Primer Decks: Zombies

[Korlash77]

Guys I am brand new to this forum as well as playing MTG. I just want some honest opinions on this deck and any help would be greatly appreciated.

20 Lands total (1 Cabal Coffer)

Korlash x2
Lord of the Undead x3
Zombie Master x2
Royal Assassin x2
Grave Titan x2
Coffin Queen x2
Helldozer x2
Bone Dancer x2
Syphon life x3
Cranial Extraction x3
Dark Ritual x2
Doom Blade x2
Zombify x3
Underworld Dreams x2
Diabolic Tutor x2
Extinction x2
Haunting Echoes x2
Grave Pact x2

total 60

[Mindfux]

sooo..i call this deck Shoot 'Em In The Head because it's extremely relentless. lots of pumping up and lots of returning from the grave. i've been running this deck thanks to some help from you guys in this thread and it is BRUTAL. it's gotten to the point where nobody wants to play me if i'm playing this deck, and have multiple people telling me they're building decks to defeat this.

my favorite thing to do with this deck is hit people with Shepherd Of Rot and then Gempalm Polluter them...usually it can do upwards of 10 dmg+ before my attack phase lol.

anyway, this new block is out, and it's all vampires, zombies, skeletons and werewolves, and i've noticed some pretty slick cards like Cellar Door. i was wondering if there are any other beneficial cards like this to pump more zombies into the field

Shoot 'Em In The Head!!!
Creatures: 30 4 Festering Goblin 4 Lord Of The Undead 4 Shepherd Of Rot 4 Cemetary Reaper 4 Gempalm Polluter 4 Fleshbag Marauder 4 Undead Warchief 2 Death Baron	Spells: 8 4 Nameless Inversion 4 Call To The Grave Lands: 22 4 Spawning Pool 2 Unholy Grotto 16 Swamp

i'm thinking i want to get rid of the 2Death Baron (which are really only in there to keep me at 60 cards, and who doesn't mind a horde of deathtouch beef cakes) and put in 4 Cellar Doors in there and whatever cards i haven't seen from this block..that would put me at 62 cards

i really dig Cellar Door because i can use it on myself and potentially get a 2/2 that gets beefed up right away, as well as a creature i can pull out of the graveyard into my hand or play

[dumbledork]

Originally Posted by Mindfux

sooo..i call this deck Shoot 'Em In The Head because it's extremely relentless. lots of pumping up and lots of returning from the grave. i've been running this deck thanks to some help from you guys in this thread and it is BRUTAL. it's gotten to the point where nobody wants to play me if i'm playing this deck, and have multiple people telling me they're building decks to defeat this.

my favorite thing to do with this deck is hit people with Shepherd Of Rot and then Gempalm Polluter them...usually it can do upwards of 10 dmg+ before my attack phase lol.

anyway, this new block is out, and it's all vampires, zombies, skeletons and werewolves, and i've noticed some pretty slick cards like Cellar Door. i was wondering if there are any other beneficial cards like this to pump more zombies into the field

i'm thinking i want to get rid of the 2Death Baron (which are really only in there to keep me at 60 cards, and who doesn't mind a horde of deathtouch beef cakes) and put in 4 Cellar Doors in there and whatever cards i haven't seen from this block..that would put me at 62 cards

i really dig Cellar Door because i can use it on myself and potentially get a 2/2 that gets beefed up right away, as well as a creature i can pull out of the graveyard into my hand or play

This is good Mindfux, very similar to my own which I will post below. It goes for the late game is the major difference (with most creatures being 3+ mana). Maybe to support that, you could add so more late game re-animation to bring the hoard back. Also - Whats better than big zombies? Unblockable big zombies. If you are feeling like dropping the Death baron, you may try zombie master in it's place. Zombie master with a couple urborg, tomb of yawgmoth in the deck would make those zombies an even bigger threat. However, you've probably read me on here before: do not include death baron and zombie master in the same deck, this is a mistake many people do..

Overall, good stuff. Here is my zombie build that I've literally been playing since 2002 (very little has changed).

Deck
// Mana source (28) 20 Swamp 3 Unholy grotto 1 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth 4 Dark ritual // Zombies (30) 4 Festering goblin 4 Carrion feeder 4 Maggot carrier 4 Gempalm polluter 4 Undead warchief 4 Shepherd of rot 4 Fleshbag marauder 2 Graveborn muse	// Support (3) 1 Oversold cemetery 1 Ghoulcaller's chant 1 Innocent blood

This deck has likewise become the bane of my friends circle - the undying zombie deck.. My deck also goes for a shepherd of rot/gempalm win, but it supports that strategy just a little more by running tons of quick drop zombies. You have a few sources of card advantage that just keep pumping out the zombies. Over time, you either widdle them away with rot/gempalm damage, or just stomp all over them with big zombies via Warchief. This deck has really stood the test of time... still quite devastating vs any decks and an instant port to multiplayer. Only change i would make there is swap chant for Living death.

