Zombies in Ravnica!

This article first appeared on 60Cards.com. Since then the walking dead have made their way to the home of Canadian Magic in search of more braaaaains. Can anything stop them??

I first wrote about BG Zombies on 9/4/2012 after some of the initial Golgari goodies had been revealed. Most of Return to Ravnica has now been spoiled so it is a good time to revisit this deck with zombies poised to become the top deck in October.

Why Zombies?

I believe October will be Zombie Month in Magic, and here’s why:

Aggressive decks flourish early in a new format. When you aren’t sure what the format will look like the best plan is to attack!
There may be new aggressive strategies, but Zombies is proven and a dominant deck in the current format. According to MTGO-Stats.com 19% of the decks that finish 4-0 and 3-1 in standard daily events are zombies. Consider this along with the fact that…
Zombies loses very little with rotation: [card]Fume Spitter[/card], Mortarpod, [card]Doom Blade[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card] and the excellent clone effects [card]Phantasmal Image[/card] and [card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card] being the most important. The core cards of the deck remain.

So Many Colors

The UB Zombies deck will go out of style without the super-efficient clone effects. Mono-black probably won’t see much play, other than as a budget alternative, with [card]Lashwrithe [/card]rotating and new lands and color fixing available in RTR. This leaves three main options:

BR: [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card], [card]Brimstone Volley[/card] and [card]Bonfire of the Damned [/card]are proven zombie aids, and BR Zombies has seen a lot of success in the current standard. The deck can add Dreadbore to fill the removal hole and look to Rakdos Cackler as a third 2/2 for one mana.

BG: Golgari Zombies is the new shiny option and will get quite a bit of attention by deck builders. [card]Slitherhead[/card], [card]Lotleth Troll[/card], and [card]Dreg Mangler[/card] are tempting new 1, 2 and 3 drop zombies and make [card]Cavern of Souls[/card] better by keeping it all in the tribe. [card]Overgrown Tomb[/card] adds a second dual-land and with Cavern there are 12 sources to cast the new green zombies. [card]Abrupt Decay [/card]is excellent removal for an aggressive deck, and the ability to play [card]Rancor [/card]is hard to resist.

Jund: Three colors are certainly possible with the new lands and some other mana fixing tools that are available. Keeping Aristocrat and adding some of the green cards listed above as well as [card]Dreadbore [/card]in the sideboard would make for the best of both worlds.

Tasty Brew

My plan is to start with a Golgari brew. Jund is tempting, but I want to get a solid and tested BG build before experimenting further. Here is my starting point:

[Deck title=”Golgari Zombies by Nick Vigabool (Future Standard)”]
[Creatures]
*4 Gravecrawler
*4 Diregraf Ghoul
*3 Slitherhead
*4 Lotleth Troll
*4 Geralf’s Messenger
*4 Dreg Mangler
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*4 Rancor
*2 Tragic Slip
*3 Sign in Blood
*4 Abrupt Decay
*2 Grisly Salvage
[/Spells]
[Lands]
*4 Cavern of Souls
*4 Woodland Cemetery
*4 Overgrown Tomb
*10 Swamp
[/Lands]
[/Deck]

The game plan for this deck is straight forward: be aggressive. Turn one you want to cast a [card]Gravecrawler [/card]or [card]Diregraf Ghoul[/card]. Turn two attach [card]Rancor [/card]and play another 2/2 zombie, or maybe a pair of 2/2 zombies, or perhaps an undead troll…

[card]Lotleth Troll[/card] is the best 2 mana zombie by a longshot, and a primary reason to go green. An ideal scenario would be to play it on turn 2 and then discard a [card]Slitherhead [/card]to add a +1/+1 counter. Scavenge the Slitherhead to add another +1/+1 counter and swing with a 4/3 trample on turn 3. With more than one quality discard candidate in hand, such as [card]Gravecrawler[/card], things can get out of control quickly. Regeneration for B makes this undead troll very resilient.

[card]Dreg Mangler[/card] brings some urgency to a deck full of creatures that come in tapped. As an off-speed alternative to [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card] at 3 mana, the 3/3 plant zombie comes in swinging. A late game scavenging for 3BG can super-size any zombie and sacrificing to a Lotleth Troll first can create a 6/5 trample.

[card]Slitherhead [/card]is one drop 9-11 for the deck. It not only discards profitably but can also turn off undying for an opponent’s [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card] in the mirror, a reverse [card]Fume Spitter[/card] of sorts.

[card]Abrupt Decay[/card] is another shoe-in for the deck. It is the removal of choice, more than adequately taking over for [card]Doom Blade[/card] and [card]Go for the Throat[/card]. It is instant speed, can’t be countered and targets any early threat to the game plan.

[card]Rancor [/card]is another big selling point for green. Applying to a [card]Gravecrawler [/card]or [card]Diregraf Ghoul [/card]on turn 2 or [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card] on turn 4 adds significant pressure.

[card]Sign in Blood[/card] and [card]Grisly Salvage[/card] provide card advantage to a deck that can run out of gas quickly. Grisly Salvage digs deep to find a much needed land or creature and there are three cards that have additional value in the graveyard: [card]Gravecrawler[/card], [card]Slitherhead [/card]and [card]Dreg Mangler[/card].

Question Marks

Artless: This deck trades the reach of [card]Blood Artist[/card] for the aggression of [card]Lotleth Troll[/card]. I think this makes sense without [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card] or any other sac outlet.

1 Spot: [card]Rakdos Cackler [/card]is another option for a one mana creature in the deck. Unleashed, it is a 2/2 for one mana, black or red but in this case black, that cannot block. I think that Slitherhead is a better choice in this deck because of [card]Cavern of Souls[/card], the ability to Scavenge for 0, and the positive discard interactions but it is worth considering the ability to play up to twelve 2 power creatures on turn 1.

Removal: This build relies on [card]Tragic Slip[/card] to remove creatures that cost more than 3 mana. It is hard to speculate on whether this will be adequate. If not, [card]Ultimate Price[/card] may be an option, depending on how the meta-game shapes up.

Mana: I have goldfished this deck many times using the Decked Builder test functions. Based on this limited testing the mana seems sufficient to support [card]Rancor[/card], [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] and [card]Grisly Salvage[/card]. I had no problem casting creatures, other than standard mana screw variance.

Sideout: It is premature to develop a sideboard without knowing what decks to expect. The mirror is a probable assumption, and I like [card]Vile Rebirth[/card] in those matchups. [card]Vampire Nighthawk[/card] is worth keeping in mind against whatever version of Delver makes it through rotation. [card]Victim of Night[/card] or [card]Ultimate Price[/card] may take up some spots against decks where [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] and [card]Tragic Slip[/card] are not enough.

This deck certainly remains a work in progress and I’m very interested to hear what you think. Is Zombies the right call for RTR standard? Would you play BG? What would you do differently? Leave a comment below.