Whoa! It’s been a while since my last post here. Not that I have stopped brewing – this is in fact my main way of interacting with Magic the Gathering. I just have most of my brews in Cockatrice and Tappedout and haven’t felt the inspiration to post them here.
So welcome back and let me introduce you to my newest brew – Modern Zombies.
Engine
At this point Mono black Zombies are Pro Tour champions, but I was really impressed by the Orzhov variation. It is lacking good mana and I was thinking what if we have the good mana and add Gravecrawler to the engine…
The best sacrifice enable I could find is unfortunatelly not a Zombie – Viscera Seer, but fortunatelly or not I don’t expect to have Gravecrawler and Wayward Servant / Diregraf Colossus on the table together too often. This means that I include 2x Viscera Seer in the deck.
Disruption
To try to get to this state though I am running some disruption. Now black has access to Fatal Push, which is great! In the orzhov colors we have another powerful zombie – Tidehollow Sculler and to round out the disruption I run 4x Thoughtseize. Our zombie force and Fatal Push should be enough to handle the early game so that Inquisition of Kozilek is not required.
Dark Salvation rounds out the removal and sometimes it could be very powerful play, but it is not 4 of quality considering Modern’s powerlevel. I was running Path to Exile in this slot for a while, but I am not sure which is correct.
Our card advantage engine is of course Cryptbreaker and Relentless Dead, but also the Standard banned Smuggler’s Copter. It turns out zombies are excellent pilots…
The Sideboard
At the moment Modern is warped by Death’s Shadow. The most popular decks are Death’s Shadow variants (Jund and Grixis), Affinity, Izzet Storm and Eldrazi Tron.
The white splash allows us to have extremelly powerful sideboard! I am in love!
The most notable card I am not playing is Stony Silence and after some more testing I might change that. It is a nonbo with one of the best cards for us against Affinity – Smuggler’s Copter. To compensate this I run 3x Fragmentize.
Fragmentize handles most of Modern’s playable artifacts and enchantments and thus has applicability vs both aggro and combo decks.
I am testing Ghoulcaller’s Chant as the cheapest 2 for 1. It allows us to get back Viscera Seer too if that’s what we want. Unfortunatelly even if we are not dedicated graveyard deck, a lot of people associate Zombies with the graveyard and bring in cards like Rest in Peace against us, so Ghoulcaller’s Chant might be replaced in the future. Suggestions as always are welcome!
I run 1 of Rest in Peace, because as I mentioned earlier the graveyard is not that important for us, but it is for the traitor Prized Amalgam and Storm!
Our main graveyard disruption is Surgical Extraction, which also may be sided in vs Tron and Snapcaster Mage decks too.
I chose Blessed Alliance over Collective Brutality as it is applicable in more matches.
The Deck
| Creatures 28 | Other Spells 12 | Lands 20 | Sideboard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Cryptbreaker 4 Dread Wanderer 4 Gravecrawler 2 Viscera Seer 4 Wayward Servant 4 Tidehollow Sculler 2 Relentless Dead 4 Diregraf Colossus |
4 Thoughtseize 4 Fatal Push 2 Dark Salvation 2 Smuggler’s Copter |
2 Shambling Vent 4 Concealed Courtyard 2 Godless Shrine 4 Swamp 2 Ghost Quarter 4 Marsh Flats 2 Polluted Delta |
1 Ethersworn Canonist 1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Rest in Peace 2 Blessed Alliance 2 Surgical Extraction 3 Fragmentize 1 Lost Legacy 2 Duress 2 Ghoulcaller’s Chant |
Results
In my testing so far results are somewhat promissing:
- 2:0 vs Burn
- 1:0 vs GB Rock
- 0:1 vs 8 Rack
- 1:0 vs Splendid Reclamation combo
- 0:1 vs Sultai Delver
- 1:0 vs Bant Knowledge Pool combo
Going Forward – some facts and thoughts
So far Dread Wanderer was never returned from the graveyard, but he is still important turn one play. I like not exposing Cryptbreaker to removal in the first turn. Having 12 1 drops makes drawing cards with Cryptbreaker much easier!
Diregraf Colossus was often 2/2, which still demanded an answer. 5/5 was the biggest I got.
I was running with 4-5 removal spells in the main for a while, but it seemed not enough vs some must answer threats like Delver of Secrets, Dark Confidant, Scavenging Ooze.
I do not run stats buffing lords like Lord of the Undead, but I think that’s the right approach for the deck. This makes it weaker to Anger of the Gods, but we are naturally equipped to fight other sweepers. If we are not running Collected Company, we cannot rely on having critical mass of creatures to make lords relevant.
For budget reasons fetches could be removed with other dual lands like Isolated Chapel, but this will make Fatal Push a little weaker. In real life I do not own Marsh Flats, but it’s not necessary as I have no Plains in the deck.
I have kept and won with one-landers, but I recommend it only if you forsee having plays in the first 3 turns preferrably including card draw with Cryptbreaker.
As most tribal decks I really enjoy playing the deck. If you want to try it, have fun and good luck!
eramagic 