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6 months ago ::
Jan 05, 2013 - 10:07PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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My daughter's birthday is on January 26. She loves browsing Gatherer before going to school, and must have found something, because she's asked me to build her a B/U zombie deck. However, I only started playing more seriously when Magic 2013 came out and I'm not that familiar with the Innistrad block, except as I am catching up. Moreover, I am not at all familiar with whatever it was that rotated out before that, which made the B/U Zombie archetype go away. So I don't really know what the B/U Zombie deck consisted of and what is supposed to make it tick. For now, this will just be a deck we will play at home, but I decided to post in the Standard forum instead of Casual, because I'm hoping with Dimir there will eventually be options to take this deck to FNM. For this reason, I'm keeping it Standard legal. So here is the beginning: Creature (26) 4 x Blood Artist  4 x Diregraf Captain  4 x Diregraf Ghoul  4 x Geralf's Messenger  4 x Gravecrawler  2 x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born  4 x Stitched Drake  Other (10) 2 x Ghoulcaller's Chant  4 x Bone Splinters  4 x Tragic Slip  Land (24) 4 x Drowned Catacomb  4 x Watery Grave  14 x Swamp  2 x Island  Here are some other cards available: Endless Ranks of the Dead  Havengul Lich  Havengul Runebinder  Unbreathing Horde  Zombie Apocalypse  So where can we take this to its max potential given the current limitation of what is in Standard? Is there another archetype using Havengul Lich that would work better?
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6 months ago ::
Jan 05, 2013 - 11:08PM
#2
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As of right now Watery Grave is not standard. As for the deck it looks pretty decent, RB is typically the stronger version but this can work too. I'd replace the drake with Rakdos Cackler  Probably want 4 Bump in the night 24 lands is a tad much, I'd run 22 or 23 at the most. Maybe take the extra land and the chants and replace with either Vile Rebirth  Killing Wave  Havengul Runebinder or preferably a comination of the 3. As for the Lich decks see Heartless Summoning  decks. He's normally used in pseudo-combo decks
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6 months ago ::
Jan 05, 2013 - 11:42PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jun 23, 2012
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UB zombies isn't really constructed viable probably, things like knight of glory  , thragtusk  and rhox faithmender  really kill the deck before you can do anything about it, also terminus  is the bane of this deck, if they get one of those off theres almost no way to recover. I would suggest adding altar's reap  you can swing with a gravecrawler  then sac him for some card draw, works great in a deck like this; sign in blood  is another option, your probably going to be netting life with blood artist  so adding some draw to the mix probably won hurt that much. I know hes not a zombie, but I would consider adding desecration demon  hes above the curve as a 6/6 for 4mana, but more importantly he has flying so he wont get chump blocked by mana dorks, they might sac to keep him tapped, but a with blood artist your going to hurt them for 1 damage at the very least, and they arn't going to be able to keep him down forever, eventually he will be able to wail on them. I wouldn't suggest running bone splinters  normally, but with the horrible kill spells at our disposal these days, in this type of deck it might work, I wouldn't suggest running 4 of them though, your going to want some instant kill spells as well, something like ultimate price  or victim of night  . I would also consider running peel from reality  or unsummon  , forcing them to unsummon one of their creatures can really hurt sometimes plus taking a geralf's messenger  back to your hand after it died once would really hurt the enemy. as mentioned earlier, a terminus from the enemy can be the bane of this deck, which is why I would suggest adding a few negate  s to the sideboard, I would also suggest adding some essence scatter  to take out some of those problematic knight of glory , thragtusk and rhox faithmender s. probably the last thing I would suggest is getting another sac outlet for this deck, being able to activate blood artist 's ability on will is what makes the deck hurt later in the game, I would suggest adding bloodthrone vampire  , bloodflow connoisseur  , Stitcher's Apprentice  or demonic taskmaster  ; ya demonic taskmaster 's ability can't be activated on will but he has flying which can be useful, I like Stitcher's Apprentice because his ability is worded in such a way that you can make the token, then sacrifice the token all for 2 mana, basically he reads activate morbid effects for 2 mana. The best sac outlet is probably bloodthrone vampire she gets a lot for your sacrifice and her ability can be used as a combat trick on top of all that she only costs is 2 mana, if you want to permanently buff your guy bloodflow connoisseur is better, she doesn't pump as fast as bloodthrone vampire but she stay pumped up.
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 5:50AM
#4
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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As of right now Watery Grave is not standard.
You are absolutely right, but it becomes standard five days after her birthday, so I put it in for now.
