Hello again!
Today I want to go over a bit of my history with Zombie Infestation, the reason that I audibled out of it, and a couple things that I learned while attending StarCityGames.com Open: Richmond.
Zombie Infestation has very much been a pet card for me. My first interaction with the card was during Odyssey block when it was a linchpin in a very powerful U/B deck. Combined with Upheaval, Zombie Infestation became the namesake of the deck, affectionately known as UZI.
The crux of this deck was to achieve a game state where you could add eight or more mana to your mana pool, cast Upheaval for six mana, and use the remaining mana to cast Zombie Infestation. This would allow you to empty your hand and oftentimes swing for lethal with your horde of newly risen Zombies unimpeded on an Upheaval-ed board.
Here is an example of this deck
Creatures (5)
Lands (25)
Spells (30)
- 4 Counterspell
- 3 Upheaval
- 4 Zombie Infestation
- 4 Standstill
- 4 Undermine
- 3 Repulse
- 4 Recoil
- 4 Fact or Fiction
Sideboard
With the introduction of Dark Ascension, Gravecrawler immediately popped out at me. I knew that I wanted to find a way to abuse this card. A quick look at available Standard Zombie creatures quickly led me to Zombie Infestation. I had such fond memories of playing with the card in UZI. While I knew that I could not replicate the play style of UZI proper, this led me down the road of wanting to find ways to utilize Zombie Infestation.
I arrived in Richmond late Friday night with every intention of playing B/R Zombie Infestation. After meeting up with Forrest Mead and Wes Wise, we began jamming games with the deck itself. What I found out was that, while there were a few times that Zombie Infestation would work wonders, most of the time it was just terrible. Sure, you would get draws that would also let you do a lot of cute things—pitching multiple Gravecrawlers or Chandra’s Phoenix and getting back your Gravecrawlers—but this was just not good enough. If you want to apply early pressure and end the game with Brimstone Volley, you would have to cut everything else that was not essential to your plan. Unfortunately, this meant saying goodbye to Zombie Infestation.
The lesson learned was this: never get too attached to your pet decks. I almost made this mistake this past weekend by playing my cutesy Zombie Infestation deck. I really, really wanted to make this work. In the end, as difficult as it was, I had to listen to what playtesting and the advice of my peers was telling me. Killing your darling ideas is not easy, but even worse than that would be to play something that you knew could not perform well enough.
Here is what I eventually sleeved up for the Standard Open.
Creatures (22)
- 2 Reassembling Skeleton
- 4 Diregraf Ghoul
- 1 Olivia Voldaren
- 3 Bloodline Keeper
- 4 Gravecrawler
- 4 Geralf's Messenger
- 4 Highborn Ghoul
Lands (23)
Spells (15)
Let’s take a quick look at certain aspects of the deck.
In regards to Stormblood Berserker, I agree that it is a fine card. The stats on a bloodthirsted Berserker are fantastic. It is difficult to block, and it laughs off removal like Whipflare or Galvanic Blast. This is all fine and good, but there is good reason why it did not make the cut.
Going back to the kind words I just wrote about Stormblood Berserker, this is only relevant if you have a consistent way of dealing early damage to your opponent. Eight ways may seem like a lot, but in reality, your nut draw of Gravecrawler, bloodthirsted Berserker, into Messenger just cannot happen as frequently as you would like. It is difficult enough to have the mana to cast a turn-one Zombie, the red to cast Berserker, then triple black to cast Geralf’s Messenger. Then, factor in the fact that you need to land a turn-one Zombie, or have a Gut Shot on two, just to play the Berserker at the ideal spot in your curve. I went for the more consistent Highborn Ghoul. Highborn Ghoul does have some warts, but the evasion and curve considerations are what landed him a spot in the 75.
The deck itself performed okay. The Arc Trails and Gut Shots came in handy when needing to deal with low-costing creatures, like Porcelain Legionnaire and Delver of Secrets out of the U/W Delver decks. For a more in-depth look at some card choices, please check out the Deck Tech from this weekend here.
