Lifebane Zombie

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Lifebane Zombie

Creature — Zombie Warrior

Intimidate (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)

When Lifebane Zombie enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a green or white creature card from it and exile that card.

to_regatha_and_beyond on Warrior Midrange

1 year ago

Good deck! I made a similar archetype a while back, though I didn't have the lifegain components as much.

You might want to play around with Glory-Bound Initiate, it has some really strong synergy with Herald of Dromoka. You're essentially attacking with a 4/4 lifelink every single turn, possibly even a 5/4, which is super powerful, even moreso if you can get double strike on it.

Mardu Strike Leader could be pretty helpful, though I concede it's a little bit slow for the gameplan you're using.

I would get rid of the Dutiful Attendants, you're already able to use Revival / Revenge to bring those creatures back at instant speed without having to wait for the Attendant to die, which is way more powerful.

Lastly, when you're working on building your sideboard, I would consider:

  • Despark, a good and cheap removal card for certain situations
  • Go Blank, a good tool against graveyard decks
  • Lifebane Zombie, a good tool against green and white that also comes on a warrior
  • Duress, a good way to fight combo decks

Good build so far, I'm excited to see where you take it!

griffstick on Commanders worth brewing (kamigawa neon …

2 years ago

I think tokens are the way to go. Trading tokens for big stuff. Think the Myriad mechanic. Blade of Selves, Banshee of the Dread Choir, and Broodbirth Viper. Other cards like Bitterblossom, and Thopter Spy Network, trad these cards in for the biggest nastiest creatures.

These are good for starters to choose from for cheating in value.

Also dimir has all the evasion. Cards like Dauthi Voidwalker, Lifebane Zombie, and Shadowmage Infiltrator to cards like Levitation, plus many more.

fmastrome2008 on The Zombie Deck

3 years ago

I love me some B/W zombies.

Some recommendations:

  1. 4 Damping Sphere is too much and you never want multiple copies. I'd trim that to 3.
  2. They're expensive, but useful. Cavern of Souls. If you have non-zombie sideboard cards, I'd keep it to 3 tops. 2 usually does the trick.
  3. Tidehollow Sculler does work on opponent's hands. Relentless Dead is more of a midrange card with a lot of mana investment. I almost never want multiples of Relentless. From my experience, I'd flip the numbers... 4 Sculler and 3 Dead.
  4. Carrion Feeder has great synergy with Gravecrawler, making him a beat stick. Sac, recast, repeat. He also generates tokens with Diregraf Colossus. Also, sac Geralf's Messenger for extra non-combat damage in a board stall.
  5. If you like zombie sideboard cards: Lifebane Zombie can help tear apart opposing hands, Withered Wretch is extra graveyard hate.
  6. Your curve is a tad high for a zombie build.

marcandr on Mono Black Devotion (Pioneer)

4 years ago

Nice deck but I think that Erebos, God of the Dead and Deathrite Shaman are not as good as you think and you could add Lifebane Zombie for better information

zAzen7977 on AETHER HORDE - Vial Zombie Tribal [Primer - Ret.]

5 years ago

TKDbeast, thank you for your detailed suggestions! I'm really happy that you like it :) I've tried to streamline it as much as possible.

The deck has several objectives - first, the goal is to generate as many zombies as possible in as little time as possible. Second, I've kept mana costs as low as possible so I can dump my entire hand within the first few turns and draw more cards with Blood Scrivener and Sign in Blood. Third, I want to get a combo going with Gravecrawler, Nantuko Husk, and other zombies if possible.

That's where the Aether Vials come in. They allow me to play additional zombies and dedicate my limited mana to reviving Gravecrawler if possible. The vials also help with Blood Moon, although I haven't gone up against a deck running it. That's something I need to consider more.

I chose Death Baron over other zombie lords because it gives my horde death touch for no additional activation cost, which makes every zombie an immediate threat. Other lords like Lord of the Undead require mana to activate their abilities and manipulate my graveyard. I don't want to bring zombies back from the graveyard except for Gravecrawler, because the more zombies in my graveyard, the bigger Diregraf Colossus becomes.

I've chosen to make the mana base as black-heavy as possible to improve the odds of starting with a black mana for Gravecrawler and Fatal Push. This is why I'm not running any Plains and I do not run Path to Exile - plus the latter helps the opponent too much, especially against ramp. Yes, Fatal Push definitely is more synergistic. Cavern of Souls helps against control and ensures that I can produce the white mana for zombies, so I'm not worried about additional white mana sources.

