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Grand Prix: Baltimore Top 4 with Zombies

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Hi, readers. My name is Matt Scott, and this past weekend at Grand Prix: Baltimore, I had the pleasure of making my first premier-level Top 8. It feels pretty awesome, and I’m not sure how some of the top players handle doing it time and time again. The event was a rollercoaster of emotions for me, and while it ended very, very well, it was definitely a bumpy ride. I knew there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to go to Barcelona coming into this weekend, so I really considered not going, as I was going to have to fly up by myself. I just moved to Charleston, SC, and it has made getting rides with my personal chauffeur and deck-builder Kenny Mayer much more difficult. Nonetheless, I have been skipping more events than I wanted to lately, and I really had the itch to Cube—I couldn’t pass up the chance to Cube with Kenny, Justin Parnell, and numerous other pals.

I decided that I wasn’t willing to miss this, so I set about finding a flight there. I found a first class ticket for $119 on US Airways. Seemed reasonable. I called Kenny, and he agreed to assemble Zombies for me. Once I talked Eric Klug and Magic Online ringer and tickle box Jarvis Yu into picking me up from the airport at noon on Friday, it seemed everything was coming up Scotty.

I can honestly say that I have never been as excited about a deck going into a tournament as I was about Zombies going into this Grand Prix. Everything about this deck just seemed so well positioned for what I expected to play against. I mean, come on: The deck has eight 2-power 1-drops, a ton of reach, a ton of synergy, and a really stable mana base; what else can you ask for?

If you learn anything from this article, I want it to be: Join the undead army. Listen, I’m not the guy who is trying to make the black deck work in every format. Far from it—I almost always play whatever seems to be doing well, but right now, what are my options? Wolf Run? No thanks; I don’t like having my one threat countered and then just being out of the game. Humans? No interest in that mirror. Delver? See Humans. Zombies range from solid to awesome against all those decks and more, being only really weak to mono-red. U/B with Grave Titans can be tough, but it isn’t too bad otherwise.

Here’s what I had the fortune of Top 8’ing Grand Prix: Baltimore with this past weekend.

And this is what I would play if I were playing in an event this weekend.

Changes

Okay, so now you have my new list. While this is certainly no massive overhaul, these changes will go a long way toward plugging up some holes.

Skirsdag High Priest

After about Round 6 of the Grand Prix, I knew for sure that I hated Skirsdag High Priest; he was just so incredibly awkward at almost every point during the event. I made two 5/5s over the course of eighteen rounds, and those two times, I was probably far enough ahead that they weren’t even relevant. He did Squire it up a lot for me, though, so credit where credit is due. For now at least, he is not pulling is weight. I will say that if you expect a lot of mono-green or Humans in your metagame, you may want to consider having a few somewhere in your seventy-five.

Diregraf Captain

Diregraf Captain is great. He has three very relevant abilities that go a long way toward advancing your game plan, and he is super-synergistic with basically the entire deck. He is especially nice when used in tandem with Mortarpod. Having him in play lets you machinegun your opponent to 0 very quickly with Mortarpod. My favorite play throughout the weekend was killing Consecrated Sphinxes and Batterskull tokens using his deathtouch with Mortarpod. I had more than one opponent tap out for some manner of large monster, hoping I didn’t peel a removal spell only to sheepishly bin his creature when I killed it with an onboard trick. All that being said, I’d too often find myself with either too many 3-drops or too many blue cards with no blue mana. Cutting one Diregraf Captain lets me lower the likelihood of this scenario just enough.

Nihil Spellbomb

Nihil Spellbomb was the best card in my sideboard, hands down. I sided it in more than anything else and was very pleased every time I drew it. Adding one will give me random value against decks like U/B control, Esper control, Frites, and even Delver. When I draw it against other decks, it just cycles.

Distress

Distress was the card all of us agreed that we should have run over High Priest. First of all, it’s a 2-drop, which the deck needs more of. Second, it really answers a lot of the questions that Zombies have a tough time answering otherwise. Huntmaster of the Fells is among the cards that gave me the hardest time, and Distress lets me stop him without disrupting my curve. Distress lets you remove all of the problem cards, so I could go on forever about why it’s awesome, it would take a while.

So, my main-deck changes are:

−1 Diregraf Captain

−2 Skirsdag High Priest

+2 Distress

+1 Nihil Spellbomb

The Full Review

Now, before I talk about the rest of the maindeck, I need to give credit where credit is due. This exact decklist was played by four people: Nate Chafe, David Heilker, Branch Statton, and me. The list was worked on by Nate Chafe and me. I sent my rough list to Nate on the Monday before the Grand Prix and spent about fifteen minutes convincing him Zombies weren’t just some silly theme deck. We bounced around a few ideas, and ultimately, we came up with our final list while pallin around the site on Friday. Oh, and Nate won the last trial with our list.