After playing with the deck this weekend, I have some reservations about it going forward. If you tuned into the SCGLive coverage of my match with Kurt Spiess, you may have heard Gerard Fabiano talk about how he could basically pick up all my underpowered Zombies, throw them in the graveyard, and affect the game state just about as much as they were doing in play. After playing with the deck, I would tend to agree. The game plan of early beaters just gets brick-walled too easily. If I did not draw either a Sword of War and Peace or a way to remove blockers, my army of Zombies was easily held in check by something as simple as a Porcelain Legionnaire.
If I were to play a Zombie-based aggro deck going forward, here is the list that I would start with.
Creatures (19)
Lands (22)
Spells (19)
A lot of times during the Standard Open, I would find that my red removal spells would languish away in my hand against creatures suited up with Sword of War and Peace. It is not an exaggeration to say that right now, Sword of War and Peace is the most impactful card in Standard. As many of you are finding out, Sword is the best way for you to break through your opponents’ army of white Humans or Spirits. If you are playing white, you need to find ways to eliminate your opponent’s equipment. Every time I create a new list to try out, I always default to a minimum of two to four Swords for the maindeck. If you are an aggressive creature-based deck (which I usually am), this is simply the best way to break through against the white- or red-based decks in the format.
In this new list, we find ways to prey upon the prevalence of Sword of War and Peace in the metagame. Outside of removing your Sword itself, the best defense that U/W Delver or U/W Humans has to combat your equipped creature is to simply bounce that creature with Vapor Snag. While protection from red and white are certainly handy, it does nothing to protect your Sworded creature from being bounced. In this build, we adopt this same strategy.
Tragic Slip also fills a role as a low-costing removal spell that can protect you from a Sworded creature. Morbid is not particularly difficult to achieve with Mortarpod and the ability to crash in with a recursive Gravecrawler. With the high amount of low-costing spells, Snapcaster Mage is an easy addition.
One of the issues that I had with the B/R Zombie deck was the fact that I had a high land count, which led to a lot of dead draws in the mid game. The addition of Gitaxian Probe and Ponder will help alleviate this, as well as letting us skimp a bit on lands.
Mortarpod was another pleasant surprise for me over the weekend. Championed by Forrest Mead, it was a very easy addition to the deck that we played, and it definitely deserves keeping an eye on. The synergy that it has with a sideboarded Act of Aggression is not to be overlooked.
A week after bemoaning the lack of a Kalastria Highborn type finisher, the answer may lie with the newly printed Diregraf Captain. He is of course, much more difficult to cast than Kalastria Highborn, but the life loss that the Captain brings to the table may suffice as a source of reach. If this weekend was any indication of a Mono-Green resurgence, the deathtouch ability may come in handy in blocking hard-to-answer threats like Dungrove Elder.
It might be tempting to compare Zombies to a deck like U/W Delver. If you look at each list on a card-by-card basis, of course the deck is going to look worse. There is no way to compare Gravecrawler to Delver of Secrets / Insectile Aberration or the Diregraf Captain and Geralf’s Messenger to Geist of Saint Traft. In a vacuum, Delver and Geist are both much stronger than their Zombie counterparts.
The advantage that Zombies has over U/W Delver is in its resiliency to the current hate that people have in their sideboard. The StarCityGames.com booth was sold out of Ratchet Bombs at this event. This made sense because Ratchet Bomb is a very good answer to the number of Spirit tokens and flipped Delvers that were expected to be the majority of the field. A Ratchet Bomb on zero could conceivably wipe an entire board of U/W Delver’s creatures and make them rely on Moorland Haunt to reacquire a board presence.
On the other hand, Zombies does not get blown out by Ratchet Bomb or Day of Judgment. Who cares if they wipe your Gravecrawlers from the board? You get them back anyway! Undying allows Geralf’s Messenger to come back even stronger if they manage to kill him the first time. That is certainly not something that Geist of Saint Traft can boast.
*Aside
If you are tired, like I am, of battling with the same decks that you were playing with two months ago, find ways to change that. I had a blast this weekend playing a fun deck, full of interesting interactions between brand-new cards and overlooked old cards. Now is the perfect time to try out all your wacky ideas. If great ideas are the stupid ones that work out, then you should never stop brewing just because it looks bad to start. No one gave Invisible Stalker a look initially, and look how well Gindy did with it.
