| Dromar's B/R ZombiesMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards | ||
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Land (23): 4x Blackcleave Cliffs 4x Cavern of Souls 4x Dragonskull Summit 11x Swamp Creatures (25): 4x Gravecrawler 4x Diregraf Ghoul 4x Blood Artist 2x Highborn Ghoul 4x Geralf's Messenger 3x Phyrexian Metamorph 1x Bloodflow Connoisseur 3x Falkenrath Aristocrat | Other (12): 2x Mortarpod 2x Tragic Slip 2x Go for the Throat 1x Dismember 3x Brimstone Volley 1x Killing Wave | Sideboard: 3x Act of Aggression 3x Manic Vandal 3x Appetite for Brains 2x Crypt Creeper 1x Nihil Spellbomb 3x Ratchet Bomb |
Now let's break down the list to look at some of the cards and why they're in here.
The Creatures ("Braaiiiinnnnssssss")
Like all zombie decks this deck is based around the core 12:
| Core 12Magic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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4x Gravecrawler 4x Diregraf Ghoul 4x Geralf's Messenger |
Without these cards zombies as a deck wouldn't exist. Having eight 2 power 1-drops gives Zombies the aggressive starts it needs to put other decks on their backfoot. Gravecrawler is one of this deck's biggest sources of card advantage. It's not obvious card advantage like a blue draw spell, but once you battle with (or against) a 'Crawler or two you quickly come to this realization. Diregraf Ghoul is pretty vanilla but even in this day and age of the creature power creep a 1 mana 2/2 is still a good deal. Geralf's Messenger is clearly a very powerful creature in decks that can afford to cast it. You gain a lot of reach from this guy and cloning him is almost always a big game.
Next let's take a look at the biggest addition of AVR:
Blood Artist
Make no mistake, this is the 2 drop that Zombies so sorely required post-Dark Ascension and pre-Avacyn Restored. The power level of this card is quite deceptive at first glance making it very easy to gloss over it. However once you play with Blood Artist in your Zombies decks you'll never want to go back to playing without it. Against any creature-based deck, Blood Artist does a lot of work for you over a long game, and the lifegain it provides for you is not irrelevant in aggro matchups. If you have multiple Blood Artists in play combat becomes living hell for your opponents. Attacking with Gravecrawler has very much been a free-roll in the past since you can easily rebuy it if they do decide to block. With a Blood Artist in play your Gravecrawlers are guaranteed to get damage through, either by dying and triggering Artist's ability or by your opponent deciding it's no longer in their best interest to block at all thanks to the drain effect of Blood Artist. When you get as many as 3 Blood Artists in play any combat trade becomes a risky proposition for your opponent with a 12 point life swing looming.
Enough about Blood Artist though, let's talk about the top end of the deck. The 4 drop of choice here is Falkenrath Aristocrat. If you're not acquainted with this wonderful lady all you need to know is that she'll kill your opponent dead. In all seriousness, flying, haste, and indestructibility nearly at will coupled on a 4 power flyer is great for this deck. One of the typical problems Zombie decks face is getting through damage after your opponent clogs the board with creatures of his own. Aristocrat is able to fly over many of the relevant creatures in the format and take a sizeable 1/5th chunk of your opponent's starting life total in the process. When you have creatures surrounding her, she becomes very difficult for decks like R/G aggro, and Wolf Run Ramp to deal with. Another factor that should not be ignored is how well she pairs with Blood Artists. After bashing your opponent low enough with a Blood Artist in play she allows you to freely sac your creatures and burn your opponent out with Blood Artist triggers. I run only 3 copies due to the fact that this deck often finds itself stuck on 3 mana. In place of a 4th copy I have the Aristocrat's little sister the Bloodflow Connoisseur. Conny (can I call her Conny?) doesn't hit your opponent as hard as Aristocrat...at first. But paired with Gravecrawler and any other Zombie you can grow her as much you want for each black mana you spend. Like Aristocrat she's also a free sac outlet whenever you happen to need that effect. All that being said, were curve considerations not an issue I'd still rather play a 4th Aristocrat but Conny has done a fine job standing in and I've rarely been upset to draw her.
