This collection is out of date, you may click here to see the latest version
pie chart

UB Midrange Zombie

Standard* Midrange Zombie

drspoik

Upvote 2
2

Creature (24)

Land (24)

Instant (8)

Sorcery (4)

Sideboard

Instant (9)

Sorcery (6)

Format legality

This deck was built when standard consisted of BFZ - HOU

Game plan

The idea is to get Diregraf Colossus to resolve and get a ton of Zombie Tokens on the field. Plague Belcher puts it -1/-1 counters on one of those Zombies to stay a 5/4 with Menace. The -1/-1 counters can also be used to kill Relentless Dead and use it's X ability if the mana is available.Gisa and Geralf is there to reanimate stuff. This casting also triggers Diregraf Colossus.Negate is here, mainly to counter our opponents counters or to counter boardwipes.

Cryptbreaker can turn dead cards in hand into Zombie Tokens and his second ability allows us to draw cards. This ability has a high priority to get to the desired cards.

Removal

Dark Salvation can be a great 1 Mana removal spell if you control enough zombies, or a great mana sink later in the game that creates a ton of zombie token.Grasp of Darkness can deal with a lot of creatures in the current Standard Meta, such as Glorybringer or Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Three notable weakpoints with regards of removal:

  • Torrential Gearhulk, as its toughness is very high and getting 6 zombies to use Dark Salvation can be hard against control

  • Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, again with 5 toughness out of Grasp reach and since it often won't be a creature on our turn, Dark Salvations Sourcery speed is not up to the task. Having said that, we can use a Negate if we keep the mana open to do so, therefore even stopping the ETB effect. Also sideboard in Murder to kill it, when it gets crewed.

  • Planeswalker, since we don't have access to burn spells, we should keep a Negate in hand and sideboard in two copies of Never.

  • Bristling Hydra is almost always hexproof, so Bontu's Last Reckoning is our only real chance to get rid of it, so sideboard it in on a Temur Energy Matchup.

Win Condition

As mentioned above, the main goal is to go wide and overwhelm the opponent. Lord of the Accursed helps with buffing almost all of our creatures and giving them menace if necessary. If the The Scarab God resolves, it can seal the deal as he is quite hard to get rid of. Fake eternalize the opponents creatures, reduce their lifepoints and fix the top of the library.Against opponents with fewer creatures, Plague Belcher is great, since it's 5 power with menace as early as turn 3.

Sideboard

When playing against control, swap Dark Salvation for Dispel and try to control the control player.If the opponent has a good planeswalker, take Never, if their strategie is to go wide with smaller creatures use Yahenni's Expertise and if they have a lot of big creatures use Bontu's Last Reckoning

The rest of the sideboard are just cards left over that can be useful if the matchup demands them.If the opponent is very aggressive and the game doesn't allow to play Gisa and Geralf, as they are rather slow, sideboard Dread Wanderer in and try to race the aggro player (good luck).

Suggestions

Updates Add

Sideboard Changes — Sept. 3, 2017
Edit

Updated the sideboard to include 3x Murder, since I ran into a few problems with certain creatures.

Comments

Hello5 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #1

You could run dread wanderer instead of khenra eternal

August 8, 2017 11:08 a.m.

drspoik says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #2

Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Thanks

August 8, 2017 1:48 p.m.

ZippityD says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #3

I'm thinking something very similar to this.

What do you think of the God-Pharoah's Gift? Similar function, but one time cost and churns out a hasted version each turn. So do you think it has a place when going wide?

August 8, 2017 7:40 p.m.

ZippityD says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #4

Sorry, I meant to link the card. God-Pharaoh's Gift. That deck isn't what I intended.

August 8, 2017 7:42 p.m.

drspoik says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #5

@ZippityD

The problem I see with the Gift is, that it contradicts the other goals of the deck.

  1. The cost is pretty high. There are decks that really try to get the gift out as soon as possible with a graveyard that's full with creatures with good ETB effects.
  2. Diregraf Colossus doesn't trigger with the Gift, since your not casting anything. Also you are emptying out your own graveyard, so he will have less +1/+1 counters.
  3. Once the Gift "fake eternalizes" a creature it's in exile. So Gisa and Geralf can't get it back, and again the Colossus likes to have some zombies in the 'yard.

I think God-Pharaoh's Gift is a really cool build-around card, but you have to design the whole deck around it to fully take advantage of it. Mainly with self-milling (Champion of Wits & Strategic Planning), Refurbish and Gate to the Afterlife. Also some nice creatures like Angel of Invention to hit really hard.

August 9, 2017 8:38 a.m.

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Card costs (outer) ​Land mana (inner)
Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Creature​CreatureLand​LandInstant​InstantSorcery​Sorcery
Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Converted mana costMana-curve​​11.1%​11.1%​​​​27.8%​27.8%22.2%​22.2%30.6%​30.6%​​​​​​5.6%​5.6%2.8%​2.8%01234502468101214