Building Blocks: Mono-Black Zombies

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Lee McLeod

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  1. Thank you for your work. I am learning a lot about this format from your videos. Keep going.

  2. in hindsight… one could argue playing around sever in a 4-color bomb deck… but i’m not sure with the cards you had, and the pressure you were planning on putting on, if you would’ve done that that turn.

    that was your turn as you were on the draw, and if you didn’t play both gravecrawlers, then you’re probably going to play the highborn ghoul instead. either way you were going to maximize your mana usage and tap out leaving you with no solution. the highborn ghoul does however minimize the damage from a sever.

    tough game. w/o that sever you probably had the reach to win game 2. frustrating.

    question: does mono-color stand a chance in this block format? seems like decks are getting greedier and greedier with these 4-color decks now getting some good results. they’re heavy green for their silverhearts and mana-fixing, and everything else is single color commitment. abundant growth is a beast in those decks getting you fixing while cantripping.

  3. I think you need Mutilate in this deck. It seemed to me that if you got out in front you were fine, but if you fell behind at all then you had no real way of recovering.

  4. I was surprised to hear you say that you haven’t seen a lot of the 4 color green (greed) deck since it’s be dominating the format for weeks now. The deck tech section of this website still lists the 4cG as Jund or Naya, but there’s really no difference now with both decks running the same cards. The Jund decks were getting beaten by the Grixis builds that was gaining some momentum. But the flashy Restoration Angel put 4 color green back on top. I think the biggest advantage the JunNaya deck has over the rest of the field is the multiple replacement cards (growth, borderline ranger), that allow it to keep card advantage while Boros and other decks are simple top decking from the first turn onward.

    I admire you for running Zombies, which was never a good option at any time in block in my opinion. I found in the brief time I played it that either you want High Priest, or Blood Artist in the main deck, but not both.

    I look forward to seeing the Miracles deck next week, and whatever else you wish to grind with in the weeks ahead while we endure the long wait for Return to Ravnica block to begin.

  5. Your videos’ sound quality is really bad. There’s always a really loud humming sound in the background, which makes your voice hard to understand. You could also speak a bit louder and less fatigue. :)

  7. @dasMetzger: I can see it either way, to be honest. Usually these decks only play around 2 Severs (or board into ~2), so if you want to just bring the beatdown with two Gravecrawlers, you’re mostly safe. *Mostly* in that sometimes you get blown out and die. The safe way with the Highborn plays around Sever, but gives you half as much pressure so you might just indirectly die.

    As for monocolor working, it’s a possibility. Monored and Monogreen are both very aggressive colors that can go over the top of other people in the early game, perventing the superior late game of other decks. But, as expected, their sideboard options are pretty week – Green ends up having to play like 4 Grafdigger’s Cage and 3 Crushing Vines just for lack of options. Monored ends up being just a 15 burn spell sideboard. :)

    @Macray: There’s several problems with Mutilate in this deck. The first is that it, obviously, isn’t legal in the format. The second is that it’s atrocious in the deck. Let’s say you’re behind on board, and you draw Mutilate. What does it really do for you? Stabilize the board? You’re still behind, because you had to use a card to wipe several of your own, they still have their hand (and you likely don’t have yours, since you’re playing Zombies). The dream scenario where you wipe two Geralf’s Messengers and all of their Wolfir Silverhearts (which… I guess you can’t actually ever wipe, so never mind) just won’t happen. Mutilate is not a good fit in an aggro deck, just like Wrath has been in White Weenie for twenty years.

    @Mad_3570: I haven’t gotten much time to play in my downtime recently (full time job, new apartment, school in the background), so my play schedule is basically ‘Scan dailies for things that look new, and only play in 2 mans, which I have time for.’ So I didn’t catch onto the 4 color list because it’s basically Jund + Naya balled into one, which on a scan through text just reads as either one for me, didn’t really jump out as new (like a Grixis or Reanimator deck). And for what it’s worth, the deck seems just worse than straight Jund or straight Naya – I don’t get the draw of combining the two. You can still build card advantage with either one without making your deck slower and mana worse – I *hate* losing to fast decks that can’t win past the eighth turn.
    Also my feelings on Abundant Growth are still very low – I don’t like the card, though I recognize it has its place.