What…a…weekend!
I don’t know about you guys, but this weekend was a blast to follow. I hope that all of the Pro Tours this year continue to be this awesome. I mean, they have to do something correct after making the actual events closed, right?
A big congrats goes out to everyone who did well in Honolulu, especially Brian Kibler for his second Pro Tour win! I just wish that I could have been there with my friends to cheer them on. However, with the Fantasy Pro Tour and extensive coverage, I felt like Magic-wise, I was getting my fill.
What was a Watchwolf to do when stuck in America? Watch the StarCityGames.com Open and the Pro Tour at the same time! Another congrats goes to my buddy Ryan Gerhart for his Top 8 in the Standard Open with a sweet brew. Anyhow, I decided that I would try to watch an archetype in both the Open and the Pro Tour that was up and coming but may need some refining. My choice was Zombies.
In my opinion, the Zombie tribe has been over shadowed by Vampires and such for the last couple of years, but it’s time to play Standard like it’s Onslaught Block! There are just so many sweet Zombie cards that I knew there was going to be people trying to make mono-black and black/red variants. I was even able to pick up a Geralf’s Messenger while playing Two-Headed Giant sealed with Best Blade’s own Hepburn Best. If you wanted to know how that event went, let’s just say that having four Somberwald Dryads is pretty sick…
Back to the Zombies, there were quite a few decent showings of this archetype at the Pro Tour and even one in the Top 16 of the Standard Open. A major question is the choice between going mono black or choosing to splashing red.
How about we look at some mono-black lists first?
Creatures (24)
- 1 Skinrender
- 3 Fume Spitter
- 3 Porcelain Legionnaire
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Skirsdag High Priest
- 1 Bloodline Keeper
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
Lands (24)
- 24 Swamp
Spells (12)
Jasper seems to go with more of a Morbid sub-theme, spotting four copies of both Tragic Slip and Skirsdag High Priest. While the former is somewhat expected from most black decks, the latter must turn quite a few heads. I know that I had to do a double take to see and really believe that Skirsdag High Priest had a home.
I remember the first time I played against that card. I was either playing G/W Tokens or an early version of Self-Mill, since it was the first week that Block Constructed was available for Innistrad. My opponent was playing B/W Tokens, which I thought was a joke…until he smashed me.
His curve was as follows: turn two Skirsdag High Priest, turn three Midnight Haunting, turn four Liliana of the Veil, Chainer’s Edict me, and get a 5/5 flying Demon. I told you…I was smashed.
Ever since then, I had a lot of respect for a card that was probably just a junk rare “Squire.” Luckily, Jasper puts it to great use, combining it with Fume Spitter and Mortarpod. The double Gravecrawler/Mortarpod combo is one to be feared and one that was adopted by quite a few Zombie players, while I hope that Skirsdag High Priest also catches on.
The other choice that I really like in Jasper’s list is the inclusion of Porcelain Legionnaire. It feels like a few of the Phyrexia mana cards have been getting more play than they did when New Phyrexia first came out. This is because the game has become more about how much tempo and board development one has in the early game (hence the use of Gitaxian Probe, Gut Shot, and Porcelain Legionnaire). Against an aggressive opponent, they will have to go out of their way to kill your “white” creature or else they will likely be unable to attack into or block your 3/1 first strike.
Next up, Erwin Sneek was able to “Sneek” in a sweet card or two into his list:
Cemetery Reaper is a man that I would also like to see in a bunch more deck lists. This dude is pretty much the one man army! He will even stop your opponent’s guys from undying back onto the battlefield. He is nice to have against opposing Gravecrawlers as well. Â While I think he is slightly worse than Lord of the Undead (which would have been too sweet with Geralf’s Messenger), he does play quite the utility role.
We can also observe that Erwin was probably expecting quite a few aggressive decks. Maindeck Ratchet Bombs aren’t always what you would expect from a Zombie deck but with the performance of Lingering Souls this past weekend, I would pick up quite a few of these. The other addition worth noting is Liliana of the Veil. Her +1 synergies well with your Gravecrawler, while her -2 is still good against Geist of Saint Traft, Invisible Stalker, and Mirran Crusader.