*End Aside
The great thing about SCG Open: Richmond was the introduction of a brand new format. Sure, you would have some holdovers, but for the most part it looked like people were looking to Dark Ascension to try out some brand new strategies. Out of the decks that I saw, I was really impressed with Ali Aintrazi B/U Heartless Summoning deck. Check this out.
Not only did Ali pilot it to the Top 8 of the SCG Richmond Standard Open, it looks super fun to play. It also provided a sweet opportunity to do what I do best; it’s Photo-Bomb Time!
Here is a quick recap of my Standard Open finish. Unfortunately my notes were left in my hotel room, so I apologize if I have any names or decks mixed up.
Rd 1 Chris Santiago 2-0 Win
Rd 2 Kurt Spiess U/W Delver 2-0 Win
Rd 3 Sean Handy Jund Ramp 0-2 Loss
Rd 4 Amer Aintrazi U/W Delver 2-1 Win
Rd 5 Darrell Cozart U/W Humans 0-2 Loss
Rd 6 Mike Decker 2-0 Win
Rd 7 Matthew Beverly U/B Control 0-2 Loss / Drop
I was effectively eliminated from the Standard Open by U/W Humans. In game one, his triple Hero of Bladehold was too much for me to overcome. In the second, just one Hero would be enough to do the trick. Just one little Hero enchanted with Spirit Mantle. I guess after winning with a Hovermyr attached to a Sword of War and Peace, there is no way to I could be sad about losing to a Spirit Mantled Hero of Bladehold.
After my exit from the Standard Open, it was time to start planning ahead for Legacy the next day. Legacy is quickly becoming my new favorite format to play. There is so much depth and strategy to learn, and I am just cracking the surface of Legacy. After my success from SCG DC, I was eager to adopt the changes from the list that the Hatfields had played. Here is the 75 that I sleeved up for the Richmond Legacy Open.
Creatures (15)
Lands (18)
Spells (27)
The only real difference that I had from the Hatfield list is the inclusion of the fourth Nimble Mongoose. I never felt land light in any of my games, something that Sensei’s Divining Top certainly helped with. There are awkward moments when the lack of basic lands turns your opponent’s Path to Exile into the best remove spell ever. Outside of that, the deck can function very well with minimal mana. This is what led me to upping the count of Nimble Mongoose to the full playset, and I have never looked back.
Nimble Mongoose is another underrated card. With this deck, it is never really difficult to achieve threshold. With your high amount of cheap card drawing spells, free counterspells, and answered Delvers, you will have a very hard to answer 3/3 for G in most games.
Legacy is a funny animal in that you have access to so many high-powered, low-costing creatures. The beauty of Delver of Secrets is that for the cost of one blue mana, you can have a 3/2 flier that threatens to win you the game all on its own. Evasion is key here because everyone will have access to the same type of creatures, but being able to fly over the field of Wild Nacatls, Knights of the Reliquary, and Tarmogoyfs is huge. If the old saying of “Tarmogoyf is the best blue creature” has not been fully disproven yet, it is definitely on its way out.
Speaking of Goyf, the two-drops are very specific in this deck. With the few amount of lands that we run, only very impactful creatures will make the cut in this deck. Snapcaster Mage and Tarmogoyf are those creatures.
Here are the match results from the Legacy portion. Again, I apologize for any misspellings.
Rd 1 Nicholas Glover B/W Stoneforge 2-0 Win
Rd 2 Daryl Ayers NO Bant 1-2 Loss
Rd 3 Matt Kopac 2-0 Win
Rd 4 JC Baker 2-0 Win
Rd 5 Jack Elgin G/W Maverick 2-1 Win
Rd 6 Ben Friedman U/W Stoneforge 1-1-1 Draw
Rd 7 Kyle Pitteman U/R Delver 2-1 Win
For those of you watching the SCGLive coverage of my feature match with Ben Friedman, I want to focus on the end of the match. Even with our time extension, the clock was quickly ticking down to the end of time in the round. I pointed this out to Ben, and we both increased the speed of our play. This is very important because at no point in a match should you take advantage of the clock.
*Aside
If you alter the pace of your play, hoping to get the draw in an unwinnable situation, that is the very definition of stalling. This is not to say that you have to play at a frenetic pace, oftentimes bypassing important steps or hindering your ability to win. Just do not try and wind the clock down to get the draw. I would much rather lose naturally than squeak out a draw that I did not deserve. It is both ethically (DCI rules) and morally (nobody should want to be scummy) wrong to stall to either win or get a draw.