Metamorphs are quite useful in this deck. Not only can you copy a Geralf's Messenger to burn your opponent for an extra 2, but copying and Aristocrat lets you get in for a huge hit and copying Blood Artist is also a very good thing to do. Another thing to consider is how many good targets your opponents have for Metamorph to copy. If Wolf run wants to play Inferno Titan and kill a couple of your guys you can play your own titan and burn their face. If your opponent plays a Sword then you now have access to a sword of your own! Overall this card is very versatile and I can't see playing fewer than 3 copies.
Highborn Ghoul is basically there to fill out the last few slots. Lets be honest, he's not a great card but he does a few things well. This deck is not heavy on 2 drops, so it's nice to have something that you can follow up a Diregraf Ghoul or Gravecrawler with on occasion (since a turn 2 Blood Artist isn't what I'd describe as "the beatdown"). Intimidate isn't the greatest form of evasion ever (and in the mirror it's pretty miserable) but a lot of decks are relying on Lingering Souls to stem the bleeding so it's good to have a card that can just walk right by the Souls. Lastly, Highborn happens to be a Zombie which gives us 2 additional ways to recur our Gravecrawlers.
The Spells
Having played with Zombies decks in the past I've always found Tragic Slip to be the best removal spell available to the deck. Zombies wants to crash into the red zone at any possible opportunity, so it's not overly difficult to trigger morbid. Once you do, Tragic Slip nears the level of a Swords to Plowshares in terms of what it can dal with. This deck also has numerous instant speed sac outlets that also ensure you can morbid at will. At one mana it's also not too difficult to hold up Tragic Slip mana.
Go for the Throat is another solid addition to the removal suite. It kills most relevant creatures in the format, and unlike Tragic Slip there aren't any hoops to jump through. What you see is what you get. You don't want to play a ton of them because Wurmcoil Engine is still a card but 2 copies has served me well.
Dismember is nice because of its flexibility. You can use it on a mana dork early to stunt your opponent's growth without losing much tempo, while later on it can kill any threat short of a titan sized creature.
Brimstone Volley is fine removal, but just as often you will find yourself pointing at your opponent's dome for the finishing blow. The reach this card gives you is great, and if not for the red mana required I could easily see running the full set of 4. Volley also gives the deck a maindeck out to Mirran Crusader which historically has been a problem card for zombies.
Mortarpod gives you a cheap way to remove a mana dork or other 1 toughness creature early on, while providing you a lot of reach later in the game. With Gravecrawler and one other Zombie you can chain gun your opponent or his creatures at the cost of 3 mana for every one damage. When you're in topdeck mode it's nice to have a way to use all of your mana. If you add Blood Artist to the equation you get to drain a bunch of life in the process of mortarpodding as well!
Lastly there's Killing Wave. This card was popularized in Smi77y's Kamikaze decks, which are similar in nature to this list but also markedly different at the same time. Killing Wave received a lot of flack when it was spoiled, and not without reason either. It uses the punisher mechanic which historically has not lent itself well to playable cards. Vexing Devil, which uses the same mechanic, is not a card I consider remotely good for example. The thing with Killing Wave however, is that it can be used in such a way that you don't actually care what your opponent chooses as both options will result in death anyways. This card is used primarily as a finisher in the form of a cheap sac outlet. With multiple Blood Artists in play sacrificing your whole team will do a significant amount of damage to your opponent, and will usually just end the game. If you can dump a lot of mana into it then your opponent will be forced to sac some (or even all) of their creatures and give you even more Blood Artist triggers.
All that being said, the card does have problems. I started on 3 copies similarly to Smi77y, however after more and more playtesting with it I'm now down to just a single copy. Why would I praise the card yet advocate running as few copies of it as possible? Well, for a few reasons. First of all, Killing Wave is a terrible card to draw in your opening hand. I got daggered so many times by Killing Waves in my opening hand it was disgusting. A creature, a removal spell, even another land is more desirable in your starting 7. This is not a card I want early. It's also not a card I ever want to draw in multiples either. The first Killing Wave should win you the game if things are going according to plan (and if it's not you're probably not winning anyways then), so anything beyond that is just a dead card. Even going down from 3 copies to 2 I still had games where I ended up with both of them in my hand and that just wasn't acceptable to me. I want as many live draws as possible, and I found that running multiple copies limited my live draws. The card isn't something I'd even consider essential to the deck, however I can't deny that it has won me games I really didn't have any business winning so I feel that running it as a silver bullet of sorts is reasonable. That way I'll never draw more than 1 copy, and I'll rarely have it in my opening 7, but I'll still occasionally have access to the "win the game" effect it can provide. Anyways, that was a lot of talk about a card only taking up 1 of the 60 slots in the deck, so moving on...
