Cryptbreaker

Creature — Zombie

{1}{B}, {T}, Discard a card: Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

Tap three untapped Zombies you control: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.

Tokens

• Zombie 2/2 B

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

Discussion (50)

DreadKhan on Power Word Death

1 month ago

Phyrexian Totem isn't the easiest card to use, but most deck don't use a lot of instant speed burn spells or Flash creatures so as long as you've killed off their blockers it's a solid attacker. It can also force the opponent to keep blockers home. In practice, since it swings for 5 it can be fine to lose a few things to it in my experience (provided you're already ahead that game), and in situations where you can't use it to attack it's still a mana source that helps you cast your Obliterators.

Haha, yeah, I don't know if there is anywhere local I can buy cards, it's such a niche interest here, but online stores can make it easy to find cheaper versions of cards, though you have to do online shopping (which I wasn't eager to do). I know of a few European and North American companies who sell tons of stuff, and I think TCGPlayer.com has sellers from all over, and you can set the site to restrict sellers to ones that will ship to your area (it used to be pretty buggy, I have less trouble with it now).

The nice thing about 1 drops is that they allow you to start pressuring the board early, and some of them have useful abilities like Deathtouch, which let them trade with your opponent's better creatures. If you're not sure that Deathtouch creatures are good enough (or evasive lifelink creatures, like Cutthroat and Vault Skirge), you can also try out cards like Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, or Ostracize, since you get to pick what they discard these can be incredibly useful for only B mana. The best of these is probably Thoughtseize, followed by Grief and Unmask, but Inquisition usually works well in a format where people hate using cards with MV higher than 3. Some more 1 drops you can consider are Cryptbreaker, which is a zombie tribal card that can make tokens and draw cards eventually, and Foulmire Knight, this has Adventure and can draw a card if you draw it later in the game, and a 1/1 Deathtouch can block fairly well.

Dark Ritual isn't quite an auto-include in every deck, but it's one of the best cards that's legal in Legacy, it's especially useful if you can use all 3 mana and can play it turn 1. In your deck as is, if you have Ritual you can play a Gatekeeper or Messenger turn 1, either of those is a fair bit of value that early, and Vampire Nighthawk is really good with Dark Ritual since you can start gaining life turn 2. It turns a Grave Titan in a turn 4 play, at which point it's a very strong creature when you're sneaking it out so early, and while it's unlikely, you can end up with 2 Rituals in your opening hand and play Titan turn 2. If you use 1 mana discard spells as well as Hymn to Tourach, you can cast both (for the record you should cast the Duress type effect before Hymn) turn 1 which should decide most games on turn 1. Dark Ritual is a key card in decks that are trying to be fairly competitive, so if you want to make your deck stronger it's a great card to consider.

With all your removal (and the discard you've got), have you thought about x1 or x2 Sangromancer? It's a 3/3 flyer for 4, which isn't terrible, but it can gain quite a bit of life while still threatening your opponent. I guess it'd be a creature version of your Incursion, it won't gain as much life but it'll deal more damage.

If you want something to accelerate your games there is Phyrexian Arena, which was printed into Standard again, so it's extremely cheap compared to a few years back. It's not the best draw effect out there, but drawing a card each upkeep is pretty good value if you're not playing the fastest games, this card is also good with Dark Ritual, but it will cost a bit of life over time.

