MTG Salvation

I have a good name for this deck once its completed, but I'm not revealing that until the deck is tested and proven, right now its still an idea that needs work. I have yet to see anyone making anything like this and yet there's so many "zombie" keyword cards in the set that i feel like the deck can almost build itself.

I want the deck to be mainly black, using the token generator Zombie Infestation and alot of "return to hand" effects to keep reusing it, then win by overwhelming the opponent with my pumped dudes.

Here's what I'm thinking of so far:



So the idea is to play an Infestation turn 2 and start ditching dudes and making tokens. Then you play the return to hand stuff to make more toekns and play a big Horde.
You now have a good deal of pumps for them with Virtue and Reaper.

O-ring handles whatever an army of zombies cant. Moan gets you more dudes, the deck is kind of obvious.

I think the power of the deck is the resilience to sweepers, which screw just about every other aggro deck in the format. With this you only need a couple zombies in play to be in good position, and if they're killed, you make more. I wish I had some kind of endless combo cycling effect in here but none exists at present.

The Stony Silence in the board is to protect you from Ratchet Bomb and Nihil Spellbomb, both of which will aggravate you and possibly shut the deck down. I'm not sure how many deck will run it but its the only sweeper im scared of.

DoJ- seems out of place but without it you will probably get demolished by Tempered Steel. You can come back from a DoJ, they cant as easily.
Gideon can screw control/midrange decks by drawing blockers so you can alpha swing.
Grave titan replaces things like Skinrender or Vengeful Phoaroah when there isnt much to kill. You might beplaying these guys eventually too, not just spweing tokens, even though thats what you'll be doing in the ideal situation.
Unburial Rites can be ditched along with Titan to then flash it back and get a speed boost, and the tokens benefit from the pumps.

The big drawback of this deck is no the lack of DRAW. I'm a big fan of control and theres nothing I hate more than topdecking lands but unfortunately that will happen here, hopefully not too much. The good news is that nothing you draw is "dead" since you can ditch it to make more zombies.

So I think this is worth a shot as a rogue deck, I'm unsure of the manabase, maybe we need more plains? Also considering Altar's Reap for draw but not too big a fan of it.

Suggestions?

Edited for deck tags. Check this thread for info on how to use these.
-Sene

I'd change nested ghoul for more moans. He will never be better than 2-for-1 but costs more.

What are your thoughts about Endless ranks of the dead? Sure, it's not very good, but it will be always active in this deck.

As an aside thought this deck can be taken the direction of GB. With Lead the stampede and Creeping renaissance you can have all the card draw you need. And if you still want to go token route Parallel lives supports it.

Call to the Grave?
One-sided Abyss seems worth the 5...
Heck, i've considered running it in non-tribal.

Hmm, i guess moan does what nested does but better, so i'll change that. I wanted to keep the creature count high but maybe it doesnt matter as much since i can discard anything to Infestation.

I considered Creeping Renaissance and Splinterfright, Lead the Stampede sounds good, I hadnt thought of that.
Parallel Lives would be good too, really maxing out on the token creation.

What id lose going GB is Virtue and the ability to protect my tokens with Stony Silence in the board.

Stampede just makes so much sense though...I need to think this over.

Looking at the mechanics, and the "idea' behind the style of Black zombie in Innistrad, i feel like building around the idea of the unstoppable zombie horde. i think the one advantage of the Black Zombie deck is that we have 1-drop through to 8-CMC bombs and a myriad of graveyard interaction cards. Therefore, why not build a deck that starts with some threats, and then is forever playing more and more threats, building up an unstoppable hoard.
I think trying to abuse what card advantage we can get is best, given the limited draw effects atm. Here's what i'm toying with... At this stage it's pure theorycrafting...

Here's what I've been using. B/g tokens.



It works itself as a deck, but I wonder if it wouldnt be better focusing either on: Lure with additional things like, Phyrexian Obliterator, Vengeful Pharoh, and Engulfing Slagworm. or losing the token aspects and just adding more zombies, with Adaptive Automaton, Skinrender, Unbreathing Horde, and the Pharohs. Also I'd like to drop some draw in it, but its hard to pick something to drop out. Was also considering dropping a Glissa, for one Army of the Damned, or Endless ranks of the Dead.

Deck tags added, please use them in the future.

I'd go with:

This is my current Zombie deck...



Sideboard is looking something like...


I call it Zombieland, its kind of similar to your build but a lot different in others. It's based on attrition control.

Quote from idkwhatimdoing

This is my current Zombie deck...