Other nifty combos in this deck:

• Carrion feeder + festering goblin
• Graveborn muse + gempalm polluter
• Unholy grotto + gempalm polluter
• Shepherd of rot + maggot carrier (or all zombies for that matter, he's just more fun)
• Oversold cemetery + fleshbag marauder
• Unholy grotto + fleshbag
• Fleshbag marauder + festering goblin
• Carrion feeder + oversold cemetery
• Gempalm polluter + cemetery

So, its similar in many ways, just attempts to be a tad more explosive with dark rituals and no CIPT lands... So, everyone drop your innistrad zombies and get with the times, onslaught zombies are still the way to be ^^

[Mindfux]

i have Zombie Master and Zombie Trailblazer, but i took them out

by the time draw 4 comes around i've usually got 3 or 4 zombies on the table already that are getting jacked up by the serious amount of generals in here...usually the puny 1/1 or 2/2's have become 5/4+

i was really liking Cellar Door more as an added annoyance and a line of defense for the people that are really itching to Damnation me or something along those lines (i've had my Spawning Pool save my ass a few times)

haven't really checked into the Innistrad block too much, but i got a Cellar Door in a booster and thought it would be kind of nice with Call To The Grave and Cemetary Reaper

[Bl4ckk]

Heya everybody!
Here's my latest version of the Black Sac Zombie Deck (Casual/Legacy).

Deck
MAIN: - Lands - 21 4x Polluted Delta 2x Marsh Flats 1x Unholy Grotto 2x Phyrexian Tower 4x Underground Sea 8x Swamp - Creatures - 22 4x Gravecrawler 4x Carrion Feeder 3x Diregraf Ghoul 3x Geralf's Messenger 4x Diregraf Captain 2x Fleshbag Marauder 2x Black Cat	- Spells - 17 4x Dark Ritual 3x Tragic Slip 4x Cabal Therapy 2x Grave Pact 2x Recurring Nightmare 2x Diabolic Intent	SIDEBOARD: 2x Pithing Needle 3x Null Rod 4x Surgical Extraction 3x Annul 3x Engineered Plague

I was wondering if any experienced player could give a judgment about it.
It has many way to end the game: it can work like an half-fast aggro, since most creatures are fast and nasty to take out; it can resist since you have enough mana to clear the board with Grave Pact; it can finish off the opponent with Diregraf Captain's triggered Ability.

Since the last posts i tried some different combos, putting in Recurring Nightmare to resurrect via Entomb fat gamebreakers like Grave Titan or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, or getting some nice burst combos with Geralf's Messenger.
When combos went in, the game was done for my opponent; the problem are fast decks and control decks, so i tried putting in more removals like Tragic Slip and Cabal Therapy, that work awesomely with Gravecrawler.

Now for speed problems, i reduced every card with CMC>3 and removed my fat cows, so Recurring Nightmare ends up working just to trigger some abilities or to recover creatures from the graveyard.
It still has mana problems (or i'm damned unlucky), since i had to mulligan 1-2-3 times to get almost 2 lands.
It still has drawing problems. (Phyrexian Arena instead of Recurring Nightmare does the work)

For the sideboard:
☻ i put in an amazing Null Rod to break balls to every Affinity Deck, to stop Relic of Progenitus from doing boring things or to neutralize Umezawa's Jitte and bad Equipment Cards.
☻ Surgical Extraction (working really fine with Cabal Therapy) to stop combodecks usually.
☻Annul was like a replacement with 2 usages to mainly break balls to Enchantress and enchant-like decks (but it isn't a gamebreaker card, thats why i'm askin some suggests).

Hope, as always to help Zombie Fans to improve, find new ideas and to bring finally a competitive Zombiedeck in Legacy (maybe we'll have to wait for Avacyn Restored :S ).

[Mindfux]

Fleshbag Marauder x4 is great removal

so is Go For The Throat and Nameless Inversion. Nameless Inversion is nice if graveyard revival is your thing, cause you can just pull it back out as a zombie card and keep using it over and over

honestly, i would get rid of those dual lands that you have to pay a life and put a few more Unholy Grotto and maybe something like Spawning Pool or Urborg if you can afford it...there's far better lands out there

there's way better generals out there to boost zombies up as well..i feel like you're wasting space with those dual lands that let you pay 1 life, and banking on that one zombie card that uses one island..look into stuff like Undead Warchief Cemetary Reaper Lord Of The Undead Death Baron etc. in my opinion i'd either cut those out, or maybe toss some blue in there?

