I think you'll find that making a wall of zombies and hoping that the life drain will win the game, isn't going to work in the long run. Once a few key pieces get removed, you'll find your synergies won't work. If you want to have Wayward Servant as your enabler, you want 4 Cryptbreakers, 4 Dread Wanderers, 4 Diregraf Colossus and 4 Lord of The Accursed, and then 4 Dark Salvation which is so powerful in this game. Plague Belcher looks very nice, but no one's playing it. With the White, your best removal option is Anguished Unmaking, of which you should have two mainboard and one sideboard. Cards like Oketra and Bontu's Monument, definitely no, and Tresspasser's Curse is a sideboard card at best, and Stir the Sands no way. Look at the current Pro Tour lists and go from there, I think your deck is too sprawling to be fast. The key to this deck is fast and wide, not sitting around.
I have the new Lili. If you can get to her, and have the Lord and Mastery out, she's great. But like I said, without all the synergies, it just falls apart.
Yeah, the only way I won was by outgrinding the opponent. The life gain and drain off the Wanderer. The menace was useful but it just couldn't finish things.
Just done with my first FNM with the Zombies. Pretty much the same list as I posted a link to before. I played one Aetherworks deck, and two Mardu vehicles. Against those three I only won against the Aetherworks. The problem to me was that because the deck is so synergistic, you lose one thing, it all goes. Each on their own they're no good. Scrapheap should probably be in there. He's in a lot of lists. Time to Reflect seemed better than Push. Endless Planeswalkers is difficult to deal with. Guess I have to work on it. Anointed procession seems interesting as an alternative to the Mastery.
Got most of my cards today so been just testing it out. Subbed some Diregraf Colossuses for some Dread Wanderers I haven't received yet, and I quickly realised that Diregraf and Wayward Servant really love each other. Have both out, cast a Zombie, make a Zombie, opponent loses two life. Have two of either out and it's incredible the life swing you can get without even attacking. Just make a wall of Zombies. I ditched the Haunted Dead, once you have five mana you can sac a Relentless Dead and a Colossus to Voldaren Pariah, bring back the Colossus even bigger, and next turn cast the Relentless again for another two direct ping damage.
I'm taking a multipronged approach, with the life pings from the Servant and the Belcher, coupled with the Pariahs and Dark Salvation and the Haunted Dead/Amalgams. There are all sorts of interactions and triggers in that. I would love the Lord in there but it feels like it's shoehorned in. The other approaches are obviously Burn and just brute force Diregraf spamming tokens pumped by the Lord. Will just have to see how it goes...
I'm going to initially try to keep the Haunted Dead/Prized Amalgam/Voldaren Pariah engine. I actually won my FNM last week with my RB deck, but although the matches weren't difficult, it actually did what it was supposed to do. This is my Esper build.
This is my draft list. Would love to hear people's opinions on it. A better sac/discard outlet would be nice. Relentless Dead sacced to Kalitas is probably going to be the main way to get the Amalgams back.
Authority and the Curse are there if there's anyone doing Saheeli Cat, but no one in my game shop is at the moment.
I can give you feedback, but I think it will help a lot more if I just give you a link to Strictly better MtGs video on the deck and why he is playing the cards he is playing. The main issues the deck has is that there are some traps from innistrad that look good, but really aren't most of the time. Generally, I'd reconsider going a full 4 of with Relentless Dead and probably avoid Diregraf Colossus. I've played with the later and he isn't as good as he appears.
Thanks. It's a very interesting list he does. Perhaps I'll swap the Diregrafs for Haunted Dead instead and like he says use Lili instead of the Relentless Dead.
Note that MTG Salvation speels "Trespasser" wrong... I'm not seeing that many Cat combos so I won't need all of them. Unsure about the lack of Anguished Unmaking and I think Liliana's Mastery makes everything better.
This is my draft list. Would love to hear people's opinions on it. A better sac/discard outlet would be nice. Relentless Dead sacced to Kalitas is probably going to be the main way to get the Amalgams back.