FuneralofGod's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Land: 24 24 Swamp Creatures: 12 4 Cemetary Reaper 3 Skinrender 2 Geth, Lord Of The Vault 3 Diregraf Ghoul	Artifacts: 3 3 Lashwrithe Enchantments: 3 3 Call To The Grave Sorceries: 10 4 Moan of The Unhallowed 2 Despise 4 Distress	Instants: 8 3 Go For The Throat 3 Geth's Verdict 2 Doom Blade

Sideboard is looking something like...

FuneralofGod's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
3 Surgical Extraction (Solarflare and variants) 2 Despise (Creature heavy aggro/planeswalker control) 3 Black Sun's Zenith (aggro) 1 Geth's Verdict (Shroudblade?) 3 Torpor Orb (Pod) 2 Doom Blade (T Steel) 1 ?

I call it Zombieland, its kind of similar to your build but a lot different in others. It's based on attrition control.

IMHO this looks like closest to being competitive of all the lists so far.. Although I don't know if I would use Geth..he just seems too slow. Maybe use him in the sideboard against midrange decks. I also think including Endless Ranks of the Dead is probably a good idea, but only as a 1 or 2 of. I might build something like this:



Honestly the different effects that return zombies to your hand are trivial.. They're counter-productive to your Cemetery Reaper and the Unbreathing Horde, which are much more powerful win conditions. I really want to try to work Lashwrithe in there somehow, but I can't justify removing anything. This discard spells are really important to ensure the game drags on as long as we want it to. My creature package is small enough as it is, I wouldn't want to get rid of anything there either. Altar's Reap might not be worth, since stack damage no longer works.. What do you guys think?

-EDIT-

I added Lashwrithe! I decided to remove 1 swamp and 1 Unbreathing Horde. The horde proved to be kind of win-more..as if you can make him big you're probably winning already.. I might take him out completely

Ok funeral I can see why you'd say that about geth but don't ignore that he's evasive to everything but grave titan and kin, wurmcoil, spellskite and t steel. You side him out in the aggro matchups as just win more, lashwrithe is extremely good making your reapers non dismemberable or your tokens significant beaters. No moan of the unhallowed? With or without reaper you will likely get a 2-1 if not 4-1 on this card if flash backed, its significant advantage is to much to discard. I like your list but why automaton? The +1+1 is negligible, the reason reaper is good is he poops 3/3's from creatures you've killed.

I want to fit in pharaoh and a way to draw cards but don't see good enough options, also CttG should not be underestimated here guys, its one sided.


Edit: On endless, I don't like it because its rounded down, if it produced at least 1 per turn then it'd be fine but its purpose would be to re establish board presence, not win more... All it does is win more in my opinion, if its pooping more than one guy per turn you've already won..

Quick question, what happens if Unbreathing Horde equipped with Lashwrithe takes damage, but has no +1/+1 counters?

Quote from Happy Shaman

Quick question, what happens if Unbreathing Horde equipped with Lashwrithe takes damage, but has no +1/+1 counters?

Unbreathing Horde with any +X/+X modifiers is immune to damage.

I have been having a TON of success with this deck.





Deck tags added, please use them in the future.

...And fixed said Deck Tags. Check this thread for info on how to use these.
-Sene

Ok this is the final deck I made for my Nice which is a mono black Zombie deck



I would love to tell you the name I gave the deck but I might get an infraction for it. Just think of a affliction, that irritates the hell out of you and never goes away. Thats how this deck functions. Dropping zombies, recurring zombies, pumping out zombies, multiplying zombies. The deck so far oddly enough works well against red decks and control decks, but so far it has been getting stomped by G/W tokens (granted in every game I had against the token decks which is 4 matchs of 3 games a piece, I only drew 2 of the freaking 12 removal spells the deck packs). I added Ratchet bombs in the sideboard to help destroy enchantments which have been wrecking me.

The deck is simple to play, pretty effective, and Liliana just wins games. Keeping opponents at no hand, and I do not care if I discard a zombie, good chance it is come back out of the graveyard to play again.

Quote from Alcyonh

Unbreathing Horde with any +X/+X modifiers is immune to damage.

Then I see no reason Unbreathing Horde and Lashwrithe shouldn't be auto-includes in a mono-black zombie deck. Having a X/X creature that can't be damaged is too powerful to pass up.

I'm surprised this type of deck isn't getting more traction here since the whole set has been spoiled...I really enjoyed playing zombies in 2012 and now we have a whole bunch of new cards that should enable us for some very fun games with LOTS of zombie! Here is a first stab at a combined M12/Inn build, comments/suggestions welcome!