Shepherd of Rot and Gempalm Polluter are really ridiculous in combination

if you like 1 draw zombies there's also cards like Festering Goblin and Maggot Carrier

[Bl4ckk]

Originally Posted by Mindfux

Fleshbag Marauder x4 is great removal

so is Go For The Throat and Nameless Inversion. Nameless Inversion is nice if graveyard revival is your thing, cause you can just pull it back out as a zombie card and keep using it over and over

honestly, i would get rid of those dual lands that you have to pay a life and put a few more Unholy Grotto and maybe something like Spawning Pool or Urborg if you can afford it...there's far better lands out there

there's way better generals out there to boost zombies up as well..i feel like you're wasting space with those dual lands that let you pay 1 life, and banking on that one zombie card that uses one island..look into stuff like Undead Warchief Cemetary Reaper Lord Of The Undead Death Baron etc. in my opinion i'd either cut those out, or maybe toss some blue in there?

Shepherd of Rot and Gempalm Polluter are really ridiculous in combination

if you like 1 draw zombies there's also cards like Festering Goblin and Maggot Carrier

Heya, thanks for the hints, but consider this:

4 Fleshbag Marauders are dead draws that slows or totally lock you if you don't have anything to sac... having 2 of them in hand and no other creature on the bf is a bad situation.. considering also that it is a dead card if your enemy doesn't use so many creatures.

Spawning Pool, entering Battlefield tapped just slows you, needs to stay untapped and requires other lands to be busy to use his effect (3-4 untapped lands to animate, block and regen with security).

I won't get rid of fetch lands just because pings my life, in fact they cut off useless lands and dead draws on late game.
Although splashing with another color is a good thing in Legacy, because you need more removals that your maincolor can't bring to you.

It's not a Lord what i need, as i wrote up, i use Diregraf Captain mainly for his triggered ability, that if used correctly can let you win the game.

Sheperd of rot requires more zombies on the battlefield, and if you don't have a system to protect them and to not allow the opponent to heal himself, then its just a suicide card. Thats for dedicated decks, it can't fit in every deck.

Festerin Goblin and Maggot Carrier are just 1/1 creatures, they have both a possible backfire, they can't fight long, they can't be a threat for the opponent.

That's why i checked yet those cards and didn't include them on my list

I'll Keep in mind considering Nameless Inversion maybe coupled with a pair of Ghoulcaller's Chant

[Mindfux]

re read the rules for Fleshbag Marauder again

it's not a dead draw, because you will ALWAYS have something to sacrifice, considering you can sacrifice Fleshbag Marauder itself as soon as it comes into play.

[Bl4ckk]

>_> i'm not snip.

The real point is that in some situations you cannot consider or use it as a creature by the moment you must sacrifice it if you don't have anything else to sacrifice, so you cannot block or attack with it..

What if you have 2 of them in the opening hand? Need to wait to draw other creatures? Or do a forced mulligan?
Now, what if your opponent has no creatures? It loses half of his usefulness. And you still have to sacrifice.
What if the opponent has too many creatures? The advantage on permanents won't be considerable and you still have to sac one by yourself and lose permanents.

That's the point in having just 2 Fleshbag Marauders in the deck.

The best way to play it is in combo with other cards that give you a major effect or having a nice plan to turn the drawback in something useful.

flame warning
blut

PS: Wasn't intended to flame, i apologize for my language. Bl4ckk.

[Blutsau]

note that the above post has been warned for editing after moderation. note made here to preserve the last edit above.

One shouldn't count Marauder as creature for deck building purposes, just because its typline says so. It's a one-sided Innocent Blood that has synergy Unholy Grotto and other recursion. Its body only matters in fringe cases, where you have something more suited to be sacced (like Gravecrawler).
That said the decission of how many one should play, depends on one's meta.

