviously, no cemetery reaper. He's simply the worst lord we're offered(cept the m12 artifact one) and his ability is worse than withered wretch.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - i've noticed quite a few decks running this for mana fixing. "lolz, I played it first you now miss a land drop and I lose practically nothing" This is obviously an experiment, but it really doesn't hurt us to run it as a 1-of.
Testing to come in the future.
One day I will go infinate on a token combo then drop Scramble verse and watch as the trolling begins. That day will be a good day.
A singleton each of Profane and Austere Command, a few Thoughtseizes, and a suit of zombies of your choice and I think it would make a decent aggro deck.
Oh, and don't forget about Mirror Entity.
Granted, you do miss out on Putrid Leech, Shambling Shell, and Maelstrom Pulse by going this route... But I think it might actually be worth it.
Thoughts?
What do you think of black cat? If they kill it it's a 2 for 1 for us and with Death Baron and Lord of the Undead it's repeatable and a good chump blocker.
Black Cat's not bad. It's at least a better option than Rotting Rats.
Lord of the Undead, who doesn't want unblockable critters
Sig and Avvy by Heroes of the Plane Studios
Ninjas
Fish
Dredge
EDH
Sharuum
As I said, Putrid Leech and Maelstrom Pulse are the only cards you really miss out on by switching away from green. Any deck with a bit of black in it can run Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger. And I'm not sold on Deadly Allure at all, green or no green.
While green brings a bit more aggro with Putrid Leech, white brings more control with Tidehollow Sculler. You tout that green makes a better aggro build, but really, it's an aggro deck regardless of the color splash. White just turns it a bit more to the control side, imo.
It's a aggro zombie deck with a pack of AEther Vial.
I still have no sideboard.
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Putrid Leech
4 Gravecrawler
2 Smother
4 Lord of the Undead
2 Nameless Inversion
4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Crib Swap
4 Godless Shrine
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bad Moon
3 Death Baron
4 AEther Vial
i am not sure if i should run korlash. i mean he is not too bad and is realy good when i get a second one. but for 4 mana? maybe i could add some draw with Sign in Blood?
or some other zombies? Cards i want to test are:
Geralf's Messenger and Unbreathing Horde and Profane Command
what do you think i could add or drop? can or should i add more aggroparts?
I believe he meant something along the lines of Zombie Trailblazer. Swampwalk is fairly common in zombie abilities, and 1 land to accomplish this does not hurt.
I've been wanting to build zombies again ever since my first zombie deck - my very first Magic deck - was stolen, years ago. I had come up with a Rooftop Storm + Cloudstone Curio engine, but it's the same as many of the strategies that exist in Modern: very cool on the paper, unforgivably slow and frail when brought to the real world.
I see that a lot of the decks here are focusing on the lords... how about adding blue to the mix? We get yet another lord in Diregraf Captain, as well as a nice Vengeful Dead effect for punishing opposing board sweepers.
I liked the idea of using Stillmoon Cavalier and Phyrexian Crusader together for their protections... it almost makes me wish the Crusader didn't have infect.
Jace's Trolling ---
Instant
Split Second
Exile target spell, then return Jace's Trolling to its owner's hand.
"Yeah, sure... when pigs fly."
-Mark Rosewater about printing this card
22 Swamp
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
4 Sangrophage
4 Death Baron
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4 Lord of the Undead
4 Smallpox
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Thoughtseize
4 Doom Blade
3 Curse of Death's Hold
4 Leyline of Sanctity
The deck has a ton of synergy aside from the obvious zombie tribal aspect. The mutual discard from Liliana and Smallpox is mitigated by/helps Haakon, Lord of the Undead, Gravecrawler. Gravecrawler, Haakon, and the Messenger are also nice with the sacrifice aspect of Smallpox. Nameless Inversion is recurred by both the Lord and Haakon. All 12 noncreatures function in the capacity of removal which is nice. My biggest concern main deck is the Sangrophage and overall lack of 2 drops. The other one I was considering was Wretched Anurid, but that seems worse. The sideboard is just kind of the thrown together. Thoughtseize helps with the combo matchup. Doom blade is for when you need targeted removal for big guys and also can replace the inversions in the face of gy hate. The Curse is there, in theory, for Splinter Twin (wins the game if it resolves), tokens, and maybe some other matchups. I'm worried that it's too slow and doesn't do enough though. The leyline is there for burn and storm, which seem like really bad match ups. The fact that it isn't castable is relieved somewhat by Liliana and Smallpox.
Edit: To the above poster: I'm assuming you are talking about recursion with lord of the undead as opposed to gravecrawler because the one thing I found frustrating was the inability to block with diregraf ghoul, gravecrawler, or geralf's messenger against the hyper aggro decks.