Hey
all, and welcome back to the MtG Deck Garage! I
don’t think I have anything to cover as far as
introductions go this week, so I’ll just jump right
in. Here’s the e-mail for the week…
Dear Hagan:
My name is Kyle and been playing Magic for 1 1/2
years, anyway I am building a mono-black zombie
deck. Right now it is just a blueprint but I have
been working for over a month on it and I am open to
an expert opinion before I start building, budget is
somewhat of an obstacle, but not completely, here is
the blueprints
lands
18 swamps
2 lakes of the dead
spells
1 call to the grave
1 grave pact
2 lethal vapors
2 oversold cemeteries
2 clutches of undeath
2 howls from beyond
3 death pulses
3 dirges of dread
4 cruel revivals
creatures
1 gravespawn sovereign
2 vengeful dead
2 twisted abominations
2 corps harvesters
2 gempalm polluters
2 noxious ghouls
2 soulless ones
3 zombie boa's
4 unworthy dead-yes, unworthy dead is not a zombie
but it is better than other zombies in terms of cost
efficiency and can be reused as a chump blocker.
I am looking forward for your opinion on this
p.s for the love of god,
PLEASE DON'T TOUCH GRAVESPAWN
SOVEREIGN.
-----
Looking over Kyle’s deck, the first thing that
really jumped out at me was that, for being a zombie
deck, Kyle was lacking Undead Warchief. For four
mana, the Warchief allows Kyle to pump out zombies
faster *and* he makes those zombies in play bigger
by +2/+1. To make some room, I’m going to pull the
Lethal Vapors and Howl From Beyond. Vapors is an
interesting card, but seems out of place in the
deck, while Howl From Beyond is a simple pump spell
with a single target, as opposed to the pump for all
of Kyle’s creatures that Undead Warchief brings to
the board.
-2 Howl From Beyond
-2 Lethal Vapors
+4 Undead Warchief
I’m not so sure I like Zombie Boa here. It eats up
mana for an ability that Kyle’s opponent gets to
decide whether or not it will be effective, and it
costs five mana for a 3/3. Instead, Putrid Raptor
might be a better call. Kyle will have to lose a
zombie from his hand to morph the Raptor, but it can
be a 4/4 blocker on Turn 3 and it can be swinging on
Turn 4. I’d like to run a full set of Putrid Raptor
here, so I need to clear out one more card to make
room. Grave Pact seems like the best target, since
it really doesn’t go along that well with the theme
of the deck.
-1 Grave Pact
-3 Zombie Boa
+4 Putrid Raptor
If you look at the center section of creatures in
Kyle’s deck, you’ll see that he has a lot of good
zombies times two. I’d like to up the count on a lot
of these, including Gempalm Polluters, Noxious
Ghouls, Twisted Abominations, and Vengeful Dead. I’m
going to pull the non-zombie still hanging out,
Unworthy Dead, as well as Cruel Revival. The
Unworthy Undead are aptly named; as they are not
zombies, they are not worthy for this deck. The
Cruel Revivals departure is a bit difficult to do,
but there are just better cards for both removal and
returning creatures, as y’all will see shortly.
-4 Cruel Revival
-4 Unworthy Dead
+1 Gempalm Polluter
+1 Noxious Ghoul
+2 Twisted Abomination
+1 Vengeful Dead
The last change I would like to make to creatures is
the addition of Carnophage and Withered Wretch. The
lower part of the mana curve on Kyle’s deck is
almost non-existent, and these two creatures will
help smooth that problem out. To clear room, why
don’t we pull Corpse Harvester, Dirge of Dread, and
Death Pulse. The Harvester just helps contribute to
the high mana curve for not enough effect. Dirge of
Dread is decent, but not necessary with the hordes
that Kyle will be producing, and Death Pulse just
doesn’t come off as that great of a card to me. If
you play discard, use stuff like Duress, Cabal
Therapy, or even Addle before Death Pulse.
-2 Corpse Harvester
-3 Death Pulse
-3 Dirge of Dread
+4 Carnophage
+4 Withered Wretch
As odd as it sounds, I don’t think I’ve ever had
much use for Call to the Grave. Whenever it hits,
I’ve had maybe one-in-five games where it makes a
huge difference. If that is the case, then it
probably doesn’t need to be in the deck, for it
isn’t contributing enough. Likewise on its way out
is Clutch of Undeath. I’m not a huge fan of any form
of creature enchantment unless it is over-the-top
amazing (see: Rancor). In their place, I’m going to
sneak in Patriach’s Bidding, which is there for the
sole purpose of naming zombie. As long as Kyle has a
Noxious Ghoul hanging out either in play or in his
graveyard, it shouldn’t matter what his opponent
calls, as all of their creatures will be getting
–X/-X, where X is the number of zombies that just
hit the board.
-1 Call to the Grave
-2 Clutch of Undeath
+3 Patriach’s Bidding
When counting up the remaining slots in the deck, I
see that I have four empty. As noted earlier, Kyle
has quite a few creatures that sit high on the mana
curve. If that is the case, why not go with the old
fallback for any deck that wants quick mana?
+4 Dark Ritual
As the last change to the deck, I’m pulling Oversold
Cemetary. Why, you ask? Because their ability is
decent, but doesn’t go active until Kyle would have
four creatures in his graveyard. This just doesn’t
seem acceptable to me, as Kyle wants to have all of
his creatures on the table. In their place, as well
as in the place of Lake of the Dead, I’m putting in
Unholy Grotto. The card can be simply abusive, and
it allows Kyle to get back any creature that he sees
as truly important.
-2 Lake of the Dead
-2 Oversold Cemetary
+4 Unholy Grotto
That should wrap up work on Kyle’s deck; let’s see
how it turned out…
CREATURES (32)
4 Carnophage
3 Gempalm Polluter
1 Gravespawn Sovereign
3 Noxious Ghoul
4 Putrid Raptor
4 Twisted Abomination
4 Undead Warchief
3 Vengeful Dead
2 Soulless One
4 Withered Wretch
NON-CREATURE SPELLS (7)
4 Dark Ritual
3 Patriarch’s Bidding
LAND (22):
18 Swamp
4 Unholy Grotto
I hope that helps, Kyle, and good luck! I’ll see
y’all next week.
-Paul Hagan
