The title says it all. I currently have a pretty tightly tuned The Ur-Dragon at the moment, but was thinking of making something a bit more competitive than that. I am a REALLY big fan of Varina, Lich Queen since she was spoiled, and was thinking Zombies maybe more of a competitive tribe. With the Ur-Dragon, it's your usual deck of big dragons and ramp to just flood the board with huge creatures and smash face. With the Zombie tribal, I could go in more of a combo direction. I think I mainly need help deciding which one to pour my resources into; either a combo Zombie/Esper Control deck, or a 5 color good stuff deck packed with Dragons. I could run both, but I want to devote all my good cards to one or the other (I don't want to spread it out to both and I don't prefer proxies). Any suggestions on your past experience would be awesome.
I currently have 59 EDH decks and have been playing for years, and I have still never bothered to build a Zombie EDH deck, despite having all the cards necessary to make a kick-ass one. The reason why is really simple... zombie decks tend to be fast and pretty effective, but they also tend to have a remarkable sameness to them.
I also don't have and never have built a dragon tribal deck, but a couple of people in my meta play Ur-Dragon decks and they seem to have a complete blast playing them. I have to admit it's pretty amusing playing against those decks, too, because after they spend a couple of turns ramp-durdling, you don't know what they are gonna be tossing at you, other than that it will probably be pretty big and dangerous, and then he will probably keep following up with more big threats with splashy abilities.
I care about having fun and making interesting games than I care about winning, so I know what I'd pick.
Still I think you have to build your deck with who-ever your usual playgroup is, if your Ur-dragon deck is too slow or people are well equipped to deal with large dragons then perhaps zombies is better for you, if it could lead to better games.
How about Scion of the Ur-dragon?, that card has a lot of combo potential for a dragon deck.
Scion can be competitive, but the Ur-Dragon is a bit more interactive. Depending on the colour scheme the answer is pretty open-ended. The Ur-Dragon is a bit more typical, so the Newer esper Zombie chick is a bit more open. Esper lets you use cards like Necromancer's Covenant which I've always wanted to use. Go with Zombies, I think you'll probably enjoy it morel; I may even try it.
As someone who has built both tribes, I voted for Zombies because I have found that they are actually a much better tribe than I originally thought and they can do all sorts of cool things. The deck can be aggro-oriented, more controlling, or combo-ish depending on your particular tastes, and there are enough good Zombie themed cards to almost make two decks so there are a lot of options. I felt like that with Dragons, trying to run too many made the deck really clunky so you end up filling your deck with a ton of ramp and color fixing which leads to a lot less space to do anything particularly cool. Building a Dragon deck was fun and I still play it every once and a while, but I like my Zombis deck much better (and I'll be playing is even more once I can start using Varina, Lich Queen as the commander.
The title says it all. I currently have a pretty tightly tuned The Ur-Dragon at the moment, but was thinking of making something a bit more competitive than that. I am a REALLY big fan of Varina, Lich Queen since she was spoiled, and was thinking Zombies maybe more of a competitive tribe. With the Ur-Dragon, it's your usual deck of big dragons and ramp to just flood the board with huge creatures and smash face. With the Zombie tribal, I could go in more of a combo direction. I think I mainly need help deciding which one to pour my resources into; either a combo Zombie/Esper Control deck, or a 5 color good stuff deck packed with Dragons. I could run both, but I want to devote all my good cards to one or the other (I don't want to spread it out to both and I don't prefer proxies). Any suggestions on your past experience would be awesome.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
I say go dragons.
If want combo though scion can be a nasty dragon combo deck.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Modern: UB Zombie hunt UB - WR Boros tokens WR - BGW Treefolk tribal BGW
Commander: UR Mizzix, a Storm of spells UR (Decklist)
Dragons are more fun
I take it you want the more competitive choice.
I also don't have and never have built a dragon tribal deck, but a couple of people in my meta play Ur-Dragon decks and they seem to have a complete blast playing them. I have to admit it's pretty amusing playing against those decks, too, because after they spend a couple of turns ramp-durdling, you don't know what they are gonna be tossing at you, other than that it will probably be pretty big and dangerous, and then he will probably keep following up with more big threats with splashy abilities.
I care about having fun and making interesting games than I care about winning, so I know what I'd pick.
Still I think you have to build your deck with who-ever your usual playgroup is, if your Ur-dragon deck is too slow or people are well equipped to deal with large dragons then perhaps zombies is better for you, if it could lead to better games.
How about Scion of the Ur-dragon?, that card has a lot of combo potential for a dragon deck.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
From what I can gather, an esper zombie deck would be adding the following cards over a traditional dimir zombie deck.
Destruction
Vindicate
Anguished Unmaking
swords to plowshares
Dust to Dust
merciless eviction
Consistency
weathered wayfarer (to get urborg and coffers)
Idyllic Tutor and enlightened tutor (to grab rooftop storm, or phyrexian alter with enlightened)
ranger of eos (grabs gravecrawler)
recruiter of the guard (grabs combo pieces)
Stoneforged mystic (depending on the build)
Protection
Teferi's Protection
mother of runes (maybe)
Literally one worthwhile white zombie
Wayward Servant (a third card that combos off with grave crawler and rooftop storm)
So... yeah. White makes the zombie combo decks stronger. Feel free to go for it, I guess.
I think the biggest thing an esper zombie deck gets in addition to all of that in a non combo list is Anointed Procession .