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legendofz

Modern Amass Budget RG (Gruul) Trample Zombie

Balaam__

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Creature (21)

Enchantment (4)

Land (20)

Instant (15)

Sideboard

Instant (8)

Sorcery (4)

Inspired by legendofa’s Learn the Game Wrong! series of decks teaching new players how (not) to play traditional Magic. They’re all brilliant, check them out starting with my personal favorite, Learn the game wrong! Blue edition.

Zombies in all its various iterations has been a staple archetype since the game’s inception. Initially, zombies started out primarily associated with , believe it or not! But that era has long since passed, and now the landscape is dominated by mono zombies across multiple formats. To differentiate this build from the pack I opted to include another color, .

As is typical of this slice of the color pie, Mono Zombies proceeds at a slow, methodical pace, but by splashing we gain access to all the direct damage and countermagic goodness inherent in that color.

The speed and lifegain encountered in matchups can be tough to deal with, and stompy can be difficult to manage once it gets up and running, but this deck stands on its own two feet and represents the best of what has to offer.

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Just your typical mana sources for a run of the mill zombie deck.

Loads of Mountains provide to fuel our undead hordes, supplemented by Fetchlands and Shocklands for the prerequisite mana generic zombie builds always require.

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There’s a reason meta decks boil down to a small number of slight variations on the same general build; it’s because it’s been honed and perfected over time and distilled down to the very best picks.

No big surprises here; just the same bog standard undead populating every zombie build for the past however many years. It’ll be quite some time I suspect before Wizards prints an off color zombie that is good enough to maindeck.

Until then, here are the usual culprits.

•Grim Initiate is a fantastic 1 drop, one that fares well in 1v1 combat vs an equally powerful creature. He even gives a gift upon death.

•Dreadhorde Arcanist is unusual for a zombie in that he interacts with our graveyard. Use him to recast specific spells to gain an advantage.

•Ahn-Crop Invader helps load up our graveyard in preparation to drop our game closer. I am aware that this much interaction with the graveyard is quite a departure from the average zombie build, but there is synergy at work here that cannot be overlooked.

•Dreadhorde Twins bestow Trample on our zombie tokens, of which we will likely have more than a few of as we work to populate our graveyard with bodies to keep our tree corpse fed and happy. The fact the zombie tokens are strangely offcolor is odd, but don’t let that sway you. This is just your average zombies deck, nothing crazy.

•Frontline Devastator has Afflict which is a nice bonus, and can be buffed with any extra mana lying around.

•Ghoultree functions as a finisher and can be hurried into play rather quickly, depending on how aggressive we are with combat. isn’t exactly known for hasty aggression, but sometimes you need to work outside the confines of established norms for a desired effect.

is a color well known for abrupt, targeted removal and countermagic and those tendencies favor traditional zombies builds (when you aren’t running Domain-Zombies or Scapeshift Zombies, that is).

•Lignify functions as direct damage (as it affects a creature directly).

•Beast Within reminds us excels at removal, permitting us to reinvent something scary as something not quite so bad.

•Zombie decks play pretty much the same as mono blue control, so a playset of Avoid Fate and Veil of Summer are a must for warding off ills.

•Use Tamiyo's Safekeeping to preserve a buffed up attacker like Ahn-Crop Invader in the early game, or to ensure our tanky Ghoultree survives until we’re ready to close out the game.

Reminder: Provided these spells remain in our graveyard after their initial casting, most of them can be recycled with Dreadhorde Arcanist for added value.

•Drop traditional mono zombies on curve, exactly as Richard Garfield first envisioned back in the 90’s.

•Zap threats with Lignify or cover your butt with that old standby, Avoid Fate.

•With enough creatures in the graveyard, push out a discounted Ghoultree for big damage, protecting it with Tamiyo's Safekeeping if necessary.

I left some slots open to tune for personal use among your own playgroups; but remember, this deck fares best when sticking to tried and true archetypes and card selections. No zany offcolor spells!

•Dead / Gone shows why is king of bounce spells. Use it to upset the tempo of your opponent.

•Bramblecrush embodies ’s ‘destroy everything’ philosophy.

•Guttural Response highlights each of our colors’ propensity toward countermagic.

”I wrote for him the many things of my law, But they were regarded as something strange.”

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Casual

91% Competitive

Revision 1 See all

(4 months ago)

+4 Avoid Fate main
+3 Beast Within main
+4 Bramblecrush side
+4 Cragcrown Pathway main
+4 Dead / Gone side
-1 Dreadhorde Twins main
+2 Forest main
-1 Frontline Devastator main
-1 Ghoultree main
+4 Guttural Response side
-4 Lightning Bolt main
+4 Lignify main
+6 Mountain main
-4 Shock main
+4 Stomping Ground main
+4 Veil of Summer main
+4 Wooded Foothills main