Maybe should be assumed, but to be sure... are embalm creatures legal as they would create "zombie tokens" from the gy?

Too bad about the color restriction. Honored Hydra makes quite the zombie out of the gy and he goes well in decks that like to self mill something zombie decks tend to do.

I explained my point of view when i created this contest. The idea of the contest is a challenge for deckbuilders to create a deck under some restriction, in a way that they are comparable so that we can at least in theory optimize an archetype. My original idea was to have fixed colors every round, but now i'm giving some freedom when we have more restrictive themes.
It's only partially a creativity contest but mostly an optimized archetype contest, even if i'm aware that it would require more effort and a different way to evaluate them rather than the poll. For completely free creativity there is the entire constructed subforum.


Yeah they do.

I get the point, but I think color restrictions are uninteresting and bad. Other types of restrictions are far more fun (and you've already had multiple people wanting non esper zombies). Do you actually have a reason for not changing the rules other than saving face?


Edit: Ok, that came out really salty. Sorry, I have a headache this morning. I appreciate you hosting the contest, I just thought last round was a bit too homogeneous and color restrictions contribute to that. I'd really like to see people accomplishing similar goals in very different ways and I think eliminating color restrictions will help and make these contests more fun.

Lol, poor Joker always having people unhappy with his awesome contests

Don't sweat it joker, they've been a success for a reason. Attendance is optional and people can always run their own contests

It'll be fun, can't wait

Np, luckily i'm not able to draw and make comics, so i can accept also salty feedbacks
The contest should be homogeneus, we should have people discussing about changes on the same idea, if we take as example the last poll i liked a lot people discussing about the amount of lands with huge differences (19 lands/ 25 lands) between decks that can be called rakdos aggro, and also about specific choices like Key to the City, Glorybringer, etc. If a person or one of the deckbuilders tests all these decks he can see how a card underperforms or is a brilliant idea.

If we have no restrictions we can have let's say monoblack aggro, azorius embalm tokens, jund zombies. What would be the discussion by putting them all together? Only "hey your idea is cool", "this deck is sweet or sucks", but no comparison and no way to improve everyone's lists and decide which performed better. We are not looking for the sweetest idea, it should already be on the subforum somewhere, but taking one idea and trying to improve and optimize it.

Now you can tell me that my themes suck, or that testing 10 similar decklists can be boring, i can accept it. As for the themes, i try to differentiate them, mostly jank, but also something related to the actual expansion and also spike. As for the decklists i always felt that 6/7 decklists were a good amount, but if people send me lists i cannot say "you're too late, optimized too much your list but we are already 7". Again i'm not monopolizing the subforum, there are threads with sweet ideas and long discussions, but without being homogeneous there is no need to compare stuff and make a contest.

Edit: also you can tell me that the way to test them is not a good way and i agree, as i was discussing yesterday with Gem, but it's not easy to find a right method and keep it enjoyable for anyone who wanna join it. It's up to people to find a way to test them, feel how the differences behave and create a discussion with the deckbuilders.

Lol good point about the webcomics

So thought about testing... let me look into making a script that can auto import contest decks into duels. It would save a ton of time and make actually playing them easier.

You gave me an idea. No I can't make a script that runs on xbox to import deck lists but maybe we could make it easier by using a deck list format. Group cards together by color and type sorted by cmc

example:

black creatures
2x dread wanderer
3x gifted atherborn

black instants
3x fatal push

black sorceries
2x Gissa's bidding

white creatures
2x toolcraft exemplar
1x boonweaver giant

white enchants
2x always watching

mana
20x swamps
5x plains


you don't have to put the titles in the list it would look like this:
2x dread wanderer
3x gifted atherborn
3x fatal push
2x Gissa's bidding
2x toolcraft exemplar
1x boonweaver giant
2x always watching
20x swamps
5x plains

I think if the list is organized it would be quick and easy to build it using the in game filters.

