Ace1, Looks like a solid list and fun to test out, definitely curious to hear back from your play testing to see how it went.
Very curious to know how often you are using Relentless Dead's abilities and how often Dark Salvation is more than a dead draw.
Question, why are most recent lists here running their 1 off basic land as a Mountain instead of an Island?
With the amount of Blood Moon being played, I would imagine an Island would be a better choice wouldn't it?
Your list seems more painful to me with leeches and bobs, which make the deck faster but easier to race for decks like burn, death shadow and the so.
How good is being Cryptbreaker for you? I tested it and not liked at all because a small body that need to tap to activate is slow and not efficient for me.
Yeah, you're definitely correct about it being more painful. I am still playtesting but overall it seems pretty good. Cryptbreaker has actually been working out very well for me. I tend to use both of his abilities equally as much. If I have 3 or more zombies on board, it's a great way to grab an extra card at the end of opponents turn or in response to removal. Occasionally you get stuck with unplayable cards or have a Gravecrawler in hand, you can discard it and get an extra body and then play your Gravecrawler. Tossing some zombies in the GY ends up usually working out very well for Diregraf Colossus . I tend to try and cast Diregraf Colossus if there are 2 or more zombies in my graveyard to prevent him from taking a bolt.
The Dark Confidant's are the latest inclusion in the deck after I was running out of gas too quick in most games without it. Keeping the deck's over CMC under 3 tends to not affect your life total enough to lose you the game.
For now I will be keeping the Cryptbreaker's in as a 4 of.
That all being said, I think Liliana, the Last Hope is too slow for this deck, she will probably come out.
I really like the list above but I have my own concerns as well
I've been playing modern zombies for some time now, testing several different builds. Through my testing, Relentless Dead has always seemed like a great inclusion for your two drop slots, but for me he has not been performing very well at all. The most efficient part of him has been the Menace. Which is not very good late game or if opponent has more than 1 blocker.
With moderns current meta shifting to quicker decks I decided to make a faster zombie deck with the inclusion of Dark Confidant to fill the Relentless Dead slots.
Running bobs also means you want to keep your cards under 3 CMC for the most part in order to not take too much damage. So far Bob has been really really good for zombies for me as it's gaining me a that extra draw which seems huge! Also, opponents aren't as likely to kill Bob for 2 main reasons, they want you to take damage off your card draw and you're most likely going to have bigger threats on board that they will want to get rid of first.
Just wanted to report, i've been playing my mono-black version for a couple of weeks in small local tournament and doing well with it (currently 11-2 in matches)
My list is the same as the one i posted above but with better lands:
I've also improved the sideboard. Crypt incursion comes vs living end/dredge and such, but also vs burn. Gaining 6 or 9 life with it is pretty valuable, we can even target ourselves if we need to. Wail of the nim is the only sweeper protection i found in mono-black. The damage mode is also useful vs elves, tokens, etc. Stromgald crusader is new and i like it vs white decks with flyers, which we are weak to. Considering adding a 4th maybe, having a solid creature vs rest in peace decks seems worth it.
Thanks for posting! This looks fantastic and I am going to build it on mtgo right now. Will report back after having play tested some
I've been playing legacy zombies for a little bit now and Undead Warchief is great! Although I am a complete noob to Legacy. Just dipping my toes in the water from Modern and this budget zombie deck has been a blast! I only play it on MTGO currently and mostly in the Just for Fun room but have recently started playing it in the Tournament Practice rooms with some surprisingly good results and tons of laughing moments!
Recently I tossed in a few Dark Ritual's to speed up the deck a bit more.
Let me know what you guys think and if you have any suggestion for improvement. I am pretty sure the SB needs work because I am so little knowledge when it comes to Legacy and what decks are played out there. So my SB is mostly a guess and looking at others lists. Once the deck is more dialed in, I pan to build it in paper and play it at our LGS for fun mostly.
Here is my current list: (Note: I just added the Withered Wretch and Evil Presence after seeing Eretoryi's list above )
If I remember correctly I found a similar list to this on tappedout somewhere and changed it a little.
It's been pretty fun to play and fairly good overall.
How is cryptbreaker working for you guys? I'm not sure if it's good or not.
I've playtested cryptbreaker some and I think the card is pretty awesome for a 1-drop. I think playing that turn 1 and discarding something like Prized Amalgam turn two to make a 2/2 zombie is pretty sweet. The draw seems really nice too if you keep zombies up for blockers and then tap at the end of the opponent's turn to draw an extra card.
I have been working on the below list since EMN came out and I am really excited to take it to FNM as soon as I can. The deck is centered around Diregraf Colossus and Haakon, Stromgald Scourge counting Nameless Inversion as a zombie and a knight. This card has a lot of synergy with the deck because I can pitch it to Cryptbreaker or Grisly Salvage and still cast it multiple times with Haakon. For diregraf colossus, it adds a +1/+1 counter to it when its in the graveyard and if I cast it I get another 2/2 zombie. With this list I have 10 zombies that come back to the battlefield extremely easy and 14 ways to put them in the graveyard. I think Grisly Salvage and Liliana, the Last Hope are both very good card selection choices that also help fill the yard for more zombie shenanigans.
Would you consider Grapple with the Past over Grisly Salvage? Let's you bring any land/creature from your GY to your hand instead of the 5 revealed with Salvage. Also it only requires 1 green instead of 1 green and 1 black. Which can be slightly easier to cast.
