Well that would be my fault, since i haven't thought about an embalm deck going too far from the theme, i always thought that black should be a must for the zombies we have.
I think that nobody was trying some embalm deck for this round, if someone is i apologize and i will be more careful about rules next time. I would say that, to not penalize embalm cards in general making them count as half, if there is an embalm creature in your deck you must have at least 6 black cards.
(Sorry i'm not very good at making restrictions )

I might try making a deck, if I have time between exams. Not going to have time to properly test it out if I make one though, so we'll see what happens.

Sure everyone is welcome, you can try to build a list. If you have not enough time you can always join the poll and leave feedbacks for the other deckbuilders

I think embalm should count as zombies since they support tribal builds.

I REALLY think small Lilly should count. Her ultimate is THE zombie game-winning ultimate. There is nothing better on any other card in the game. Imagine if you have wayward servant out or whatever. So much fun. You gotta allow this. It's full zombie support.

but you never evaluate ult when you evaluate a planeswalker. More like the -2 raise dead provides the needed recur that zombie deck needs in our game. We have many zombie ETB, zombie anthem, but we need more built-in zombify effects. Getting back a lord or diregraf from liliana -2 is very profitable.

no i know, but her ultimate is THE zombie ult so we have to consider her zombie I think. She has the keyword right on her too. Plus, I would only be plus-ing her to get to that dream payoff

Embalm creatures count as zombie for the requirement, i only want to avoid an azorius deck full of embalm but which has pretty much nothing to do with zombies.
About Lili, she is not banned, it's just she doesn't count in the 16 cards requirement, since when she is able to create zombies the game is pretty much over. But again if someone has problem with only 1 card for the requirement because of her, i could allow it.

Okay, last 2 I swear... lol

What about Rise from the Grave and Ever After?

Since they create Zombies ever time.

The rule should just be, if the card has zombie written on it in any place, it counts.

I think i can accept both.


Yeah sometimes easier is better.

Baloth Null One of my favorite zombies isn't legal for the zombie deck contest.

So any card that creates a zombie counts toward the requirement, interesting.
Cards that count:
Doomed Dissenter
Drana's Chosen
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
Oketra's Attendant
Labyrinth Guardian

I don't know why but every time you make a contest I want to break it with some bizarre deck that is no where near what you are asking for. My efforts usually produce off the wall bad decks but it's fun to do. I had thought about going azurious embalm aggro. I guess I will come up with something else.

Ooh, if I play Drana's Chosen, can I count all my Ally creatures as zombies for this challenge? Just kidding of course.

Though it would amuse me to submit an ally deck for the zombie trial challenge!

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


Since this is what I submitted, it's probably best to include some sort of deck tech (even though I'm sure zombies & aggro are pretty straight forward). I know it's posted a bit early but it's best to get it done when I can

Paths to victory - The deck can win several different ways - typical aggro/wide, tap & menace, tall (lord effects) and recursion (all padded with a subtheme of life drain). Each path also marries with one another so combinations of each are typical.

Aggro/Wide - Not much to say here. Curve curve curve, beat down and remove early blockers. The life drain helps this path the most by shoring up those last 3-6 damage so keep that in mind with your sequencing if going this route (i.e. casting Belcher in your 1st main to get triggers off your wide swings, using Belcher for triggers with it's negative counters especially with recursion options available, prioritizing Wayward Servant as an early cast when going wide, playing Throne of the God-Pharaoh in the early game with lots of beats or playing it late game in a 2nd main phase as a finisher to a wide attack).

Tap & Menace - Binding Mummy is just an all-star card. It makes aggro so much better allowing you to keep swinging by adding more threats to your board. This in concert with Menace from Lord of the Accursed, Graf Harvest & Plague Belcher makes it quite difficult for any creature based deck to stop the beats. Being able to swing more frequently without losing much board presence makes the Throne trigger more too.

Tall - Lord of the Accursed and Liliana's Mastery tend to make their blocks and removal worse as well as making a smaller board presence on your side a bit more palatable. Recursion likes this support best with Lily, Wander & Harvest (sure tall works with all the other paths by speeding them up; which can be important, but you can also win those type of games w/o being tall too. Whereas recursion often means you're short on board presence so you want to make everything as threatening as possible. Obviously you should try to prioritize Mastery with the recursion just cause it's a bit tougher to remove.)

