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Return of the Living Dead (Infinite Combo Zombies)

Legacy Budget Combo Competitive Infinite Combo Mono-Black Zombie

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EDIT: -2 Culling the Weak -1 Blasting Station -Contamination +4 Chrome Mox

COMBO ZOMBIES!

  • Hi guys welcome to Return of the Living Dead mini primer! The strategy behind this deck is a mix of both aggro and combo with a splash of disruption. It even has a pseudo prison lock. It can flat out steal games due to the fact that there are so many synergies and infinite combos your opponent might not see coming. Gravecrawler is at the core of the deck and Entomb is essentially Gravecrawler numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8. Without the redundancy of Entomb to tutor him up this deck wouldn't be possible. Although the deck depends highly on him you can steal games without ever getting him into play at all.

  • Either lock your opponent down with Contamination, set up an infinite zombies combo, kill your opponent instantly with an infinite direct damage combo or swarm your opponent with zombies and smash their face with a giant Carrion Feeder or Grave Titan. Note, there are a couple infinite combos in this deck. Read this mini primer carefully to fully understand them all. You will miss them if you don't read closely and/or practice this deck.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

  • Your main strategy here is to get Gravecrawler into play with any number of the multiple sac outlets and continually recast him from the yard abusing the sac outlet's abilities. Sac outlets include Blasting Station, Carrion Feeder, Phyrexian Altar and/or Contamination. Combine these with either a Zulaport Cutthroat in play and/or a freshly Entombed Bridge from Below and you have a mess of synergies which builds up the perfect storm of direct damage, life gain and a horde a of zombie tokens.

WHY PLAY IT??

  • For starters, it's competitive but also a blast to play. The look on your opponent's face when you set up infinite win direct damage combo, lock them down with Contamination or generate infinite zombie tokens is priceless!!

  • It's affordable. This particular build of the deck, at the time of this writing, only costs around $400 and can actually be built for less by replacing cards such as Thoughtseize with Duress.

CARD EXPLANATIONS:

MEAT!!

  • Gravecrawler: This dude really needs no explanation. You can attack with him as he's a great one drop with a sizable body that recurs, but really 95% of the time you will repeatedly recur him in conjunction with the many sac outlets.

POTATOES

  • Entomb: This card is probably the most versatile card in the deck. It not only acts as Gravecrawler numbers 5,6,7 and 8 but in the event you already have a Gravecrawler you can tutor up Bridge from Below and combo out a shit ton of zombie tokens. It also completes your disruption suite being that it can tutor Cabal Therapy to the yard acting as discard/disruption spells numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10.

DISRUPTION!

  • Cabal Therapy, Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize: These guys, if you drew them in your opening hand are the first thing you will want to cast. They are here to make sure your opponent cannot stop you from setting up your combos. Use these to nab counter magic such as Force of Will, removal spells such as Swords to Plowshares and graveyard hate from your opponent's hand. Note they double (targeting yourself) as a means to pitch Bridge from Below in the event that you drew it.

LOCKDOWN!

  • Contamination: This card is absolutely bonkers! Finally a Legacy deck that can abuse it. Get it in play with either Gravecrawler or Cryptbreaker and you lock down 90% of the the decks being played in the current Legacy meta.

SAC OUTLETS

  • Carrion Feeder: This dude is great for obvious reasons. A). He's a sac outlet. B). He's a one drop. C). He becomes enormous. D). He's a zombie. The deck needs zombies in play in order to use Gravecrawler.

  • Blasting Station: This card is a blast to play with. It essentially is the AK47 of the deck and your primary source of creature removal. Sac Gravecrawler to it, recast Gravecrawler, repeat and mow down your opponent and your opponent's creatures.

  • Phyrexian Altar: Plop this card into play, sac Gravecrawler to it, recast Gravecrawler with the mana you get off it and repeat an infinite amount of times with either Zulaport Cutthroat in play for infinite damage or Bridge from Below in the yard to get infinite zombies.

  • Assuming you have an Altar in play and a Bridge in the yard but have a Cryptbreaker instead of Zulaport in play you can still combo out right there on the spot by creating infinite zombies and using Cryptbreakers "tap zombies" ability over and over again thus drawing you into your combo pieces such as Dark Ritual into a Zulaport Cutthroat for infinite damage. Note, Cryptbreaker taxes you one life every time you use his card draw ability, so although you can't draw your whole deck you should be able to dig into your combo pieces.

COMBO OUT!

