blue/black zombies
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 29, 2016, 2:39 a.m. by abenz419
I'm testing out a 
/
zombie emerge deck. It's essentially a straight forward zombie deck that takes advantage of their natural recursion so you can use Elder Deep-Fiend to either tap down your opponents lands to "timewalk" them, or tap their creatures to clear the way for the zombie hoard. Sanctum of Ugin allows you to potentially chain multiples together as well. I like the deck, I keep toying with some of the numbers though as I'm figuring out what works and what doesn't so I don't have a list to share on here. However, turn 2 is a real issue. Right now, ideally, I'm discarding Prized Amalgam or Haunted Dead to a Cryptbreaker to make a token because there aren't really any good 2 drop zombies with the exception of Relentless Dead. But even he plays more like a 3 drop because running him out on turn 2 opens him up to basically every removal spell in the format. Plus, those are currently the only 1 and 2 drops in the deck so not having a Cryptbreaker in my opening hand means I either do nothing till turn 3 or run out a Relentless Dead and hope it doesn't get removed before I can untap to protect it. Sometimes I have removal in hand and it's more justifiable to just pass the turn in that situation, but without something to remove again I just end up doing nothing until turn 3. It's not a pure aggro deck like a "red deck wins" style, but obviously zombies wants to stay aggressive and not have to play catch up so doing nothing for that long feels like I'm starting off the game from behind.
Can any of you think of any 2 drops that may be useful. Obviously fitting in with the zombie synergy would be best because of cards like Diregraf Colossus and Dark Salvation, but I'm definitely open to other options.
You could also play Necromancer's Stockpile.
Compared to Call the Bloodline it has the big (depending on the rest of your deck tbh) downside that it can only discard creatures, however it has two advantages: 1. It creatures Zombies and 2. It let's you draw a card.
July 29, 2016 4:43 a.m.
@NuMetal: Necromancer's Stockpile is great... But not in Standard :P
July 29, 2016 5:37 a.m.
@Guftders: Damn, I should have checked. For some reason I was convinced it came out in Eldritch Moon...
July 29, 2016 6:28 a.m.
Yeah maybe Call the Bloodline could work and you could combine that with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet?
July 29, 2016 10:04 a.m.
Wailing Ghoul mills you, so it can pump the Diregraf. Also, it's 3 points of toughness means it has the chance to block without dying. Shambling Ghoul it a bit slow, but can dish out a bit more damage than the Wailing Ghoul. Walking Corpse is a vanilla 2/2, but if you're just looking for something to do on turn 2, it should be fine. Seagraf Skaab is the blue Wailing Ghoul minus its mill ability. Screeching Skaab also mills, but is a 2/1, so it will die pretty easily. Rancid Rats is a 1/1 with deathtouch and skulk, so while it is not powerful, it can sneak damage in or be used as removal for an opponent's creature.
If you're running some reanimation effect outside of Relentless Dead (Ever After,Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip, Rise from the Grave, Necromantic Summons, Gisa and Geralf), I would go with the Wailing Ghoul for its ability to stock up the graveyard.
July 29, 2016 10:06 a.m.
I forgot about Wailing Ghoul that is a very good choice.
July 29, 2016 10:11 a.m.
I have used two cards in my partial Zombie build that might help.
One is Sanitarium Skeleton. I don't know why it's not a Zombie, because it LOOKS like a Zombie and bloody PLAYS like a Zombie.
It's a great first turn play and can recur itself over and over. How annoying does that get for Control decks? VERY annoying.
The other card is the humble Rancid Rats. It looks harmless enough, but guess what happens when you pair it with Relentless Dead? Block a Creature and kill it, Rancid Rats go to the Graveyard.
Next turn, block with Relentless Dead and it dies. You pay 
, put your Relentless Dead back in your hand, and your Rancid Rats BACK ON THE FREAKING FIELD. It lives to kill another day. For only three mana!? Crazy talk.
This combo really provides some problems for those players who like to attack into a Deathtouch Creature to remove it. It ain't going anywhere.
July 29, 2016 10:12 a.m. Edited.
That right there is kind of the problem I was talking about. Those are literally the best options for zombies at a 2 drop. I think Wailing Ghoul and Rancid Rats are probably the better of the options.
Ironically, even though there are a few different zombies that self-mill, there are very few zombies with natural recursion built in that are constructed playable. Even Haunted Dead, which I'm playing, isn't great but the fact it brings along a flying body and can be activated at instant speed has made it worth considering it also has a CMC of 4 which is relevant with emerge. However, like I said, there are few zombies that naturally recur themselves from the graveyard so the price of discarding 2 cards can be steep. You have Relentless Dead, Prized Amalgam, Risen Executioner as the main constructed playable cards with natural recursion. Even among them, Relentless Dead requires it to be on the battlefield first and Prized Amalgam requires something else recurable. After that your left with things like Haunted Dead, Advanced Stitchwing, etc. in the creature department or your using expensive spells like Rise from the Grave.