Gravecrawler and Diregraf Ghoul

These cards need almost as little explanation as the lands. A couple 2-power guys in the first two turns is a tall order for most decks to deal with while still keeping pace with your subsequent spells. Once in a while, you get lucky and get to have three of them by turn two; it only happened once the entire tournament for me, but boy, was it nice.

Fume Spitter

Fume Spitter was awesome all day long. He killed Delvers, Elves, Birds, Champion of the Parish, and more. He was involved the two times I activated the High Priest by providing morbid. Most of his uses are pretty straightforward, but one of the nicest uses was removing the +1/+1 counter on my Messengers before they died for the second time—so they could come back a third time!

Skirsdag High Priest

I’ve talked about this guy enough, but I will reiterate. If you expect a lot of mono-green aggro and Humans, you might consider keeping this guy around.

Phyrexian Obliterator

This guy is just-lights out for R/G aggro and Wolf Run Ramp. There is just no good way for them to answer him outside of Beast Within. He also happens to be among your best options against mono-red. Nate and I really wanted two in the maindeck because we knew R/G decks were going to be very popular, but we didn’t want to go overboard because the Obliterator also happens to be really bad against Humans and Delver because of Vapor Snag, Fiend Hunter, Oblivion Ring, Mana Leak, and other such cards that make paying 4 mana for some big idiot a losing proposition.

Geralf's Messenger

This guy is absolutely bonkers. Just bonkers. I’ve seen him compared to Kitchen Finks and Boggart Ram-Gang. But I never felt that I was cheating when casting those guys. But I did every single time I cast Geralf's Messenger. He interacts really well with Mortarpod, Fume Spitter, and Phantasmal Image. One really great interaction he has with Phantasmal Image is that after the Image copies him, if the Image dies, it comes back, and you can copy anything on the table and still get the +1/+1 counter.

Phantasmal Image

Unless you are brand new to Standard, you’ve seen how good Phantasmal Image is. His primary use in this deck is to copy Geralf's Messenger, and that’s what I did with him ninety percent of the time. I copied Diregraf Captain a few times, which also made for some good times.

Tragic Slip

I was pretty excited when I saw this card on the Dark Ascension spoiler. The feeling you get when you ice an Inferno Titan or an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is just so great. Killing a Delver is okay, too, I hear. It just does so much for so little. There was one memorable Game 1 during the tournament in which I had to mulligan to five. Over the course of the game, I killed the same Elesh Norn four times. Three of those times were with Tragic Slips. I went on to win that game and kill my opponent from 30 by chaining three Gravecrawlers.

Geth's Verdict

Geth's Verdict was one of the card’s I was the most skeptical about going into the event. We originally had four, and it was the go-to card when we needed to make room for something else. We couldn’t bring ourselves to cut it—we knew it was going to be awesome when used with Slip and Mortarpod. I’m glad we didn’t. It ended up being awesome; it killed Huntmasters (with the Wolf trigger on the stack), Titans, Thruns, Delvers, various Humans, Sphinxes, and more. I used it to make myself sac a Messenger when I had an opponent at 2 life. You can also target an opponent who has no creatures—he still loses 1 life! I killed two opponents that way.

Mortarpod

If Geralf's Messenger is the best card in the deck, Mortarpod is a close second. I can’t even think of all the awesome uses I had for this card throughout the weekend. It is just a very flexible card, and I would not even consider cutting one. You can machinegun out your opponent or his creatures with Gravecrawler. Mortarpod and Geralf's Messenger really pile on the damage.

Sword of Feast and Famine

This card was our plan for the mirror. I would say it worked out well the one time I did play the mirror. It was actually just randomly good throughout the entire tournament. I actually sided it out against R/G because of Ancient Grudge and the potential to just be blown out by burn spells and tempo. This Sword could be War and Peace if you have a lot of Spirits and/or Humans in your area.

Darkslick Shores, Drowned Catacomb, and Fourteen Swamps

There’s nothing to say here other than that some people have advocated adding an Island or two. I would like more access to blue mana, but I am not willing to risk not being able to cast Messenger on turn three.

The Old Sideboard

I’m going to only briefly cover my sideboard because it’s not going to be too relevant in the coming weeks because of how fast the Standard metagame evolves these days.

Corrosive Gale

I didn’t cast this spell once in eighteen rounds. It was for Spirits, which is all I can really tell you. I was hesitant to lean on it anyway after talking to various ringers who were playing Spirits. They told me they would just be bringing in Hero of Bladehold for their Lingering Souls.

Phyrexian Obliterator, Distress, and Nihil Spellbomb

I’ve covered my reasoning behind these cards already, and it remains the same, though some numbers may not.

Swamp

This comes in with the two Obliterators.

