Magic The Gathering: The walking dead?

It has been a few weeks after the release of Amonkhet and the Pro Tour where the players have solidified some of the decks to become the meta decks for these few months. One of my favourite decks that have come out from these past few weeks is also one of my favourite archetypes to play, Tribal. Although I prefer green beautiful elves over decaying bodies, these living dead have proven to be menacing for these past few weeks

And so today, we will look into the Zombie Deck that has been making waves into Friday Night Magic and Open Tournaments top 8 everywhere. I will try to go into two different decks, where we look into the more budget friendly version first to not strain our wallets and next the upgraded version which is a bit more extravagant but stands on its own in a tournament.

First, the budget friendly one

Banana Village Zombies

This is a heavy creature deck that focuses on spewing out zombie after zombie and making them stronger with Liliana’s Mastery or with Lord of the Accursed. A single Graf Harvest allows each of the Zombies Menace to break through the ground and at the same time some fuel in the late games. And in case of games stalling out too long on the ground, you can finish your opponent off by sacrificing your undeads to the Profane Prince himself and take matters to the sky.

The spells are good kill spells to clear the way of blockers at the same time taking advantage of your creatures that have triggers when they die. The best spell in this deck is Cemetery Recruitment where for two (2) mana you get back a zombie and draws you cards, netting you 2 cards for the small price of two (2) mana. Of course, the finisher that gives you bodies and buffs your walking dead is the one and only Liliana’s Mastery.

Be sure not to overextend and vomit your zombies out all the way, as a single clear board could reset your game plan and waste valuable cards. Although there are ways to recover and the likes of Diregraf Colossus can let you spew out more zombies with every zombies you cast, it is better to give pressure to your opponent by buffing the zombies with Lord of the Accursed, Liliana’s Mastery and even Graf Harvest.

So how low of a budget is the deck above? The whole deck would cost you around RM250 which is a little high. So, if you are really tight on budget, you can cut the Westvale Abbeys, replacing them with Cradle of the Accursed and also cut Cryptbreakers to replace with some Shamble Black cards. This would bring it down to around RM150 which is manageable.

Alright, for those that do not mind forking out a hefty sum for decks, come have a look at the upgraded version of the deck.

Beverly Hills Undead

This upgraded version is more consistent by having the playset of the cards and having a better set of removals with the costly Fatal Push and also the ever beautiful Liliana, the Last Hope which provides a win condition Emblem. This deck has made a spotlight in the Pro Tour with different iterations and colours but with the same core of the deck.

Either way, I would highly recommend either of these decks depending on your budget. The Zombie archetype has been proven to be good in the tournament scene and is strong enough to beat even the best of decks. So why not give it a try and bring yourself an Army of the Damned?

Till next time, Bwaiiiiinzzzzz