So far, my list is:



But i still think zombies needs some more early critters, 3cmc is really stuffed.

Here's the list I've been playing the last few days.

// Creatures - 17
4 Cemetary Reaper
4 Diregraf Ghoul
1 Grave Titan
4 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Skinrender
1 Unbreathing Horde

// Artifacts - 2
2 Lashwrithe

// Enchantments - 2
2 Call to the Grave

// Spells - 15
1 Doom Blade
2 Geth's Verdict
2 Go for the throat
2 Sever the bloodline
4 Distress
4 Moan of the unhallowed

// Lands - 24
24 Swamp

just to try to get this thread back on track. If anyone wants Zombies to be a decent deck, and wants to get some help, there needs to be more discussion on card choices, and strategy.
For a start, as mentioned, there aren't many cheap CMC zombies, which means we aren't going to be aggro. If we're playing zombies, and not just mono-black beatdown/midrange, there has to be a benefit to having zombies on the battlefield.
Personally, i feel endless ranks of the dead and call to the grave are too late, and too slow for us. I think a discard and disruption package is imperative as the first few turns we aren't going to be putting pressure on our opponent.
Further, it needs to be determined whether recursion is necessary or even useful.
Is Unbreathing Horde and Lashwrithe a combination that MUST make the deck, or is it just cute when it works? My issue with Unbreathing Hordes is you rarely want to cast it on T3, and we already have so few T3 good plays apart from Cemetery Reaper...

Anyone else got any thoughts we can use, or testing against other relevant decks?

Ok so I've changed my list to the following...


What do you guys think? Lilliana is actually not bad for this deck at all. Keep in mind I haven't tested this out yet..

Edit: Reasoning for card choices.

Diregraf: 2/2 for one, not that bad, not great.. can apply pressure or used as fodder to make dudes from reaper if you have to +1 lilly with one in your hand.

Skinrender: Obvious inclusion is obvious, next.

Cemetery Reaper: A lord that poops guys, reuses guys, exiles pharaohs that could clog your draw, i'm down.

Pharaoh: Discards easy to lil, fat body for mid/late game, protexcts your life total/lil, IMO he's good.

Call To The Grave: One sided abyss... Its solid nothing spectacular.

Lashwrithe: Provides late game reach, early pressure.. Just really solid.

Moan Of The Unhallowed: Pitches to lil for later use, not a first pitch choice but still. 4 power for 4, 6 with reaper overall its good.

Despise: Planeswalkers are problems, enough said.

Distress: See above, however it can nab mana leaks/days etc.

Lilliana: Ok, not sooo obvious but provides pharaoh an outlet, hurts your opponents CA, edicts, and once you have your opponent with little/no cards eating half their permanents are good, also a 3 drop which is lacking in this deck.

GftT: Eats dudes, possibly doom blade replacing this, but as of right now GftT is strictly better IMO.

Geth'd Verdict: Edict + life loss, not bad... Instant speed makes it better, add to that it kills geist/thrun etc its playable.

Quote from Halted Asylum

So far, my list is:

ZOMBIE INFESTATIONMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
// LANDS (24) 24 Swamp // CREATURES (20) 04 Diregraf Ghoul 04 Walking Corpse 04 Cemetery Reaper 04 Ghoulraiser 04 Unbreathing Horde	// SUPPORT (16) 04 Distress 04 Go for the Throat 04 Moan of the Unhallowed 03 Endless Ranks of the Dead 01 Army of the Damned

But i still think zombies needs some more early critters, 3cmc is really stuffed.

What about Fume Spitter? I realize he's a Horror, and not a Zombie. But oh well He's not too amazing, but can shoot down first turn Elves. Or help break down defenders. Pretty decent early game, but when it gets late game, he's just eh.

I don't really like spitter either.. I was having trouble generating CA with mono black so i'm trying this...



Green is there for beast within which kills walkers, eats inkmoth+moorland haunt etc, and swords. Sideboard will contain stuff for pod, aggro, shroudblade, and solar flare? Anything else to worry about?

I've been playing around with having some counter's for the early game while building up the zombie force... this is what I've come up with so far.

I'd call it a kind of zombie mill deck with the back up of Grimoire of the Dead for mid/late game domination.



Not sure if Vapor Snag would fit better than Silent Departure, but the flashback of Silent Departure could be handy, but so could the instant ability of Vapor Snag. Most of the counter/control spells are to help with early threats while preparing the zombie force.

Think Grimgrin could work in this deck?