Hello Everyone!

Click here to jump to this week's discussion.

Thank you so very much for your wonderful suggestions! For this week's update, I carefully went through all of the comments posted under this topic as of Jan. 27, 2012.

I am very pleased with the advice given to me so far, offered early on in the development of this deck. To promote fast, comprehensible reading, this week I have changed the update log "format" from the previous block paragraph structure into a shorter, concise bullet list. Without further ado, I would like to explain the changes incorporated into the creation of the fourth revision.

- I have tweaked the distribution of removal spells in the main deck. Now, the arsenal comprises of: three (3) Go for the Throat for Common Usage, one (1) Doom Blade in case of exception (artifact creature), one (1) Geth's Verdict in case of exception (creature with shroud or hexproof), and one (1) Nameless Inversion to weed out low-cost chump blockers, tokens, land creatures, and EOT creatures (like Ball Lightning or Spark Elemental).

- I have replaced the two Noxious Ghouls with cheaper aggro zombies, namely the three-drop Geralf's Messenger. For more on that see this week's Card of the Week article.

- In lieu of Do or Die, I have added two sideboard copies of Hymn to Tourach in an attempt to utilize the "Instrument of Discard" so frequently toted in black decks, if only during emergency situations.

Thank you so very much for the helpful suggestions that were submitted this week in the comment section. I especially appreciate Shrodinger's well-thought recommendations, explaining every single one of his choices in detail. To be honest, I have considered many, many possible substitutions for the two Noxious Ghouls taking up space on the mainboard, including Skinrender, Unbreathing Horde, Endless Ranks for the Dead, Phylactery Lich, and even Phyrexian Obliterator. Some of the cards I considered (including Skinrender, Unbreathing Horder, Endless Ranks of the Dead, and Phylactery Lich) were at one point listed under the Maybeboard. However, it wasn't until I discovered Geralf's Messenger that I decided this was the creature I had to include; this was the ultimate three-drop aggro machine. The choice not only economizes the deck's mana curve, but provides for an excellent way to whack at my opponents as well. At one point or another, Skinrender, Call to the Grave, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Life's Finale, Army of the Damned, and Ghoulcaller's Chant were all considered for the deck list (Call to the Grave even made it to the deck's first revision!), but were eventually discarded to streamline the focus of the mainboard's strategy. That is not to say that they are not excellent suggestions; in fact, I have included many of the aforementioned considerations under the deck's hidden Acquireboard section. Lastly, a quick response to sponge's thoughtful suggestion, I have indeed considered replacing Soulless One with Unbreathing Horde. However, I have decided that since the former is capable of growing in strength as the match progresses (as more zombies are entering the battlefield/graveyard), and since Soulless One is currently ranked higher by MTG Gatherer's community rating system (very superficial reason, I know), I will leave the four-drop Zombie in the deck's fourth revision. Thank you all so much for your wonderful suggestions.

Following this post are my comments for this week's Card of the Week. Again, thanks for all of the thoughtful comments! I will update this deck periodically (weekly, every Friday) until I feel that it has reached its maximum potential. As of now, however, I can see plenty of potential weaknesses. As I am still relatively new to Magic the Gathering, I would very much appreciate any further suggestions and/or constructive criticism that you may have to offer.

One of the most powerful zombies of the upcoming Dark Ascension set, this card was recently brought to my attention while researching various Standard and Modern Zombie decks hovering around TappedOut.

Thank you so very much for all of the wonderful suggestions recommending useful Zombie three-drops! After carefully reading every one of the comments posted since last week's update, I concluded that the best replacement for (the more expensive) Noxious Ghoul would be a cheap swinging, aggressive creature.

Thus, with the update this week comes my interpretation of an incredible aggro-based three-drop. My choice of this week is Geralf's Messenger.

With its ability to instantly damage an opponent's life upon resolve, two copies of this dangerous creature replaces Noxious Ghoul. Its only "drawback", coming into play tapped, hardly qualifies as one at all, since you'll likely be using this monster to continuously assault your opponent instead of leaving it untapped for chump blocking purposes.

Geralf's Messenger Undying ability allows it to come back after death in an even stronger form. In addition to taking out two more life instantaneously upon reappearing, this creature arrives on scene for the second time as a 4/3. So don't be afraid to recklessly fling it at your enemy!

To conclude briefly, the numerous decks on TappedOut recommending Geralf's Messenger have been dead on. As a new introduction to the deck, let's give this three-drop a warm welcome!