This is probably cuckoo (or, at best, fun for casual), but if you're playing mono Zombies and you're already splashing green, what about something like Descendants' Path? Once you're up to three mana you probably don't need many more lands, and if you're cranking out multiple Zombies a turn, that's how you're going to win, right?
That is not a bad suggestion, the card seems great. I recently built a deck with 28 zombie creatures that plays 4 x Descendants' Path. So far in my testing, the card has been too slow and has been hitting lands with it's ability far too often. I will continue to play test it but with so many zombie creatures and 21 lands, how often it hit lands felt like it wasn't doing much for me.
Not much for zombie additions so far from EMN. Was really hoping to see a new interesting zombie. Although I won't complain, Relentless Dead has been a lot of fun to play.
Very curious to know how often you are using Relentless Dead's abilities and how often Dark Salvation is more than a dead draw.
Is there a combo with it I am not aware of?
Inkmoth's can be hit by Victim of Night. Not sure about both tho.
Another potential is Tragic Slip
With the amount of Blood Moon being played, I would imagine an Island would be a better choice wouldn't it?
Yeah, you're definitely correct about it being more painful. I am still playtesting but overall it seems pretty good.
Cryptbreaker has actually been working out very well for me. I tend to use both of his abilities equally as much. If I have 3 or more zombies on board, it's a great way to grab an extra card at the end of opponents turn or in response to removal. Occasionally you get stuck with unplayable cards or have a Gravecrawler in hand, you can discard it and get an extra body and then play your Gravecrawler. Tossing some zombies in the GY ends up usually working out very well for Diregraf Colossus . I tend to try and cast Diregraf Colossus if there are 2 or more zombies in my graveyard to prevent him from taking a bolt.
The Dark Confidant's are the latest inclusion in the deck after I was running out of gas too quick in most games without it. Keeping the deck's over CMC under 3 tends to not affect your life total enough to lose you the game.
For now I will be keeping the Cryptbreaker's in as a 4 of.
That all being said, I think Liliana, the Last Hope is too slow for this deck, she will probably come out.
I've been playing modern zombies for some time now, testing several different builds. Through my testing, Relentless Dead has always seemed like a great inclusion for your two drop slots, but for me he has not been performing very well at all. The most efficient part of him has been the Menace. Which is not very good late game or if opponent has more than 1 blocker.
With moderns current meta shifting to quicker decks I decided to make a faster zombie deck with the inclusion of Dark Confidant to fill the Relentless Dead slots.
Running bobs also means you want to keep your cards under 3 CMC for the most part in order to not take too much damage. So far Bob has been really really good for zombies for me as it's gaining me a that extra draw which seems huge! Also, opponents aren't as likely to kill Bob for 2 main reasons, they want you to take damage off your card draw and you're most likely going to have bigger threats on board that they will want to get rid of first.
Here is my current list, SB needs work.
4 Gravecrawler
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Dark Confidant
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Putrid Leech
4 Diregraf Colossus
4 Geralf's Messenger
Instants: 5
3 Victim of Night
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Land: 22
2 Forest
8 Swamp
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Mutavault
1 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Natural State
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Bile Blight
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Beast Within
2 Pulse of Murasa
2 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Maelstrom Pulse
Thanks for posting! This looks fantastic and I am going to build it on mtgo right now. Will report back after having play tested some
Recently I tossed in a few Dark Ritual's to speed up the deck a bit more.
Let me know what you guys think and if you have any suggestion for improvement. I am pretty sure the SB needs work because I am so little knowledge when it comes to Legacy and what decks are played out there. So my SB is mostly a guess and looking at others lists. Once the deck is more dialed in, I pan to build it in paper and play it at our LGS for fun mostly.
Here is my current list: (Note: I just added the Withered Wretch and Evil Presence after seeing Eretoryi's list above )
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
18 Swamp
(28 Creatures)
4 Gravecrawler
3 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Rancid Rats
4 Lord of the Undead
3 Death Baron
2 Zombie Master
4 Undead Warchief
4 Gempalm Polluter
3 Dark Ritual
3 Tragic Slip
3 Victim of Night
3 Sudden Spoiling
3 Thoughtseize
1 Tragic Slip
2 Vampiric Link
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Death Baron
1 Noxious Ghoul
2 Extirpate
2 Withered Wretch
2 Evil Presence
It's been pretty fun to play and fairly good overall.
4 Gravecrawler
4 Relentless Dead
4 Death Baron
4 Diregraf Captain
4 Dreg Mangler
Spells (14)
2 Rancor
4 Æther Vial
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Beast Within
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Collected Company
4 Breeding pool
3 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Extirpate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Vampiric Link
2 Go for the Throat
1 Damnation
1 Rancor
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom pulse
Fetch lands are the wrong colors cause I personally do not own the enemy fetchlands.
Would you consider Grapple with the Past over Grisly Salvage? Let's you bring any land/creature from your GY to your hand instead of the 5 revealed with Salvage. Also it only requires 1 green instead of 1 green and 1 black. Which can be slightly easier to cast.
That is not a bad suggestion, the card seems great. I recently built a deck with 28 zombie creatures that plays 4 x Descendants' Path. So far in my testing, the card has been too slow and has been hitting lands with it's ability far too often. I will continue to play test it but with so many zombie creatures and 21 lands, how often it hit lands felt like it wasn't doing much for me.
This seems pretty neat.