[Mindfux]

Originally Posted by Blutsau

One shouldn't count Marauder as creature for deck building purposes, just because its typline says so. It's a one-sided Innocent Blood that has synergy Unholy Grotto and other recursion. Its body only matters in fringe cases, where you have something more suited to be sacced (like Gravecrawler).
That said the decission of how many one should play, depends on one's meta.

could not agree more. i've never played this card as a creature, and the way you can continuously pull it out is ridiculous

[Rdunavant]

Deck
Lands 20 Swamp Creatures 4 Gravecrawler 3 Carrion Feeder 4 Skirk Ridge Exhumer 1 Black Cat 4 Lord of the Undead 3 Fleshbag Marauder 3 Undead Warchief 3 Grave Scrabbler 2 Escaped Null 2 Soulless One 2 Corpse Harvester 1 Gempalm Polluter	Spells 3 Dark Ritual 3 Skulltap Artifacts 2 Blasting Station

So, this is my Zombie deck. Its main focus is gravedigging. Lord of the Undead plays a big role in this. As does the Grave Scrabbler/ Skirk Ridge Exhumer combo. Any card you discard with Skirk Ridge Exhumer can be returned later with the Lord of the Undead.

There are many combos in this deck. Being able to pay one black mana to return Gravecrawler over and over again works well with Blasting Station, or Carrion Feeder. He is also good fodder for the Corpse Harvester. You can lock-down their draw by sacrificing the Black Cat either to the Corpse Harvester or Carrion Feeder just to return it again with the Lord of the Undead. Its a true zombie deck because... it just keeps coming back to life!

[LilianaVess33]

These are, ok........ ish

4 Gravecrawler
4 Lord of the Undead
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Undead Warchief
2 Corpse Harvester
1 Gempalm Polluter

These are not so ok.....

Black Cat- A pretty bad choice for this deck, especially as a singleton.

Skirk Ridge Exhumer - Never good, Unless your play group runs a ton of 1/1's I suppose, you just invest mana, ditch a card, tap a creature, all for a 1/1 dork that may or may not do something useful at some point. Might have been "ok" before the damage rules were changed, but now it's just bad.

Escaped Null - All the Nulls are terrible avoid them like the T-Virus (see what I did there)

Grave Scrabble - Just bad, I guess it's a cheap body with an effect if you pitch it to Skirk Ridge Exhumer, but besides that hes pretty lack luster.

Soulless One - Just another "big" dumb creature that gets chump blocked for days.

Carrion Feeder - Yes let me sac creatures, probably with a power greater than 1 to give a creature with no evasion a +1/+1 counter....... Wait theres more? He can't block either? Yippe.

Cards to consider :

Noxious Ghoul - I like your little combo with Blasting Station and Gravecrawler, with that online this dude can give you a 1 sided Mutilate while you ping the poor chump across the table.

Nameless Inversion - It's a freacking removal card that's also a zombie...... I'm looking at you Lord of the Undead.

Gempalm Polluter - Draw one card, your opp. Loses life? sounds legit.

Twisted Abomination - Tutors up land early, has synergy with Lord of the Undead, and is a late game beatstick that regens.

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade - If you can afford him, he's...... well he's just the tits.

Grave Defiler - Pseudo draw that comes with a zombie body. Digs pretty deep for it's cost.

Endless Ranks of the Dead - I haven't played with it yet but seems great.

EDIT :

Consider some kind of tutor to get your little engine online, i.e. Find Blasting Station........ any random jank Black tutor will do.

Oh and I forgot, it needs more Liliana Vess


Purely for flavour reasons of course

EDIT Part 2 :

*Smacks Himself in the dome* Derp card advantage.......... Creature advantage.......... Mana Advantage........ GG Man, GG

[Rdunavant]

Thank you, that was some very good advice. Ive changed up the decklist some.

Deck
Lands 20 swamp Creatures 3 Undead Warchief 4 Lord of the Undead 4 Gravecrawler 2 Gempalm Polluter 2 Noxious Ghoul 3 Boneknitter 2 Grave Defiler 2 Fleshbag Marauders 2 Corpse Harvester	Non-creature Spells 2 Endless Ranks of the Undead 3 Vampiric Link 3 Blasting Station 3 Dark Ritual 2 Diabolic Tutor 3 Nameless Inversion

I switched out the null for vampiric link. I added boneknitter just to fix the curve some. I kinda wanna get more creatures in there. Maybe get rid of the rituals in place of a one drop zombie. Now going to play test it some on mws and see how it goes.

[LilianaVess33]

Well are right, the problem I see now is with consistency, there are too many 2 ofs in your creature department.Bone knitter is kinda bad.

Fleshbag Marauders is good. lol

Need 1 drops? Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul could fit that bill.

If I were to build this I would go :

Deck
4 Undead Warchief 4 Lord of the Undead 4 Gravecrawler 4 Diregraf Ghoul 4 Gempalm Polluter 3 Noxious Ghoul 4 Fleshbag Marauder 3 Corpse Harvester	2 Endless Ranks of the Dead 3 Blasting Station 3 Beseech the Queen 3 Nameless Inversion 20 Swamp