As for the deck it looks pretty decent, RB is typically the stronger version but this can work too. I'd replace the drake with Rakdos Cackler . Probably want 4 Bump in the night.
The cackler is more aggro, but feels out of place because of the creature type doesn't generate some of the synergies. I will add upping to 4x Bump in the Night  to the suggested list of changes. Wait, Bump in the Night flashbacks with red mana...do I want this in B/U zombies?
23 at the most. Maybe take the extra land and the chants and replace with either Vile Rebirth Killing Wave Havengul Runebinder or preferably a comination of the 3.
I really like Vile Rebirth and Killing Wave . I'm a little bit concerned about having too many effects that look that exile from my graveyard, but if I can go into my opponent's graveyard that adds considerable value and flexibility.
As for the Lich decks see Heartless Summoning decks. He's normally used in pseudo-combo decks
Will do, thank you!
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 6:03AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 27, 2007
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UB zombies isn't really constructed viable probably, things like knight of glory , thragtusk and rhox faithmender really kill the deck before you can do anything about it, also terminus is the bane of this deck, if they get one of those off theres almost no way to recover.
Yes, I understand it is not a competive choice, but maybe it will be more so when Gatecrash rolls around, maybe not. For now it's just for play at home. Oddly, I never see Terminus  at my local store.
I would suggest adding altar's reap you can swing with a gravecrawler then sac him for some card draw, works great in a deck like this; sign in blood is another option, your probably going to be netting life with blood artist so adding some draw to the mix probably won hurt that much.
I will consider adding card draw.
I know hes not a zombie, but I would consider adding desecration demon hes above the curve as a 6/6 for 4mana, but more importantly he has flying so he wont get chump blocked by mana dorks, they might sac to keep him tapped, but a with blood artist your going to hurt them for 1 damage at the very least, and they arn't going to be able to keep him down forever, eventually he will be able to wail on them.
I like it, and it will work well with Vile Rebirth .
I wouldn't suggest running bone splinters normally, but with the horrible kill spells at our disposal these days, in this type of deck it might work, I wouldn't suggest running 4 of them though, your going to want some instant kill spells as well, something like ultimate price or victim of night .
I use Victim of Night  a lot in other black decks; I will fine tune the removal spells during play testing.
I would also consider running peel from reality or unsummon , forcing them to unsummon one of their creatures can really hurt sometimes plus taking a geralf's messenger back to your hand after it died once would really hurt the enemy.
Peel from Reality  seems to work well with Geralf's Messenge  , but not so well with some of the other creatures, so I'm not sure I'll have enough cards on the board that I'll want to return to my hand. I will look at Unsummon  , however. It does seem I'm not making enough use of blue.
as mentioned earlier, a terminus from the enemy can be the bane of this deck, which is why I would suggest adding a few negate s to the sideboard, I would also suggest adding some essence scatter to take out some of those problematic knight of glory , thragtusk and rhox faithmender s.
I haven't even thought about the sideboard yet, but 3x or 4x Negate  and Essence Scatter  sound like a great start, plus maybe Knight of Infamy  .
probably the last thing I would suggest is getting another sac outlet for this deck, being able to activate blood artist 's ability on will is what makes the deck hurt later in the game, I would suggest adding bloodthrone vampire , bloodflow connoisseur , Stitcher's Apprentice or demonic taskmaster
I like Stitcher's Apprentice : I wasn't even aware of that card. It adds a lot of flexibility and makes the Tragic Slip that much more powerful. In fact, it makes me want to look for more cards with the morbid keyword.
Thank you very much for the suggestions!
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 6:23AM
#6
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Zombies is THE aggro deck right now, just normally as a RB build. Cackler gives you a 3rd 2power 2drop and it really just adds a lot of pressure, which is what zombies do best. It doesn't bring your crawler back but that's okay.
As for bump in the night it isn't flashed back too often in the builds that use it, even when they do have access to the R. It's pretty much just 3 to the face most the time, which is never bad for an aggro deck.
The midrangey idea is a little more difficult to pull off mostly because other midrange decks will just go over you and if you can't hit the army of the damned you rarely snag the win. But for more casual play it's perfectly fine.
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 9:05AM
#7
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It's quite possible that    Zombies will be viable after Gatecrash. Of course, you'll have $300 in the mana base, but hey, in for a penny. . . The five-drop dude seems like a stretch for a Zombie deck and Zombies often run Diregraf Captain .
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 9:08AM
#8
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 11:25AM
#9
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6 months ago ::
Jan 06, 2013 - 11:34AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jun 14, 2006
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