Regarding the sideboard, I chose Revoke Existence because it exiles the target and the deck is designed to spend mana on my turn and not my opponent's, so there is no incentive to run an instant like Disenchant. Withered Wretch is an old favorite of mine and it synergizes with Aether Vial. I want to target the opponent's graveyard and leave mine alone.

Other cards like Stillmoon Cavalier and Lifebane Zombie are too easy to kill at 1 toughness. Plus Stillmoon Cavalier consumes too much mana for this deck. I avoid expensive enchantments, planeswalkers, or non-zombies to maximize synergy. I have considered Plague Belcher due to its life-loss ability, but there is no room for it.

As far as blue cards go, I like Diregraf Captain, but I like white more as a splash color because of Tidehollow Sculler, which really helps against control, and I prefer having access to artifact and enchantment destruction.

Oops, I got a little carried away with this comment lol

TKDbeast on AETHER HORDE - Vial Zombie Tribal [Primer - Ret.]

5 years ago

This is a really cool deck! Zombies are really amazing, and it looks like you have a very competitive version of them.

What made you pick the Zombie lords over other lords, such as Cemetery Reaper, Lord of the Accursed, Lord of the Undead, and Risen Executioner? Or other Zombies-matter cards, like Skirk Ridge Exhumer, Plague Belcher, and Graveborn Muse.

If you're looking for crazy, kind of out-there ideas, it might be worth checking out Helldozer, Army of the Damned, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Grave Titan, Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Liliana, Death's Majesty, or Necromancer's Stockpile.

Lifebane Zombie, Stillmoon Cavalier, Shamble Back, Celestial Purge, and even Selfless Spirit could make good SB additions.

I'm fascinated by Withered Wretch and Revoke Existence. What brought you to choose them over more traditional choices?

I'm even more interested as to why you didn't choose Path to Exile, considering that nearly every other brew out there running white uses it. Lack of slots? Helps opponent too much? Does it not synergize like Fatal Push does?

Also, what are your thoughts on Blue for zombie decks? There are plenty of good cards

Finally, your mana base. I'd consider taking out Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Bloodstained Mire, and a couple Swamps for Marsh Flats, a Plains, and ~2 Mutavaults. The Plains allows for you to cast stuff with a Blood Moon on the field, or fix your mana after getting a creature Path to Exiled. Also, Concealed Courtyards might be worth checking out, since you're so low to the ground. They're rotating out of Standard soon as well.

Sorry for the wall of text full of stuff you probably thought of before! Thanks for posting your deck!

TheDuggernaught on Sacrifice Control

5 years ago

What did you splash green for? Splashing additional colors is supposed to do the opposite of that since you gain access to a greater card pool. The downside of adding colors is your mana is less consistent. But in only two colors, the mana base should be easy to fix.

There are lots of zombies that would fit in a zombie tribal sacrifice-centric shell with Gravecrawler, Cryptbreaker, Relentless Dead, and Lord of the Undead. Geralf's Messenger, Undead Warchief, Plague Belcher, Nantuko Husk, Fleshbag Marauder, Skinrender, Smuggler's Copter, Mutavault, Death Baron, Black Cat, Lifebane Zombie, Rotting Rats, Tattered Mummy, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Liliana's Reaver, Lord of the Accursed, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Call to the Grave, Liliana, Heretical Healer  Flip, Phyrexian Obliterator (not a zombie, and does not like to be sacrificed... but is just a really good card in mono black), and Diregraf Colossus would all be cards to consider. You of course would not be just limited to just zombies, but you would want a fair number of them if you wanted to abuse Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead.

Yes losing 1 life every turn might feel bad on paper, but the advantage they offer far exceeds the drawback. Your life is a resource. You only lose if you get to 0 (unless you have Phyrexian Unlife in play...). You can spend it to gain advantages. I am personally not a huge fan of Bitterblossom overall as I feel it is great in your opening hand, but a terrible card to draw any turn after turn 2. But that is simply because it does not do anything the turn it enters play, and is not a high impact play for most decks in those later turns when high impact plays are needed. But in a deck with Blood Artist effects, you dont actually lose 1 life a turn. With just 1 Blood Artist effect in play, you actually go even, and cost your opponent 1 life. Multiple effects in play begin to net you life and hurt your opponent more. Bitterblossom is just a stream of free bodies to generate advantage off of. Phyrexian Arena is similar. While it does not provide you bodies, it gives you a lot of "free" cards that are often bodies to sacrifice, or answers to your opponent's board. In most trading card games, if you have more cards than your opponent, you are probably in a good place to win the game just because there are so many more additional lines of play you can make since you have access to more resources.