It's because of this that I've been slowly getting away from any self-mill (i.e. slowly cutting out Gisa and Geralf). The ability to cast a creature from my graveyard is actually a huge plus and helps the game plan a lot making it easier to get back a Diregraf Colossus (which has been an allstar in testing) and it's an easy trigger for Prized Amalgam, but being legendary and a 4 drop limits the numbers you can reliably run and not have them bog down your hand. Because of it's ability though it's also a huge magnet for any removal my opponent has which typically meant I paid 4 mana to mill myself 4 cards, and like I just explained most of the creatures with natural recursion require some sort of set up or just aren't constructed playable. So you can kind of understand the conundrum I'm having with this, it's not just I need more 2 drops so I have something to do on turn 2 more often. It's I need more things to do on turn 2 that actually advance the game so I'm not falling behind taking turn 2 off as my opponent advances their board.
July 29, 2016 10:55 a.m.
Ah well, TPTB never give us exactly what we want. That would be too easy.
I'd love a 2 drop Instant burn spell that could hit either a Creature or Player for 3, but no.
Rather than Rise from the Grave, Cemetery Recruitment is around.
Just mentioning it because I didn't see it in your post.
July 29, 2016 11:45 a.m.
Rise from the Grave triggers Prized Amalgam, though the extra card from Cemetery Recruitment is a nice bonus.
July 29, 2016 12:37 p.m.
LOL, at least there is a 2 drop sorcery speed burn spell, Incendiary Flow, in standard that hits creature or player for 3.... and if it hits a creature and it dies, exile it instead. So while it's not exactly what you ask for it's a relatively logical replacement. In my case, there are enough 2 drop zombies, they're just designed more so for limited and interact better with the other higher cost zombies with decent abilities that are overpriced for constructed play.
I actually think Cemetery Recruitment is a solid card choice and tested it out for a while. As the deck's numbers have evolved and changed I removed it in favor of keeping the creature count high enough to stay productive and still be able to interact and answer need-be threats. It's something I keep in the sideboard while testing though. I like to bring it in against decks that are really grindy and can deal with what I play and a couple zombies coming back and still not be short on removal, lol. With my creatures being zombies it's basically 2 mana to draw 2 cards and I get to hand pick one of them from the creatures in my graveyard, it's only downside being that it's a sorcery. Since we've been discussing how there aren't enough good cheap zombies, that means 5 mana is when Cemetery Recruitment is most reliable/useful because I'll be able to cast that plus something else (typically the creature I just returned).
However, it doesn't really help with the mainboard situation I'm having since it's rarely going to have a target on turn 2. It does mean I can pitch something less desirable to a Cryptbreaker (like Relentless Dead or Diregraf Colossus) because I can always return it, draw a card, and play it later on turn 5. But that means I need other things in hand to do on turn 3 and 4 or else I'm still falling behind which you can't really afford to do against all the spirit, coco, and vampire decks I've seen in testing. I feel like I'm close to what I want and the deck just needs small tweaks to improve consistency so I'll try and get a deck list on here so I can link it and you can at least get an idea of what the decks really looks like and where my numbers are at.
July 29, 2016 12:45 p.m.
I started with a Mono-Black Zombie/Recursion deck, couldn't get it to be strong enough, thenchanged it into a 
Dragon deck, keeping the Recursion for the early game.
Then I could drop Cemetery Recruitment for Kolaghan's Command.
It's here, if you're interested: Recycled Dragons [EMN]
July 29, 2016 1:03 p.m.
I just got the current iteration of my deck list on here. Check it out and you can see where it's currently at. There is a part of the deck that is pretty significant that we haven't really discussed because it wasn't 100% relevant to what I was looking for in this topic. You'll see what I mean when you see the list. Here it is.
Zombies are emerging!
Standard
1 VIEW
It took some live play testing against other actual decks to realize that the deck isn't quite as straight forward as it looks. You think, zombies... ok, just run them out there aggro style and bring them back when they die is all you gotta do. In live situations thought, there are actually a lot of little decisions to make that you don't even realize until you screw them up a couple of times, part of which I'm sure is because of the Spirit, Human, Coco meta right now. Also, for some reason it's very easy to forget that Cryptbreaker can draw you cards as well, lol.
CattCaller says... #2
A two drop that could be useful for you, and something that I've been testing, Call the Bloodline.
Cast it turn 2, you have you're discard outlet for the remainder of the game for Prized Amalgam, unless they counter or remove it, which they are most likely going to do for a majority of your turn 2 plays anyway.
Not a lot of people want to use up their removal on a 2 mana enchantment, it also gives you a 1/1 lifelink vampire which can be relevant when it comes to shoring up blocks or helping out on being aggressive.
Also gives you creatures which might be relevant depending on your build. They're not zombies, but then again, you have a Cryptbreaker that gives you a 2/2 zombie, but he's more prone to removal than the bloodline is.
Some food for thought. I've been very happy with the way the bloodline has worked out for me so far, it's great for making chump blockers that also cushion your life total with their lifelink.
July 29, 2016 2:47 a.m.