Raphael Thebault decided to show everyone why he thought it was right to just play Mono Black:
Creatures (23)
- 4 Phyrexian Obliterator
- 3 Vault Skirge
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 4 Highborn Ghoul
Lands (25)
- 25 Swamp
Spells (12)
Sideboard
He went as far as to maindeck a ton of cards that could only be played with black mana. While Phyrexian Obliterator was seen in the sideboard of the previous two lists, Raphael plays it in his maindeck. This is a decision that I could get behind, given the right metagame. He is pretty much a 5/5 with unblockable or a blocker that your opponent would never want to attack into. In a way, maybe he is just a four mana Porcelain Legionnaire…
Other black mana intensive cards we can see here are Victim of Night and Highborn Ghoul. These choices will get worse the more popular that Zombies gets, but to be honest, even after reading this article I can still see plenty of people dismissing this archetype.
Not to leave anything out, Raphael chooses to play a total of six equipment spells. The three Sword of War and Peace are obviously good in this metagame and combo with all of the evasion in his deck. The three Lashwrithe go very well with Vault Skirge, which is a card that may or may not be better than Fume Spitter. This one seems like a metagame call.
Last but not least, we have the Zombies list from the Standard Open this past weekend:
Creatures (24)
- 3 Fume Spitter
- 4 Phyrexian Obliterator
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 3 Highborn Ghoul
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (23)
- 23 Swamp
Spells (12)
I would like to address only two cards in this list, with the first being Altar’s Reap. The question with this card is if it is even worth it. The getting morbid online at instant speed seems more or less irrelevant without Skirsdag High Priest. While Altar’s Reap combos really well with Gravecrawler and Geralf’s Messenger, I think it might just be too cute. Either that or playing only two was the right number, since I would never want my hand to be clogged with these.
The other choice worth noting is Phyrexian Metamorph. This card seems like it could be a powerhouse in the new format. You can have your Metamorph copy a creature with undying and then have it come back as a Titan that is bigger than your opponent’s. The amount of utility this card has is through the roof. I remember playing this card in one of Smi77y’s Mono-Black Infect variants, and it was really good at copying Lashwrithe. Personally, I like Steve’s numbers with regards to this card.
That is enough for all of the mono-black Zombies stuff; how about we talk about adding spice to the list?
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
Oh man…Smallpox! That is the main card that stuck out to me in this list. The ability to send those Delver decks back so far seems really sweet, along with the fact that a lot of decks have slightly shaky manabases so the choice of what to sacrifice could really set them back. As for the discarding part, that effect is very similar to Liliana of the Veil’s +1 ability, so naturally, Smallpox combos well with Gravecrawler. However, I feel like a little bit more work should be done to fully utilize Smallpox and in order to take advantage of all of its abilities.
The other card I would like to address is Falkenrath Aristocrat, which would be better to talk about in the next list:
Creatures (28)
- 1 Dross Hopper
- 4 Fume Spitter
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 4 Skirsdag High Priest
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 4 Highborn Ghoul
Lands (22)
Spells (10)
Sideboard
So, what is Falkenrath Aristocrat doing in this list? First of all, it is not a Legendary Creature (as I first thought it was), so I could see playing a fourth Falkenrath Aristocrat over the Dross Hopper. Perhaps Naoki Nakada lost a bet and had to play with Dross Hopper in his deck or there were no Falkenrath Aristocrats available at the dealer’s booth. Or maybe, Naoki just really wanted that sacrifice outlet.
Any of these justifications make sense, but giving Naoki benefit of the doubt, let’s assume that he wanted a cheap sacrifice outlet. This choice goes very well with Skirsdag High Priest, Geralf’s Messenger, Brimstone Volley, and Tragic Slip. One role I like to use all of these sacrifice outlets for is with Geralf’s Messenger, but at the end of your opponent’s turn. This makes him a 4/3 for BBB that when he enters the battlefield, your opponent loses four life at the drawback of coming into play tapped. Lastly, Falkenrath Aristocrat is pretty sweet with Gravecrawler, ending up as forever indestructible which could be a huge pain for control decks with Doom Blade and Day of Judgment.
Lastly, be sure to note the Manabarbs in Naoki’s sideboard. With the showing of Wolf Run Ramp that we had this past weekend, this could be a card that everyone will want in their board and was even suggested to me for my Jund deck by my awesome friend Will “The Legacy Specialist” Nehlsen.
Well…that sure was a lot of decklists and a lot of talking on my part. I should probably let you guys digest all of that. If for whatever reason you just skipped to the end of this article, the tl;dr version is that Zombies are back and stronger than ever! Be sure to always carry a Blazing Torch in your wallet. You never know when it could come in handy…
Thanks for Reading,
Jonathan “Watchwolf92” Sukenik