So do you think you want to go with more of a zombie shell? Did any more of those cards spark your interest?

RingweMakil on

6 years ago

APPLE01DOJ - I don't know. Yesterday, I could have written you an essay; today, I'm facing down Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I know nothing until further testing. I have rushed to bring back two copies of Liliana of the Veil to the list since the unbans, a card I had eschewed very quickly in my original construction of the deck, since it hardly favours the player drawing an extra card a turn; however, with the advent of Bloodbraid Elf and Jace TMS, opponents are now likely to be able to keep up with the CA of Phyrexian Arena, and as such, Liliana of the Veil is likely to be good again (even if the format is being overrun by lots of Bloodghast, Hollow One, and Faithless Looting).

However, I can offer a breakdown of how the creatures function in non-blue matchups:

a. Pack Rat:

The deck started with the set of Pack Rat. But that all in-strategy was soon found to be suboptimal - drawing multiple Pack Rats was unnecessary and rarely served any purpose; not to mention the speed of Modern means turn 2 Pack Rat is often too slow. As sweepers, Detention Sphere, and Maelstrom Pulse became common, and as Hollow One and Death's Shadow and Tasigur, the Golden Fang started to surface, Pack Rat lost some of its luster.

The natural question, then, if Pack Rat is slow and vulnerable, why play him at all? The answer: Pack Rat is ten cards in one card. Backed up with any kind of disruption and removal, he takes over the board and ends the game, quickly and unstoppably. Two activations are more than enough to put away games, and trading spot removal for Rats is a losing proposition. So in this list, he's gone from being a windmill early slam, to a lategame engine that turns dead land drops and discard spells into an army of creatures. Barring Path to Exile before a single activation is possible, Liliana, the Last Hope can always buy him back - one copy of the Rat, therefore, is ample.

Fringe case: Pack Rat allows for arbitrarily large amounts of devotion for Gray Merchant of Asphodel in boardstalls/against Lantern.

b. Desecration Demon

I've covered the virtues of this card in a post above - essentially, he's my Tarmogoyf, but he flies. Whether he functions as The Abyss or as a 6/6 unblockable, he ends games very quickly, and many a game against combo/Tron has been put away by disruption into disruption into Demon. Of the quick clocks available to black, he's one of the better ones. I believe the added utility to be well worth the extra two mana over Goyf (besides, far be it from me to argue against 6 6 fliers for four - speaking of which, Demon is almost always a strictly superior option to Abyssal Persecutor, since Persecutor requiring us to find an additional kill spell for our own demon while Phyrexian Arena ticks down/the burn opponent is topdecking is not a good feeling).

c. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

I cannot praise this card enough in any mono black midrange list. He exiles creatures, he gains life consistently, and he makes every removal spell in our deck a 2 for 1. Traditionally, efficient mono black removal has been weak to graveyard recursion such as Flamewake Phoenix, Bloodghast, Geralf's Messenger, Kitchen Finks, and so forth, since all these cards must be killed more than once, at no additional expense to the opponent. Thoughtseize and Phyrexian Arena is a painful combination, especially in a world of Lightning Bolt and Kolaghan's Command. Kalitas solves all of these issues beautifully, and with any removal spell stalls the board incredibly easily and well.

d. Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief

Okay, have you seen the art? If Drana were real, she'd totally be my Valentine.

Jokes aside, one of the issues I was frequently running into with the deck was the amount of time it took me to close out once I had stabilised. While all of my creature threats (Gray Merchant of Asphodel is basically a Corrupt, he doesn't count) end the game quite quickly, I just wasn't drawing them fast enough - my opponent would get the opportunity to find that Cryptic Command or Sphinx's Revelation, or get those last 2 Boros Charm. There is a delicate balance between disruption and pressure that must be maintained in all decks that are not pure control, and maintaining that balance required me to find another fast game-ending threat.