The Manabase
The manabase is fairly self-explanatory I would say. All the available B/R duals are played so we can cast our Aristocrats and Volleys with reasonable consistency.
I've heard arguments that playing Caverns is a bad idea, but I can't say I understand that at all. Keep in mind that Cavern is here for its fixing first. The uncounterability it provides is just a nice bonus! Cavern gives you 4 additional red sources to make it even more likely that you can cast your Aristocrats once you hit 4 lands. But at the same time it can also act as whatever you need. If you need that 3rd Black source for your Geralf's Messenger it does that well. If you need to cast one of your sideboard red creatures (like Manic Vandals!) you can name human and get your red mana there. If you happen to have everything you need you can even name Shapeshifter so you don't have to pay the 2 life on your Metamorphs. I can't see it being right to NOT play Caverns in this deck.
The land count stands at 23. I've been playing a lot with various Zombie decks since Dark Ascension first hit and I've found this to be the number I'm most comfortable with. On 24 I found the deck flooded out too much for my liking, while on 22 I found the deck got stuck on 3 or even 2 lands a high amount of the time. 23 is far from amazing as I still find myself getting land screwed somewhat often, however in a deck like this that can't really afford to flood this is a risk that may just have to be accepted. I feel like 23.5 lands would be the ideal amount were it possible, but short of running 61 cards (blasphemy, I know) and 24 lands as a way to somewhat proxy a half land that's not really possible.
The Sideboard
Disclaimer: this is all very meta dependent so what works for me may not be what is best for you!
Act of Aggression is obviously great against anyone that's trying to go over the top of you with a Titan sized creatures (so Wolf Run Ramp in particular). It can also function almost as well against control decks that rely on Grave Titan or Wurmcoil Engine to stabilize the board, stealing their finisher and killing them with it in the process. There's not a ton else to say about the card. Bring it in vs the Ramp decks, Control decks (if they use Titans), and decks like Frites that try to reanimate giant creatures like Griselbrand.
I played a lot of Mono-Black and U/B Zombies pre-Avacyn Restored, and one of the most infuriating things of playing these versions was how little you could do about non-creature artifacts. Batterskull in particular was a problem. Sure you could kill the Germ token and keep bashing, but if you lacked removal or were not able to kill your opponent quickly enough then Batterskull will put the game out of your reach in short order. Playing Red gives you all the artifact removal you will hopefully ever need in the form of Manic Vandal, and you get a 2/2 body to boot. With this guy in your board, Batterskulls will hopefully never be a problem again!
Appetite for Brains could conceivably be Distress or Despise, but I've found eating the Brains of my opponents to be pretty reasonable. This card does a decent amount of work against the Ramp and Control decks of the format, taking their Titans, Solemns, Huntmasters and Day of Judgments. At 1 mana it also doesn't take up your whole turn like Distress usually does. The biggest problem I have with this card is that it can't take the Slagstorms or Whipflares from Ramp opponents like Distress can but other than that I don't mind it. Something I should comment on is that some people I've seen play with this card are casting it on turn 1. In many cases that's not when you should be casting it! Your opponent cannot cast the spells Appetite hits until he has 4 mana, so wait until the turn after he plays his 3rd mana source so you get as much information as possible.
Crypt Creeper and Nihil Spellbomb serve the same functions as graveyard hate against decks like Frites, as well as Snapcaster Mage decks and Sun Titan decks. I haven't been overly impressed with Creeper as his 2/1 body is pretty irrelevant in the face of the spirit tokens that decks like Frites hide behind but it's nice that he is another Zombie for Gravecrawler purposes and can also be sacrificed freely for Blood Artist purposes. He works well enough as an on-board counter to the first half of Unburial Rites while maybe getting in a hit or two if you're fortunate. Spellbomb is the best graveyard hate in the format in my books. At the cost of two mana you get to nuke your opponent's entire graveyard without losing a card in the process unlike Crypt Creeper and Surgical Extraction which often end up with you being down a card. You can just leave Spellbomb up against opponents like Frites and they can't really do anything but run their first Unburial Rites into it.