Phyrexian Metamorph

I like this guy against ramp decks and the mirror. Nate and I kind of just used him as a flexible spot for when we had cards in the main we wanted to trim.

Cemetery Reaper

This guy was put in to have an extra lord and to control the graveyard in the mirror. He is also useful against Frites.

Sword of War and Peace

This is your plan against Humans and Spirits.

The New Sideboard

Okay, so I’ve covered the card choices for the maindeck. I want to touch on the sideboarding plan I will be using on Magic Online and whatever my next event is.

Here is my updated sideboard again.

Swamp, Distress, Phyrexian Obliterator, Nihil Spellbomb, Corrosive Gale, and Sword of War and Peace

These cards are all still in here for the original reasons. I want to talk about a few additions that I am really happy with.

Culling Dais

I am really excited about this card. First of all, just in a vacuum, it’s really sweet in this deck—sweet enough I might try it in the main eventually. Think about it: How cool is it with Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger? You’re able to generate value from your opponents’ removal . . . You can save your guys from Celestial Purge even! This card is going to be stock in Zombies. Mark my word.

Go for the Throat

This card has a lot of applications, but I’m running it for one specific reason: Grave Titan. That guy is a nightmare for the undead.

Sideboarding Strategies

Here’re the sideboarding plans that I’m using:

Wolf Run Ramp:

+1 Swamp

+2 Phyrexian Obliterator

+2 Distress

+2 Go for the Throat

−2 Fume Spitter

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

−1 Nihil Spellbomb

−1 Mortarpod

−1 Geth's Verdict.

R/G aggro:

+1 Swamp

+2 Phyrexian Obliterator

+2 Distress

+2 Go for the Throat

−2 Fume Spitter

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

−1 Nihil Spellbomb

−2 Geth's Verdict

Humans:

+2 Sword of War and Peace

+2 Go for the Throat

+2 Culling Dais

+2 Distress

−2 Phyrexian Obliterator

−3 Geth's Verdict

−1 Nihil Spellbomb

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

Delver:

+2 Culling Dais

+2 Sword of War and Peace

+1 Go for the Throat

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

−2 Phyrexian Obliterator

−1 Diregraf Captain

U/B control:

+2 Distress

+2 Go for the Throat

+2 Culling Dais

+2 Phyrexian Obliterator

+1 Swamp

+1 Nihil Spellbomb

−2 Fume Spitter

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

−3 Geth's Verdict

−2 Mortarpod

−1 Tragic Slip

Spirits:

+2 Sword of War and Peace

+1 Corrosive Gale

+2 Culling Dais

−3 Geth's Verdict

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

Frites:

+3 Nihil Spellbomb

+1 Swamp

+2 Go for the Throat

+2 Phyrexian Obliterator

−2 Sword of Feast and Famine

−3 Geth's Verdict

−2 Distress

−1 Mortarpod

Zombies

+3 Nihil Spellbomb

+2 Culling Dais

+2 Go for the Throat

−2 Distress

−3 Geth's Verdict

−2 Phyrexian Obliterator

Wrapping Up

I hope this article has given you a pretty good idea of what to expect if you decide to sling some Zombies at your next event. This is a really new archetype, and I’m sure it is going to evolve a lot over the next few months. If you’re not going to play Zombies, you’d better know how to beat it—this deck is here to stay. I hope this article was informative, if not at least somewhat enjoyable. Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments if you have any questions at all—I will respond. Thanks for reading.

 


I’d also like to talk about something that happened on Sunday around the same time as my semifinals match. At about 7:00 P.M., my good friend Justin Parnell had his all-foil Cube stolen from right next to him while he turned away to talk to someone. I know turning away from your Cube sounds dumb, but we are talking about 7:00 P.M. on a Sunday at a Magic event—the room had become pretty empty by that point. Justin is a great guy and just wants to spread the joy of cubing to people. There were a couple people floating around the table, but they were all people who had expressed interest in watching the ongoing Cube matches at the table, and as is his nature, Justin no doubt engaged all comers in conversation about cube drafting. So, we know it was someone who was casing the table for at least a few minutes. As of now, we are still waiting for the footage of the area where it happened so that we can try to figure out who did it.

We will continue following any leads we find to catch the thief. Unfortunately, the convention center’s response has been rather lethargic, and the Tournament Organizer was completely indifferent about the whole incident. I don’t know what steps can be taken, but I would really like to see organizers take more steps than just telling players to watch their bags. These theft rings have to stop; they will ruin our game. Magic cards are so expensive these days, and something has to be done. Josh Jacobson, David Heilker, Justin Parnell, and I are discussing ideas to stop the theft. We can’t just wait for TOs to protect our investments.

If anyone has any information about Justin Parnell’s stolen Cube, feel free to join our group on Facebook here, e-mail me privately at emscottinc at gmail dot com, or find me on Facebook or @emscottinc on Twitter.

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