I considered running the fourth Desecration Demon, but the idea of another big dumb beater was not appealing. I wanted a powerful threat with intrinsic value attached to its kit, that could help deal with the board even when I was not drawing multiple cards a turn, and hopefully one that was either resilient, or dodged some of the common removal in the format (Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Fatal Push - although I was open to playing four drops, since consistently having revolt to deal with a whole myriad of four drop threats is difficult). While black has plenty of value three drops, none of them offered this game ending power, or were too easily killed - Nightveil Specter and Lifebane Zombie, for instance, offer great card advantage in specific situations, but don't really pack the same punch as something like a Desecration Demon or Pack Rat army.

Finally, I settled on Drana. There are a lot of powerful five drops in black with value built in (Bloodgift Demon, for instance), but Drana does something none of the others do - she kills things, turn after turn, while being able to attack in the air for huge chunks. In a meta with Lingering Souls, Dark Confidant and Young Pyromancer, Drana seemed like an elegant solution, and so far, she has far exceeded my expectations. I do not think I should consider running multiples of her, since she is quite expensive and can be killed for no value the turn she comes into play, but untapping with her can feel a bit like untapping after a Supreme Verdict to an empty board.

e. Gray Merchant of Asphodel

No Geralf's Messenger, no Phyrexian Obliterator; only 2 Gray Merchant. I do not believe the all in devotion plan is likely to ever become Modern competitive, for sheer want of interactive capability and card advantage - if you are playing a midrange list in Modern, you need lots of early interaction in the form of hand disruption and removal, a proactive plan to end the game with efficient threats, and ways to pull ahead on cards after both players have been stripped down to limited resources. Gray Merchant is an extremely powerful card, as good as or better than Siege Rhino if it drains for upwards of five; it swings races, it ends games, it doesn't care about board stalls, and for all intents and purposes is basically a Modern legal Tendrils of Corruption (not my quote - blame LSV. Then again, that man also calls Disciple of Phenax Mind Twist, so take these statements with several grains of salt).

But despite his inherent power level, Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a very high variance card, and can sometimes be Highway Robber. Removal in Modern is aplenty, and curving out into enough devotion for Gray Merchant to be good is not a reliable plan. Even when the traditional mono black lists do manage to implement their plan - Geralf's Messenger into Gray Merchant, for instance, after having gotten two or more of their creatures removed, despite being an overall drain for seven to nine, just lacks the power/speed to push through opposing Tarmogoyf, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Grim Flayer, Death's Shadow - not to mention blue decks with their Cryptic Command and board sweepers and Sphinx's Revelation.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel in my list is therefore a card I'll often be discarding to the various discard outlets in the early game; using either the second copy or Liliana, the Last Hope's minus two to drain the opponent out if necessary later on. His being a zombie means he can be sacrificed to Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet either to simply grow the great vampire, or to be recursed with Liliana, as the situation calls.

I do not think running more than two of the card is likely to be feasible for Modern given the uncertainty of whether Merchant will be Corrupt or Highway Robber, and also given Merchant's relatively high mana cost; while it is possible that one is the correct number (and indeed, often in post board games, I do go down to one or no Merchant) at least in game 1, the proactive plan of discard, kill, kill, flier, smack, Merchant win is a very strong one. Having access to the second copy in case the first gets exiled and therefore cannot be returned with a future Liliana is also quite relevant against decks with Path to Exile and Pyxis of Pandemonium.

Despite Merchant's variance, I believe his power level and his ability to end the game on the spot through cards like Ensnaring Bridge and Witchbane Orb is not to be undervalued. In a deck with Phyrexian Arena and Ob Nixilis Reignited, every life point represents an extra card; while Highway Robber may be terrible, a five mana 2 4 that draws 4 cards on etb and drains the opponent for four is an absolutely phenomenal Magic card.

I would also like to point out the maindeck inclusion of incidental lifegain like Collective Brutality and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in conjunction with Gary makes most burn and aggro matchups extremely favourable.

While the creature suite has been carefully picked, and is constantly being chosen and rechosen and tweaked, the engine that enables this deck is Phyrexian Arena. Any interactive deck with reactive spells always runs the risk of its reactive measures not lining up well against the threats being deployed on the other side; Arena churning through the deck presents the critical mass of answers and threats to overwhelm the opponent, ensures land drops are made, and essentially in every regard dots the deck's i's and crosses its t's. With discard outlets like Collective Brutality and Liliana of the Veil to trade potentially dead cards for relevant spells early on, irksome draws with too many high cmc cards can still function smoothly and well.

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