This is what I've been playing for a while and have enjoyed it. Maybe I'll pitch it in this round and see if I can get Barney to rage delete it.


Yet Another Zombie Deck


2 x Cryptbreaker
4 x Festering Mummy
2 x Dread Wanderer
2 x Scrapheap Scrounger
4 x Binding Mummy
3 x Wayward Servant
2 x Diregraf Colossus
2 x Plague Belcher
3 x Lord of the Accursed
1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

2 x Fatal Push
2 x Anguished Unmaking
2 x Dark Salvation

1 x Graf Harvest
2 x Liliana's Mastery

1 x Liliana, the Last Hope

1 x Throne of the God-Pharaoh

10 x Swamp
6 x Plains
2 x Shambling Vent
2 x Isolated Chapel
4 x Forsaken Sanctuary



I'm sure I'll catch some guff for the Throne of the God-Pharaoh inclusion but I have enjoyed it here. Cryptbreaker taps, Dread Wanderer and all the zombies produced by Diregraf Colossus come in tapped not to mention Lord of the Accursed now gets a bit of value out of it's Menace activation. Heck you can even use Binding Mummy to tap down your own dudes in certain cases. It can be played early to give some more depth to the Wayward Servant and Plague Belcher angle and can be played late game (2nd main after attacks) as a surprise "finisher" (I actually used Binding Mummy to tap down all my 2nd main zombie casts and then played the Throne for a win). So far It's been replacing my third Fatal Push.



elk

Yeah I like the idea of drawing cards with Cryptbreaker while still doing damage, sounds fun

I have already got 3 decklists, all in the same colors. They have 22 cards in common, so yeah the decklists are similar but the 10 or more different cards is what defines and gives an identity to these decks, and makes one of them perform better than another one in the long term.

I'm trying to decide if I want to go with the 'obvious' build, or something totally different. I just finished a quick test of the obvious build, and I wasn't that impressed. Also, I discovered something surprising, I think the best 2 drop in Zombies is actually Binding Mummy rather than Wayward Servant. I wasn't expecting that at all. It actually opens up some possibilities that I hadn't considered prior to testing for this contest.

Joker, u got my list? Maybe I should share mine with DJ just to encourage him to do something different. At the same time, he's really good at optimizing builds

Yeah got it.

Rules question: are the three lili planeswalkers and oath of liliana good for our zombie count in the deck since all can produce zombie tokens? In other words, if I include all of the above does that count as 5 Zombies for the sake of our building requirements?

I got caught out on artifacts for misinterpreting the rules, so I want to know before I get attached to a concept. E.g.: Whirler Rogue, etc... didn't count.

Follow up: What about Cradle of the Acursed? Does 4 of those count as 4 zombie producers?

I'm a bit split about counting embalm creatures as zombies, on one hand it makes sense, because they are zombies, and they get zombie synergies, and forcing too many other zombies into the deck because the embalm ones doesn't count would be silly. On the other hand, I think it would be quite possible to build a decent deck using embalm creatures, that doesn't focus on the tribal at all, but just recursion of good creatures. Though perhaps recursion is the main thing we think of when we think zombies? As I said, I'm split. Perhaps embalm creatures could count as half a zombie?

@DJ0045
It should be fine for you to use Lilianas and masteries as zombies.

Not easy to answer, I should be careful with rules
I would say definitely yes big Lili, a reasonable yes for flip Lili, no for the oath since it cannot produce them by itself. About EMN Lili, not sure about this, i would say no, but if it is necessary i can discuss it again.
About lands, they don't count for the requirements, i should have said nonland cards (fixed), thx for the questions.

That's a great idea, about embalm cards counting as half zombies, but i'm not sure if i should do the same for any card that produce zombie tokens. I will think a bit about this and then decide.

Might be a bit late to change the rules, since people's already started creating and submitting the decks, I would feel bad if they had to redo work because of me. Oh well, it's up to you.