Planeswalker (2)
Creature (29)
Sideboard
Instant (4)
Sorcery (4)
This is my Junk (white, green, black) Zombie deck for Standard and Friday Night Magic. Below is a guide on how to play this deck and explanations of each card.
Current Tournament Records:
Games Won / Lost / Drawn: 235 / 136 / 2
Rounds Won / Lost / Drawn: 105 / 51 / 2
So why play Junk Zombies?
Zombies is one of the fastest decks in the format. What makes Zombies stand out is the ability to control the board through strong offense. It's entirely possible to have a 7/6 trampling, regenerating Lotleth Troll on turn three. The combination of cost-efficient creatures and removal makes this a very scary deck.
The Red/Black Zombie variant is much faster. However, it lacks the consistency of G/B or the strong midgame and the same can be said for RDW. Various types of Human decks do have a stronger midgame over G/B, but a much weaker early game. For example, compare our one and two drops, such as Gravecrawler and Knight of Infamy to Avacyn's Pilgrim or Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
This variant of zombies is nicely between a fast aggro deck and midrange.
The Cards
Let's take a look at the various choices of cards.
Mainboard
Diregraf Ghoul, Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger
These guys are the core of any zombie deck in standard. Diregraf Ghoul and Gravecrawler are two very scary one-drops, since both have a power of two. Geralf's Messenger controls the board once he hits. The life loss is the equivalent of an unblockable, haste 2/2 creature.
Geralf's Messenger also has some very nice interactions with Orzhov Charm and Ulvenwald Tracker.
Our bread and butter. There's a lot of combat tricks with this guy. Not to mention, his ability to regenerate and quickly grow out of nowhere means our opponents are hesitant to attack into an untapped troll. This forces them to be defensive. Do not hesitate to discard creatures and feed your troll. Just be wary of Selesnya Charm.
Because of Lotleth Troll, ALWAYS play Diregraf Ghoul before you play Gravecrawler. You want to have yourself set up to discard Gravecrawler and play him later, rather than having Diregraf Ghoul sit in your hand as you kick yourself for not realizing there's a high probability of drawing into a troll.
This guy is awesome. If you don't have a playset already, go buy four. I don't care if you don't play green or black, but he's going to go up in price and become a staple in multiple formats. Don't be surprised if he's going for $30+ in a few years after he cycles out of standard.
Deathrite Shaman is one of the reasons we play green. He completely shuts down Unburial Rites, Gravecrawler, undying triggers, and holds off RDW in game one before you can sideboard. If you're on a budget and can't afford Woodland Cemetery or Overgrown Tomb, he works great with Evolving Wilds.
The only downside is that he's not a zombie and therefore does not work with Gravecrawler. This is a small price to pay for his utility.
Note: You should play any of your other creatures first before playing Deathrite Shaman. Of course, if he's your only one drop, then play him. He is just stronger mid/late game than on turn one. If you do play him on turn one, don't forget to attack!
Knight of Infamy, Blood Scrivener
This is a metagame call. If your area is running a lot of white (which most places are), you'll want at least two Knight of Infamy in your mainboard. He works well in making a 3/3 Diregraf Ghoul on turn two. He's also one of the few effective blockers in this deck with his protection from white and exalted (letting you attack and still puts on the damage with another critter).
If your area doesn't have very many decks with white, then we go with Blood Scrivener to help with our horrible topdecking. He's not that great early on, but once we empty our hand, he gives us a free Sign in Blood every turn.
It's a 3/3 with haste for three mana. And scavenge. And he's a zombie. What's not to like?
While he's not a zombie, Varolz, the Scar-Striped gets stuff done. He has amazing synergy with Gravecrawler and Lotleth Troll while reducing the scavenge cost of Dreg Mangler. The only downside is that he's legendary, so we can only use three at maximum.
Lands
At least two Cavern of Souls is required to help us play around counters. While less people are playing permission, these are still a necessity for when you do play against counters. Depending on your meta, you may want to increase the number of Cavern of Souls to three or four. However, it only provides colorless mana for non-zombie spells. This can become problematic when you need to cast Abrupt Decay or Orzhov Charm.
Other than that, we include four Woodland Cemetery, four Overgrown Tomb, four Godless Shrine, four Isolated Chapel, and then fill the rest out with swamps. I know lands can be expensive for those of you playing on a budget, but I can't stress how important it is you have at least eight green/black duals with the appropriate number of white/black dual lands to support our splash cards. Guildgates (either Golgari Guildgate, Orzhov Guildgate, or even Selesnya Guildgate) are used when you’ve maxed out the number of dual lands and need a more consistent mana base.
Do not go below 21 lands as you will miss land drops. It's better to draw excess land late game than have to mulligan because you get stuck with one and two land hands. I currently run 23 to 24 because of how much solid color mana costs are in my deck.
Our main removal spells. Abrupt Decay takes care of a plethora of dangerous creatures (such as Fiend Hunter) in addition to enchantments, such as Detention Sphere. The number of each of these will depend on your meta. Sometimes one Abrupt Decay is plenty and you have one or two on sideboard. Orzhov Charm is mostly used for its removal capabilities. It kills Boros Reckoner, Restoration Angel, and Huntmaster of the Fells . It also provides utility with its other abilities. You can bounce Geralf's Messenger or save one of your Gravecrawlers from Pillar of Flame. Or, you can create a blocker from Deathrite Shaman at instant speed.