TheVectornaut on Dead of Night

2 months ago

I think the biggest weakness of this deck is that it's hard to curve out early with so many of the slots occupied by cards at 3 CMC or higher. The ideal play pattern is probably to slam down Champion of the Perished on turn 1 and then follow up with a zombie or 2 every following turn until finishing with a bomb. This is difficult to do with Relentless Dead as your only 2 drop, and if you don't draw Champion, the lack of 1 drops makes things even worse. I'd recommend adding something like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Cryptbreaker, or Dread Wanderer to provide early pressure in the absence of a champion. Then, on 2, I personally like Undead Augur for the draw, especially paired with a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder. Other 2s could be Waste Not with a discard package, Graveyard Marshal as a lordless Cemetery Reaper, or you could dedicate the slots to cheaper removal. Invoke Despair is very flashy but seldom as efficient as a Thoughtseize or Fatal Push. On 3, you have enough cards, although I would still offer Geralf's Messenger, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed as other options to consider. To make room, the most obvious place to start is the bloated 6-slot, and as much as I love using him in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest EDH deck, Champion of Stray Souls is very slow in 60-card formats. Helm of the Host, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Killing Wave (without a drain package with Gray Merchant of Asphodel) also seem underwhelming to me. It should be noted that I'm using modern as the basis for my evaluation. If your local casual meta is slow enough, running more big guys isn't as big of a problem, although I'd still try for more 1s and 2s just to avoid games where you're bricked until turn 3.

wallisface on Budget Zombies help!

6 months ago

Some thoughts:

• your mana curve looks fairly steep, in that you’re running a TON of 3-mana cards. Having soo much weight on such a high mana cost will lead to the deck running very slowly/clumsily, as you’ll often only be able to do one thing per turn. I’d suggest removing some of these 3-drops and finding room for the 1-mana zombies: Carrion Feeder, Gravecrawler, Champion of the Perished, and maybe Shambling Ghast or Cryptbreaker. Those first 3 cards mentioned form the backbone of most zombie decks.

• your lands are going to make it really unwieldy trying to run 2 colours. Personally i’d suggest just going mono-black to give you better consistency.

• 20 lands is too few to be playing any high-mana cards - i’d suggest ditching all the cards costing 4-or-more mana, and limiting the number of 3-mana cards you run to 8.

• depending on how “budget” you budget is, you may like this list here - it’s $100 but very strong, and went 5-0 at a mtgo modern league, beating $1000 decks (further down the page he also lists a $50 version, which looks pretty decent for the cost also).

Elsterooo on Tyvar Priest Frenzy

6 months ago

I don't know where else to post this since it's not an update and I don't want to touch the deck description again.

Testing a version with Cryptbreaker, Rotten Reunion and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia and it's going very well. Expect updates soon.

Barbarian_Sun_Pope on Jimbo's Jumbo Zombos

7 months ago

I like the creature and removal package here. Have you considered Fiend Artisan or Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia as a one of? Though the Fiend isn't a zombie itself, it works well with zombie tokens to cheat out other zombies and progressively gets bigger as the game goes on. Jadar is pretty good at making expendable zombies to pair up with Death Baron, Cryptbreaker, and Champion of the Perished. Hope this helps.

nlidmaster on Mono-black zomboys

8 months ago

This deck looks really solid! One of my close friends has been running a blue and black zombie deck for a while. I think your deck would benefit a lot from Cryptbreaker. Can generate zombies and card draw. Foulmire Knight is also a solid option.

As much as I love Grave Titan, depending on how fast/competitive you want this deck to be, he is going to slow you down a lot. I think Diregraf Colossus could be a strong replacement.

Lord of the Accursed can also be a game winning zombie lord. Although Consume Spirit adds to the lifegain idea, you still need at least three mana to cast it, and even then its not doing much work for you. Murderous Rider can not only serve as removal, but is alternatively a zombie with lifelink.

Cards I'd take out to replace with the ones I receommended would be Consume Spirit, Grave Titan, Graf Harvest, Headless Rider, and Shambling Ghast.

These of course are personal suggestions, you do what makes you happy!

Blackgate on Innistrad: Corpse Cobblers (Dimir Decayed)

8 months ago

Hello zapyourtumor thank you for the suggestions. Replacing Shambling Ghast with Cryptbreaker could work. What would you suggest removing for your other two suggestions?

zapyourtumor on Innistrad: Corpse Cobblers (Dimir Decayed)

8 months ago

Tainted Adversary - decayed zombie generator

Dark Salvation - Cheap removal and/or zombie generation in one

Cryptbreaker - can tap a bunch of zombies with decayed for insane card advantage