*End Aside
In this situation, neither of us wanted a draw. The usual cut-off to qualify for the Top 8 is X-1-1. In round six of this tournament, Ben and I were playing at 4-1. A win for either of us would normally put one of us in the position to draw safely into the Top Eight with our round-seven opponents. At the end of our five extra turns, Ben was clearly in a position to win the game if it were to continue.
When the judges asked for the result of our match, I first requested to see the standings for round six. The reason for this was, if there was no way that I could make Top 8, Ben was clearly in a dominant board position, and I would gladly scoop to Ben and allow him to secure a place in the Top 8. Before this round, the standings were not made available for us to review. Unfortunately, the table judge no-sirred us on this request, which we immediately appealed to the Head Judge. The HJ confirmed the ruling for this, which meant that the outcome of our game would be a draw.
Fortunately, the draw did not affect Ben, as he was able to win his round-seven match and make it to the elimination rounds. The draw also benefited me, as I was able to defeat my last opponent to end up in ninth place. Normally, a ninth-place finish would be heartbreaking, and to a degree it was. In this case it was not too bad, as I knew—looking at the standings prior to round seven—that even with a win, I would most likely be on the outside looking in.
After accepting my fate as the bubble boy from the Legacy Open portion, I went around the room to return cards that I had borrowed. As luck would have it, I happened upon the greatest game of Magic that I had ever seen. Engaged in a battle of wits, Ali Aintrazi and his opponent Brian Braun-Duin sat on opposite sides of the table. With two of my favorite people in the game battling one another, I put my quest on hold to pull up a chair and watch. The game of choice was Mental Magic with a stack of unwanted Draft Open commons and uncommons.
For those of you unfamiliar with Mental Magic, the premise is simple. Each turn, you draw a card from a shared deck of random cards. You can choose to either play the card that you draw facedown as a land that can tap for any one color of mana, or hold onto it. If you hold the card, you can play it as any card, given that it shares the exact same mana cost as the named card, and it cannot be the same card that you have. For instance, Brian’s Brimstone Volley can be played as a Char but not as an actual Brimstone Volley.
I pulled up my chair a few turns into their game. The funny thing about these two very talented magicians became very obvious after a few turns of watching them play. Neither of them had an extensive knowledge of obscure cards from Magic’s past. I knew that I had stumbled upon something wonderful when Brian tapped two mana, cast a Mask of Avacyn, proudly announced “Cellar Door!”, and passed the turn.
Of course Ali would have the trump. A small crowd gathered as Ali began his turn. After Ali ripped a Ghoulcaller’s Bell off the top, my mind immediately went to such cards as Aether Vial or Skullclamp. Not one to disappoint, Ali cast the Bell, tanked, and said a phrase that I would bet has never been uttered in the history of the spoken language. “Pithing Needle, naming Cellar Door.” The crowd erupted in laughter. That Ali sure knows his trumps.
The game got to a point where Claustrophobia was doing its best Stormbound Geist impersonation, coming back as Kira, Great Glass-Spinner.
My ride informed me that it was time to hit the road. Begrudgingly, I turned away from these two masters doing battle. I picked my bags up and went about returning borrowed cards and was soon on my way home. Long gone were any thoughts of sorrow for my unfortunate ninth-place finish. When I look back at this weekend, I think not of my disappointing finishes but of the good times that I shared with amazing friends.
Looking ahead to the SCG Cincinnati Open, I would definitely recommend giving RUG Delver a shot. It has a very good game plan of early and efficient beaters, backed up with enough cheap or free disruption. I highly recommend giving this deck a look for your next Legacy Open.
If you are looking for a new way to attack with Zombies, give the U/B Zombie deck a try and let me know what you think. If you are attending Grand Prix Baltimore, please come by and say hello!
A week into the new Standard format and I am excited to see what new innovations StarCityGames.com Open: Cincinnati and Pro Tour Dark Ascension will bring. I know that I will be keeping my eyes open (-_-) for strategies that include Zombies! —-
As always, thanks for reading!
Josh Cho