That being said, either of these cards can be swapped out for Victim of Night, Appetite for Brains, Sign in Blood, Ultimate Price, or additional creatures.
Note: while Tragic Slip is a fantastic card, G/B Zombies doesn't have the sack outlets, such as Falkenrath Aristocrat, to really take advantage of the morbid. You will often have to wait until AFTER combat before you can cast it, usually resulting in two-for-one trades with your opponent. Tragic Slip is good in a meta with lots of opponents are playing R/B Zombies, but otherwise is much better on paper than in G/B.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Lingering Souls
There's a few reasons we need Sorin, Lord of Innistrad in our G/B/W Zombie deck. For one, our deck is horrible at blocking in a format dominated by aggro decks. Our creatures either can't block, come into play tapped, or are small and can't survive combat. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad pumps out vampire tokens to chump block and gain life, giving us that slight edge needed to race our opponents.
When we're ahead on the creature department, we can go ahead and use his second ability to make an emblem. All of a sudden, our entire deck is filled with 2-power or more creatures for the rest of the game! Now, our Gravecrawlers can swing into a Thragtusk and have a very advantageous trade.
Lastly, he has the ability to destroy other planeswalkers. This is important because our creatures can't stop attacking the player to take care of some pesky planeswalkers. They often slow us down, especially Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Architect of Thought.
More importantly, however, is Sorin, Lord of Innistrad's synergy with Lingering Souls. By making an emblem, then casting Lingering Souls twice, it puts Midrange in a really bad position to race our deck. We can one-for-one Thragtusk and two-for-one almost every other creature in their deck once we have an emblem out.
These two cards are why we play white over red in our deck.
The Sideboard / Maybeboard
This guy just has awesome interactions with Lotleth Troll, Geralf's Messenger, Gravecrawler, and Vampire Nighthawk. He’s reusable removal, making him a good addition to the deck over something like Tragic Slip. He can also kill Knight of Glory, which is resilient to most of our removal, since he has protection from black.
Usually I have two Ulvenwald Tracker in my main, or at least in the sideboard. He's great against other aggro decks, such as Naya Blitz. If we do side him in, we take out Diregraf Ghoul.
Three to four of this guy is used over Geralf's Messenger against any deck that makes us worry about racing, such as Red Deck Wins. He's an effective blocker and main target for scavenging other creatures onto. He also works against midrange decks using Obzedat, Ghost Council, Restoration Angel, or anything with more than three toughness.
We take out Abrupt Decays and toss these in against Control or Midrange and play them once they have three mana. It gets rid of Supreme Verdict, Rhox Faithmender, Thragtusk, or anything that can keep them in the game.
Sever the Bloodline, Oblivion Ring
Both are catch-alls for nuking pesky creatures with regeneration, first strike, or that are indestructible (see: Lotleth Troll, Boros Reckoner, Falkenrath Aristocrat). Once we see decks that rely on these types of creatures, we remove Lingering Souls (if they're an aggro deck) or Abrupt Decay or Orzhov Charm.
Oblivion Ring also answers planeswalkers, so we side it in against Superfriends.
Another reason to play white over red in zombies. We side this card in against any deck that plays creatures. It brings Flinthoof Boar, Ash Zealot, Hellrider, Thundermaw Hellkite, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Lightning Mauler, and a host of other creatures to a screeching halt. If it goes to game three, they WILL side in answers to Blind Obedience, which is good for us because it means they're wasting tempo/removal trying to deal with a card that shuts down half their deck.
The extort also helps us gain life to keep us afloat and out of kill range of cards like Searing Spear or Boros Charm. When siding in Blind Obedience, take out Blood Scrivener/Knight of Infamy.
This is a much stronger card against control than Appetite for Brains. It gets rid of planeswalkers, removal, or even Farseek. This is a meta call though. It doesn't do much against midrange, and control isn't too popular right now because of Unburial Rites.
More unconditional removal. It prevents enemy lotleth trolls from regenerating, and kills anything that isn't indestructible. My local metagame isn't giving me enough reason to run them quite yet, but I have a sneaking suspension this will be a four-of maindeck in the near future.
This card is absolutely amazing against control and sometimes midrange. Getting a 7/6 Lotleth Troll or 5/5 Varolz, the Scar-Striped isn't that difficult mid to late game. You'll get several activations off of this in the right matchup, more than Underworld Connections. Combined with Ulvenwald Tracker, you should have no problem getting the extra draw every turn.
Conclusion
I hope this description was helpful to anyone looking to build this deck. It's a lot of fun and one of the most underrated decks in the format. If you have any questions or suggestions, leave them in the comments below!
Suggestions
Updates Add
Comments
Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!
Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax
Please login to comment
| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 11 years |
| Last updated | 4 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 2 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 5 Rares 11 - 7 Uncommons 3 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.11 |
| Tokens | Emblem Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Vampire 1/1 B w/ Lifelink |
| Folders | Decks, Favorites, Favorites, interesting decks, zombie, Deck Ideas I want to try and r, Cool Decks, Cool standard decks, deck ideas, History and Reference Decks |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |