2011)

In “Literature” [Editor's note: Does George Romero count as literature?] there are generally two types of zombies. The first kind is weak but plentiful. A pistol round to the head, or sometimes even to the chest will kill the zombie. They make up for this by having thousands of zombies to overrun the survivors and surround them. This type of zombie is also typically slow moving but inevitable. The second kind is fast, strong, but few. If one of these bad boys gets on your trail, you're going to have a hard time taking care of him. Often times several shotgun blasts to the head are required. How does this relate to Magic? The zombies in my Zombie Deck are fast, strong, plentiful, and backed up by some of the strongest firepower that Black Magic has to offer. And in Magic, nobody has any shotguns.

My multiplayer-oriented Zombie Deck is the best deck I have ever made. It draws on resources from all of Magic's History and has been play tested for hundreds of hours. The result is a killing machine that dominates multiplayer games and rolls through one-on-one games. In this article, I will go through card by card, explaining the strategy and tricks to mastering the hordes of undead and pulverizing your opponents. I will also outline how to tune the deck to your metagame with the many tools black has to offer. The Zombie deck brings along a highly adaptable sideboard to defeat all opponents. Before we start I should warn potential deck builders that the full 75 card list totals about $120 at the lowest price on Cardshark. This can be greatly reduced (down to about $55) by taking out the Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and switching out the expensive Wraths for cheaper ones. Lets get to it!

Black (32)
3: Festering Goblin
2: Nantuko Shade
3: Dregscape Zombie
2: Death Baron
2: Cemetery Reaper
2: Lord of the Undead
4: Undead Warchief
1: Grave Titan
3: Consume Spirit
1: Black Sun's Zenith
1: Damnation
2: Living Death
4: Phyrexian Arena
2: Gravepact

Artifact (6)
4: Expedition Map
2: Basilisk Collar

Lands (22)
2: Gargoyle Castle
4: Cabal Coffers
3: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1: Bojuka Bog
12: Swamps

Sideboard(15)
2: Memoricide
4: Unmake
4: Infest
3: Duress
2: Yixlid Jailer

Lands
One of the major strengths of this zombie deck is the ability to generate tons of mana with the Cabal Coffers package. Cabal Coffers is a land that adds a black mana for every Swamp you control. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes all lands Swamps in addition to their other types. This means that both Urborg and Cabal Coffers can tap to add black mana, and Cabal Coffers counts as a Swamp for its own ability [Editor's note: This really does make a huge difference, although I can't quite articulate exactly why]. This solves the Cabal Coffers problem of drawing three Cabal Coffers and no Swamps. You could switch out a Swamp for a fourth copy of Urborg if you want, but I have found that because Urborg is Legendary, a fourth copy isn't worth it.

Another useful land in the deck is Gargoyle Castle, which can be sacrificed to get a 3/4 flying gargoyle creature token. As the only flying creature in the deck, the Gargoyle is necessary to stop slow death by Suntail Hawk or to chump block a dragon. Another option for this slot is Tomb of Urami which allows you to get a 5/5 flying demon. The drawback is that you have to sacrifice all your lands. This is usually a bad choice because it is hard to win with no lands, but the Tomb could be used as a last ditch effort to finish off an opponent.

There are twelve more Swamps for a total of 22 lands. While not technically a land, Expedition Map can fetch up non-basics, which helps set up the Urborg and Cabal Coffers engine. If you already have the Cabal Coffers engine, hold onto a spare Expedition Map in case someone starts throwing around land destruction. In the later parts of the game, you will have plenty of mana to be able to cast and pop the Map to get the specific land you need at that time. This is greatly preferable to fetching up a third Cabal Coffers, then realizing you need the Gargoyle Castle to save your skin.

When thinking about whether to keep an opening hand based on land, there are two general rules. Keep a hand with two mana sources and an Expedition Map, or three mana sources. Don't take a hand with a Swamp and two Cabal Coffer; while tempting, you will get mana-screwed. Trust me.

Creatures
Lords: There are 10 total zombie lords in this deck. Undead Warchief is easily the best, pumping all your zombies by +2/+1 and reducing their cost by one colorless. The deck should always play four Undead Warchiefs no matter what. Lord of the Undead pumps all your zombies by +1/+1 and can be used to recover his fallen brethren. He is the next best, if you can get three copies that would be preferable. Lord of the Undead will often draw a lot of hate from the table, often immediately getting shot down or Wrathed. The best time to play him is after a Wrath when you have creatures in the graveyard to return. Also players won't want to Wrath only one creature, so he will likely stick around. The next zombie lord is Cemetery Reaper which gives your zombies +1/+1, and he makes 2/2 black zombie creature tokens. This ability also helps with Living Death because it removes creature cards from other peoples' graveyards. The final zombie lord is Death Baron, who gives all your zombies +1/+1 (noticing a trend?) and deathtouch. I consider him the worst of the lords, however, because a large portion of the time your creatures will be bigger anyway so deathtouch is pointless. Deck builders can play around with the number of lords to suit their play style or meta-game. Cemetery Reaper and Lord of the Undead both become better when there are fewer Wraths floating around so they can keep pumping your zombies. They are both good after a Wrath though, because graveyards are full of creatures. Lord of the Undead is particularly good when facing control or an attrition-based deck because he allows you to outlast them. Undead Warchief is good against everything.

Beaters: There are three different efficient beaters in this deck which each have their own strengths. The first is Festering Goblin which upon death, gives target creature -1/-1. He can often two-for-one enemies and take out priority targets, such as Llanowar Elf, Dark Confident, Soul Warden and more. Note that the -1/-1 is a must, so he can hurt you if you aren't careful. The second beater is Dregscape Zombie, a 2/1 with unearth for B. The final beater is Nantuko Shade, a powerful pumpable 2/1. With a Cabal Coffers engine going, this dead insect can often hit for seven on turn four. There are many options for these eight slots. Any cheap aggressive black creature fits the bill. It is a good idea to stick with zombies though, because they get buffed from all the lords. Nantuko Shade is not a zombie, but he is included for his raw power. Other options are Stromgald Crusader if you are up against white flyers or Bloodghast for his amazing resilience.

Grave Titan: This giant gets his own category because he doesn't fit in the others and he is just flat out awesome. Grave Titan puts two 2/2 black zombie creatures tokens into play when he enters the battlefield or attacks. Grave Titan often gets Wrathed by himself because if he sticks around the game will quickly turn in your favor. Other options for this slot are the new Vengeful Pharaoh or another zombie lord.

Sorceries
Wraths: Damnation is a black Wrath of God; the card that defined this whole category. Needless to say, it is very good. Black Sun's Zenith is good because your creatures will often be larger than your opponents'. It will kill all of your opponents' creatures and leave yours still standing. Because it shuffles back into your library, Phyrexian Arena gives you a good chance of drawing it again. The final wrath is Living Death which switches the battlefield and graveyard for all creatures. Living Death is fantastic recovery from an opponent's Wrath or in the late game when graveyards are full. Bojuka Bog, which removes target graveyard from the game, and Cemetery Reaper both improve Living Death so that it becomes almost one sided. Remember to try and save an Expedition Map in your hand so you can fetch up the singleton Bojuka Bog when you draw a Living Death.

Other Sorceries: This zombie deck sometimes runs into problems for certain kind of decks. Particularly the ones that play Ensnaring Bridge or Moat, both of which black cannot remove. The secondary win condition is Consume Spirit. For X1B, Consume Spirit does X damage and you gain X life. With a few Cabal Coffers out, Consume Spirit can kill an opponent in one hit. I have won several games by pointing a fifteen damage Consume Spirit at someone's face. The life gain also often saves you from dying from your own Phyrexian Arena.

Enchantments
Phyrexian Arena lets you draw an extra card during your upkeep, but you also lose 1 life. It keeps you fueled late in the game. The second enchantment in this deck is Grave Pact. Grave Pact says that whenever one of your creatures dies, each opponent sacrifices a creature. This type of attrition makes it almost impossible for another creature-based deck to win. If you aren't playing against a creature-heavy deck however, this would be the first card to sideboard out.

Artifacts
Basilisk Collar is the other artifact in the deck (the Expedition Map is the first of course). It gives the equipped creature deathtouch and lifelink. The lifelink is particularly useful in long multi-player games in which you are getting whittled down by flying creatures and your own Phyrexian Arena. The card is also excellent at dealing with aggro decks such as goblins or vampires. A few blocks with a Basilisk Collar equipped creature and those decks will run out of steam. The Collar also helps by taking out large targets with the deathtouch, such as Rampaging Baloths or Eldrazi.

Sideboard
This deck's sideboard enables it to better handle combo and control-based decks, and also decks using White Weenie or Elf based strategies. Bring in Memoricide to deal with combo decks by removing their combo pieces before they hit the table. Memoricide removes all copies of a chosen card from the targets graveyard, hand, and library. If playing control, try to sneak in a Memoricide when your opponent is tapped out to nab their counterspells. Bring in Duress for the same two reasons. Memoricide and Duress are often your only way to interact with decks that rely heavily on spells, enchantments, or artifacts, cards that mono-black typically can't deal with. Because I already know the decks I'm facing, I tend to leave Memoricide in.

Infest gives all creatures -2/-2. Bring in Infest when playing the Elf, Soldier, or Goblin tribal-style decks that rely on a swarm of small creatures. Often times your zombies will have greater than two toughness, turning Infest into a one-sided board wipe for those decks.

Unmake exiles a creature and is the cheapest yet best removal spell I have found available to black with no restrictions. Bring in Unmake when playing decks with a few large creatures, particularly those that fly, such as Dragons, Angels, or whatever creature the control deck have as their finisher. Perceptive readers may have already realized that Unmake is the only instant in the entire deck. This may seem noobish, but the Cabal Coffers mana system encourages tapping all your lands to make boatloads of mana and dumping your hand. Often times, you won't have the mana up on other players' turns to cast instants.

Yixlid Jailer makes cards in graveyards lose all abilities. Bring him in to deal with dredge, unearth, or flashback strategies. He's pretty self-explanatory.

General Strategy
The general strategy of the Zombie deck is to develop your mana early with Expedition Map. Try to have one Urborg and one to two Cabal Coffers. Also try to get Phyrexian Arena and Gravepact down early. Next play your beaters and follow up with the lords to empower them as they rumble into the red zone. If you suspect your opponent has a Wrath don't drop all your zombies. Phyrexian Arena should keep your hand stocked so even if your opponent Wraths, you can lay down another army of zombies. If your opponent manages to stop your rush, get back your guys with Living Death or Lord of the Undead. A late game Consume Spirit will restock your life and possibly take out an opponent as well.

There are many options for changing the card choices in this deck. The roles that the specific cards play in the deck are very important however. When deciding what to change, keep in mind to never switch out Festering Goblin, Undead Warchief, Phyrexian Arena, and Living Death. They are the absolute best choices for Beater, Lord, Card Advantage, and Wrath for this deck. Perhaps in the future, straight upgrades will be printed, but for now those should stay in. I have long toyed with the idea of adding green or white to provide artifact and enchantment destruction. Of the two, white would most likely be the better choice. If white were to be added, the card Necromancer's Covenant would be an excellent choice for the deck. It is 3WBB, and it removes all creature cards from target player's graveyard and also gives you a 2/2 zombie creature token for each one removed that way. Adding white would most likely make the mana base a bit unstable, so Scrubland or Godless Shrine would be necessary because they count as swamps for Cabal Coffers. That, or scrap the Cabal Coffers Engine all together [Editor's note: But it's so awesome! Also, Urborg will help if you don't have the dual lands that have the Swamp type].

Thank you for reading my article on the Multi-Player Zombie Deck! If you have comments or ideas for the deck, you can email me at wilson.g.gregory@gmail.com Enjoy eating those brains!

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