MTG Salvation

You want to cut a 3/2 for 3 that has undying and makes your opponent lose 4 life regardless of whether he attacks or not who also brings back Gravecrawler? Let me know how that goes for you.

The way I play it, and probably most people here, red is pretty much a splash. the 8 BR lands plus Caverns make us usually reliably able to cast Aristocrat and some red spells like Brimstone Volley. We don't really need early red spells nor creatures to be effective. If we start cutting some swamps for mountains for this, our probability of getting a turn 1 Gravecrawler/Ghoul lowers and that's something this deck pretty much needs, early aggro. You also need a decent zombie count for Gravecrawler, and if you cut Messenger that goes down even lower and you'll likely have a tough time recurring him.

We don't need a turn 2 Stormblood to dish out damage, and Thunderous Wrath is bad already. A lot of people play Porcelain Legionnaire which is also a 2 drop 3 power. Cutting good cards with synergy with the rest of the deck to fit in other good cards that we don't need that aren't synergistic isn't a good gameplan.

He's the best card in the deck, of course he's worth it. He gives us a huge amount of reach and is quite difficult for a lot of decks to deal with. What red 1 drops do you want to run anyways? Stromkirk Noble is unimpressive next to Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul, Spikeshot Elder is too heavy of a red commitment to be good here, Goblin Fireslinger is only really good paired with Berserkers, Vexing Devil is garbage. Berserker is good and all but there's no reason to mess up the manabase and run fewer copies of the best card in the deck just for him.

its sounds to me like you'd be better off playing the red vamps deck instead of zombies if you want to run vexing and noble.

Quote from Pur3P3r50n

You're missing the point. Yes, he's an excellent card. Yes, if doesn't meet a counter or an exile effect, he's 4 life loss for 3 mana (Awesome? Maybe). Terminus is a card, white's a powerful color right now. So hitting for only 2 is pretty common, which is useful but not what I want to do on my turn-3. Yeah, he brings back Gravecrawler. But how reliable is that anyway? Let's see we've already got a Gravecrawler. The probability of hitting another zombie by turn 6 is:

100% * (12 C 2)(48 C 10) / (60 C 12) < 31%

So in less than 1 in 3 games this interaction is relevant.

The way I play it, and probably most people here, red is pretty much a splash. the 8 BR lands plus Caverns make us usually reliably able to cast Aristocrat and some red spells like Brimstone Volley. We don't really need early red spells nor creatures to be effective. If we start cutting some swamps for mountains for this, our probability of getting a turn 1 Gravecrawler/Ghoul lowers and that's something this deck pretty much needs, early aggro. You also need a decent zombie count for Gravecrawler, and if you cut Messenger that goes down even lower and you'll likely have a tough time recurring him.

This is exactly how I play it too, but I'm questioning its effectiveness. My list is:

SyntaxError's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Gravecrawler 4 Diregraf Ghoul 2 Fume Spitter 1 Grim Lavamancer 4 Porcelain Legionnaire 3 Stormblood Berserker 4 Geralf's Messenger 2 Phyrexian Metamorph 1 Falkenrath Aristocrat	2 Mortarpod 3 Brimstone Volley 1 Gut Shot 2 Dismember 2 Go for the Throat 1 Pillar of Flame 1 Doom Blade 2 Whipflare	8 Duals 8 Swamp 4 Cavern of Souls

It's pretty traditional with a lower curve for more varied removal. I'm curious as to increasing our red for some MB Arc Trails, Vexing Devils, or Stromkirk Nobles would be worth it.



Turn-2 Stormblood Berserker is game changing IMO. On the play it's nearly unbeatable, and on the draw it's only beat by a turn 3 Slagstorm. I'm just trying to offer some food for thought.

Your lack of Blood Artist makes me cringe.