With so many token-based strategies in the format I can't see not running Ratchet Bombs in the board. A card like Entreat the Angels cast for its miracle would normally put games out of your reach, but Ratchet Bomb gives you a one-sided counter to cards like this. Blowing up your opponent's token army is especially effective when Blood Artist is around. In addition it can also function as removal for enchantments that you could not otherwise get rid of in B/R, or artifacts in the case you don't draw your Vandals. I'm of the opinion that pretty much every deck except maybe the token decks themselves want to be running some number of Bombs in their 75 cards.
The Left-Behinds
Of course there were a lot of cards that just couldn't make the cut, and I would like to briefly mention some of them and why they're not in my list.
Fume Spitter - I like this little guy and used them a lot in my lists pre-Avacyn Restored. He was very useful in disrupting a lot of popular decks - Delver, R/G aggro, Naya Pod, Humans by killing their 1 drops. That being said, I don't feel like he's all that necessary anymore since he isn't great against Lingering Souls decks and other cornercases (like using him to take the counter off your undied Messenger) don't come up too often. He's a useful card and I could see playing him being right but I just couldn't find the room for him.
Skirsdag High Priest - This is another card I liked a lot before AVR hit. I always ran at least 2 copies in my lists and he did a ton of work against other creature decks. So what happened? Well, Blood Artist happened. There's only so much room for 2 mana creatures that don't fight very well so unfortunately he drew the short straw. I could still see sideboarding a couple of copies as in the matchups where he's good, he's VERY good.
Porcelain Legionnaire - At 2 and 2 life mana this guy is a solid beater that's very hard for opponents to block profitably. Essentially he's fighting for the same slots that Highborn Ghoul is taking in the deck. While he has more power than the Ghoul and provides another out to Mirran Crusader, he also interacts less favorably against Lingering Souls (by getting chumped for a number of turns) and is vulnerable to artifact hate. It also is annoying to have him get Vapor Snagged and then have to spend 2 more life to re-cast him but that's less of an issue. I could see either Legionnaire or Ghoul being right but I like Ghoul a bit more at the moment.
Phyrexian Obliterator - This guy has a huge body and is incredibly hard for R/G opponents to deal with all at the cost of 4 mana. However Aristocrat has a lot more synergy with the deck and dies to a lot less removal than Obliterator and since we can only run so many 4-drops Aristocrat gets the nod.
Soulcage Fiend - I like Soulcage Fiend as sort of a bad Geralf's Messenger (which still turns out to be pretty good!) however the only spot it could really fit in is for the Metamorphs, and Metamorph just does so much more for the deck (like being an actual Geralf's Messenger!).
Gloom Surgeon - Some players ran these in their Zombie pod decks as a defensive card against other aggro decks, but I don't feel defence is at all what I want to be doing here. This deck wants to win as fast as possible, and trying to stall games out with Gloom Surgeon does not seem like a wise decision. For decks like Zombie Pod that want to buy time to set up it might be okay but for a deck like this that wants to smash your face in they're likely not necessary.
Pillar of Flame - I tried to run a few of these maindeck as a nice trump in the mirror and as cheap removal against other aggro decks but with only 8 red sources to cast it off of it just wasn't reliable enough. A few copies in the board might be correct but in the main it just wasn't cutting it.
Wrap Up
While Zombies may not be a tier 1 deck, I feel like it's at worst a tier 1.5 deck very capable of hanging in there with the top dogs on a good day. I feel that if more people work on refining Zombies lists it could well achieve tier 1 status in the upcoming months. B/R Zombies seems like the most well-positioned version of the deck in the current meta, with the aggressive draws Zombies is known for and a lot of reach provided through burn spells, Blood Artist, Geralf's Messenger, and Mortarpod. Any feedback on this post would be much appreciated as this is my first crack at doing something like this.
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Posted Jun 16, 2012