Recursion (Control/removal tech) - Zombies are definitely the flavor of the Steam ladder so everyone is prepared for it. The best chances against those decks fall on Dread Wanderer, Scrapheap Scrounger, Graf Harvest, Liliana, the Last Hope and Shambling Vent. Granted Scrounger & Harvest eat the grave whereas Wanderer & Lily return from it, we're still stuck on rarity restrictions issues so we'll keep it all and roll with the punches. Lily's -2 should be targeting Diregraf Colossus, Plague Belcher, Lord of the Accursed & Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and sometimes Binding Mummy. The rest should generally be food for Scrounger/Harvest and Lily should generally be ticked up then.

Removal - Use Push for early threats to keep your pressure high, keep Salvation for mid game/ late game threats (or the Binding Mummy/ life drain trigger wins) and Unmaking as a catch all for 'non-creature' concerns. We're not sporting a lot of removal because we're aggro and more interested in playing threats/ tapping out. There's still enough though to be useful and we can get a little extra reach out of Lily and Festering Mummy by being aggressive (Fester can be triggered off attacks/blocks, Belcher & Kalitas and is always welcome in the grave as food or making Diregraf larger). If you're getting into later turns and your board presence is falling behind (tall or wide), I don't believe additional removal is going to save the game on average (although like I said in my last post, Throne is taking the place of the 3rd Push currently which it probably shouldn't. Still, Throne has won a surprising number of games so far which means I'll keep it for now).

As I mentioned in my other post, Throne of the God-Pharaoh is meant to go with lots of aggro swings but can be used with Cryptbreaker (3dmg & a card), Dread Wanderer cast/recursion, Diregraf Colossus triggers (zombies created are tapped), Lord of the Accursed menace activations, and in some cases Binding Mummy on your own creatures. It is all on your own end step but in most cases; especially since we're aggro, it's not a big deal.

Outside of removal (and I guess tall or recursion), Wayward Servant, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Shambling Vent are our best answers to mirrors and other aggro strategies. Because the zombie and/or aggro themes are so popular, it's actually why I think should be run over the other zombie deck options.

All of this is to be taken with a grain of salt and should be modified to the game/opponent you're playing but hopefully this will help when questioning certain lines.

Any questions or concerns I didn't cover, please let me know and I'll do my best to clarify.



elk

Is that the official rule?

@elk, my list nearly identical to yours... I'll post it later, but I'll submit something else. Probably no more than 4 cards different.

I think that is going to be a problem if the rule is to tight.

I wanted to suscribe this janky build, it may be to far fetch so tell me does it classify as zombie?

Zobie Drakes

Creature(20)
2 x Cryptbreaker
3 x Ruthless Sniper
2 x Scrapheap Scrounger
2 x Wharf Infiltrator
2 x Asylum Visitor
3 x Lord of the Accursed
2 x Prized Amalgam
3 x Haunted Dead
1 x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Sorcery(9)
2 x Dark Salvation
4 x Alms of the Vein
3 x Gisa's Bidding

Enchantment(2)
2 x Drake Haven

Planeswalker(1)
1 x Liliana, the Last Hope

Artifact(4)
2 x Smuggler's Copter
2 x Key to the City

Land(24)
2 x Island
2 x Sunken Hollow
12 x Swamp
2 x Drowned Catacomb
4 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Drownyard Temple


Zombie generators

2x Cryptbreaker
3x Lord of the Accursed
2x Prized Amalgam
3x Haunted Dead
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2x Dark Salvation
3x Gisa's Bidding
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
----
+17
*also if they ain´t coming back from the grave why call them zombies?

@Cucho The list is ok, with 16 generators (Lili doesn't count).

Maybe zombies are already a restrictive theme, and maybe i'm making it even more restrictive with colors. Let's see what happens.

Here's more janky lists in the wrong colors.

How to troll control 101

2x dread wanderer.(2)
2x cryptbreaker(4)
2x dark salvation (6)
3x fatal push

2x heir of falkenrath
2x wharf infiltrator
1x jace wryn prodigy
2x smuggler copter
2x scraphead scrounger

2x prized amalgam (8)
1x read the bones
2x murder
3x broken concentration

1xkalitas,traitor of geth (9)
3x haunted dead(12)
3x gisa's bidding(15)
1x glimmer of genius

2x from under the floorboard(17)

2x sunken hollow
2x drowned catacomb
2x westwale abbey
10x swamp
8x island

Yes, the mana base is awful, deal with it and remember that broken concentration madness cost is not double blue.

A quick reminder: i will consider only the last decklist sent my by PM. You can post your lists here for the discussion, but when i will make the poll i will check only the lists sent by PM.

It all good, I think restrictions are a good way to trigger creative process, let's see how creative we get with this challenge.