  • Zulaport Cutthroat and Bridge from Below: As mentioned above. Combine either of these two cards with Gravecrawler and do stupid stuff. Note you never ever want to cast Bridge from Below, it is generally to be tutored into the yard with Entomb or discarded to Crypt Breaker or one of your discard spells targeting yourself.

UTILITY!

  • Cryptbreaker: This guy is necessary for a number of reasons. There is so much utility here. First he's a zombie, and you need zombies to activate Gravecrawler. His card drawing ability is absolutely broken in this deck, you will use it every game you get him into play. It really helps you draw into the combo pieces and mana that you really need to finish off your opponent. His create a zombie ability is nuts here. It does four things. It creates zombies for attacking, blocking and sacrificing. It fixes dead cards. It provides an outlet for you to discard Bridge from Below in the event you have it in your hand. And last but not least it is a two card combo lock with Contamination. Just create a zombie every turn and sac it.

  • Dread Wanderer This dude is here mostly for the fact that we need zombies in play to recur Gravecrawler. The deck originally only had 13 zombies which caused problems in the event that you had a Gravecrawler but no other zombies in which to use his ability. Dread Wanderer was added after testing as he's fetchable with Entomb and can be cast from the yard giving you a zombie which is needed to activate Gravecrawler.. With him in the deck we went from 13 zombies to 14 and if you count Entomb we go to 18.

  • You might be thinking "well Gravecrawler is just better, why do I need Dread Wanderer?". The answer to this question is that Gravecrawler NEEDS a zombie in play to activate. Trust me, you will find situations where you don't have any zombies but have two Entombs. One Entomb for Gravecrawler putting him in the yard, and the other is for Dread Wanderer. This just one of several examples.

  • Grave Titan Do I need to explain this guy?? He's an amazing late game bomb and he can be cheated into play early due to the all the cheap ramp via Dark Ritual and Culling the Weak. Plus the zombies he creates lets you do all sorts of stupid stuff with all of the sac outlets in the deck.

MANA AND RAMP

  • Dark Ritual, Culling the Weakand Swamp: Despite the high number of one drops, this deck is mana hungry. You will be using every drop of mana every turn. Casting and recasting Gravecrawler will tie up all your mana. Dark Ritual and Culling the Weak are obvious ramp spells to get your three drops in play early or to power out Grave Titan for massive beats. Late game pump them into Gravecrawler recursion.

SIDEBOARD

  • Because the deck runs so many one drops it has a problem with a commonly played card known as Chalice of the Void. Our best strategy here is to run Vampire Hexmage and use his ability to erase it's counters. Gate to Phyrexia seems to be a perfect fit here however it is too conditional based upon whether we have a Gravecrawler in play.

  • The rest of the sideboard should be explainable using common sense.

Please feel free to upvote and share! Have fun kicking ass and eating brains!!


8/15/2018 EDIT: (These are the changes to the original deck if you want to test it)

  • Changes -2 Cabal Therapy
  • Changes -1 Phyrexian Tower
  • Changes -1 Zulaport Cutthroat
  • Changes +1 Swamp
  • Changes +2 Dread Wanderer
  • Changes +1 Culling the Weak

  • We really wanted 4 Cabal Therapy to complete our disruption suite however we found that 17 Swamp is too few. This deck needs mana so 2 were cut. Cabal Therapy is a great card in this deck however you really want to draw it in your opening hand with either IoK or Thoughtzeize so that you can see their hand first. IoK and Thoughtseize are more relevant in your opening hand, especially when followed up with Cabal Therapy.

  • That being said, Swamp is more reliable than Phyrexian Tower and more ramp spells are necessary so we cut it, thus +1 Culling the Weak.

  • We also found that 12 main deck zombies is too few. You NEED a zombie in play to activate Gravecrawler's ability so we have chosen Dread Wanderer as you can fetch him with Entomb and cast him from the graveyard. With Entomb and Dread Wanderer we now effectively have 18 zombies. 1 Zulaport Cutthroat was cut as well to include Grave Titan. A lone Grave Titan has proven to be excellent late game and often amazing early game as the deck packs a lot of ramp to get him into play. Most of the time drawing that 3rd Zulaport was a dead card. ;)

CARDS TO CONSIDER

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Legacy legal.

Rarity (main - side)

3 - 3 Mythic Rares

19 - 1 Rares

13 - 9 Uncommons

7 - 2 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.43
Tokens Zombie 2/2 B
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