I think you'll find that making a wall of zombies and hoping that the life drain will win the game, isn't going to work in the long run. Once a few key pieces get removed, you'll find your synergies won't work. If you want to have Wayward Servant as your enabler, you want 4 Cryptbreakers, 4 Dread Wanderers, 4 Diregraf Colossus and 4 Lord of The Accursed, and then 4 Dark Salvation which is so powerful in this game. Plague Belcher looks very nice, but no one's playing it. With the White, your best removal option is Anguished Unmaking, of which you should have two mainboard and one sideboard. Cards like Oketra and Bontu's Monument, definitely no, and Tresspasser's Curse is a sideboard card at best, and Stir the Sands no way. Look at the current Pro Tour lists and go from there, I think your deck is too sprawling to be fast. The key to this deck is fast and wide, not sitting around.
I'm really torn between WB and MonoB. Both have advantages; WB with the Wanderer and Unmaking; MonoB with faster manabase, Metallic Mimic and Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince.
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Dread Wanderer
3 Lord of the Accursed
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Relentless Dead
4 Dark Salvation
3 Fatal Push
3 Grasp of Darkness
4 Liliana's Mastery
Land 23
20 Swamp
3 Westvale Abbey
3 Dispossess
1 Fatal Push
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Lay Bare the Heart
2 Never // Return
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 To the Slaughter
Dread Wanderer, Wayward Servant... I'm somewhat dyslectic at times... Ambulatory Zombies of some description.
I'm plonking a couple of Scrapheap Scroungers in mine, and two Westvale Abbeys. Seems silly not to. If there's a Plague Belcher out it's an instant five damage as well.
Sideboard-wise, Scarab Feast, is that for the Scroungers? Dispossess I guess hits Aetherworks Marvels, as does the Transgress the Minds. Time to Reflect was quite strong for me, and Fragmentize could deal with some stuff I guess.
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Lord of the Accursed
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Relentless Dead
4 Dark Salvation
Instant (4)
1 Fatal Push
3 Grasp of Darkness
4 Liliana's Mastery
Land (24)
21 Swamp
3 Westvale Abbey
1 Fatal Push
2 Scarab Feast
1 Lay Bare the Heart
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Dispossess
2 Never // Return
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
Not sure how he plays the Dread Wanderer... Return it with Relentless?
4 Cryptbreaker
3 Dread Wanderer
2 Relentless Dead
3 Wayward Servant
4 Plague Belcher
4 Prized Amalgam
3 Haunted Dead
3 Voldaren Pariah
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
Enchantments
3 Sinister Concoction
Spells
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Dark Salvation
The other option drops the Wanderers, puts in Lord of the Accursed instead. It's just a test...
But yeah, we have so many options; Anguished Unmaking, Diregraf Colossus, Liliana's Mastery, Metallic Mimic, etc.
Thanks. It's a very interesting list he does. Perhaps I'll swap the Diregrafs for Haunted Dead instead and like he says use Lili instead of the Relentless Dead.
For reference, this is the list:
4 Cryptbreaker
3 Dread Wanderer
2 Relentless Dead
3 Wayward Servant
4 Plague Belcher
4 Prized Amalgam
3 Haunted Dead
3 Voldaren Pariah
3 Sinister Concoction
3 Grasp of Darkness
Sorcery 2
2 Dark Salvation
Land 25
3 Sunken Hollow
2 Fetid Pools
4 Concealed Courtyard
2 Shambling Vent
1 Plains
13 Swamp
2 Fatal Push
4 Tresspasser's Curse
2 Key to the City
2 Scrapheap Scrounger
2 Never // Return
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Liliana, Death's Majesty
1 Voldaren Pariah
Note that MTG Salvation speels "Trespasser" wrong... I'm not seeing that many Cat combos so I won't need all of them. Unsure about the lack of Anguished Unmaking and I think Liliana's Mastery makes everything better.
4 Cryptbreaker
3 Wayward Servant
4 Relentless Dead
4 Prized Amalgam
3 Diregraf Colossus
4 Lord of the Accursed
4 Plague Belcher
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Anguished Unmaking
4 Fatal Push
Sorcery 4
2 Liliana's Mastery
2 Dark Salvation
Land 22
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Shambling Vent
4 Aether Hub
8 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Liliana, Death's Majesty
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Authority of the Consuls
2 Time To Reflect
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Trespasser's Curse
Authority and the Curse are there if there's anyone doing Saheeli Cat, but no one in my game shop is at the moment.