Hello World's The Jumping Dead Record: 5-2 Notes: I totally underestimated this deck. I saw the floorboards, the broken concentrations, the glimmer and bones and thought it was jank. And maybe it is? I kinda hate seeing any of those cards in my hand. It's not aggro, there are no buffs to grow your Zombies, no means of evasion. I lost the first two matches and thought I'd never win any. But then it came together, and it was some kind of beautiful organic system. The token swarms flourished. Baby Jace flipped and recycled removal to save me. I used the madness casting on those counterspells that nobody in the history of the world has ever used. I know there was luck involved, and I probably haven't faced some of the deck's hardest matchups, but I've had a damn good time playing it. MVP: Cryptbreaker. They pull so much weight here; something about the pacing of this deck is just perfect for them. Ditch: okay, I'm still not totally sold on glimmer of genius or read the bones. I could be happy with them being Graf Harvests.
Game logs
1- 5c superfriends (draw): start with Wanderer, amalgam gets cast out. I stall at 3 land with 2 haunted dead in hand. They play Gideon, I push the token and attack it, play infiltrator, which they unmake, then swing at me with Gideon. My turn they use an alchemist's vial to hold back my Wanderer, keep hitting me with Gideon, then blessed alliance for my Wanderer. Finally get a fourth land to play haunted dead. They add green and play tamiyo, then baby lily and an Oath of Liliana, then tezzeret. They unmake one of my haunted dead. I get a floorboards, they planar outburst, start with the ults and I lose. Might have had a chance if I'd gotten the 4th land on time, but the cast outs and unmakings wreck this pretty well. 2- wgb token angels (draw): almost a blowout, they have a declaration of stone for both my infiltrators and another for five zombie tokens the turn before I can flip an Abbey, but my Cryptbreaker keeps me alive, even providing a discard counter to their flip lily, and I finally flip the Abbey to bring me back from the brink. Then they've got a hidden stockpile/evolutionary leap/recurring angel thing going on though, and they can sac blockers/attackers so I stop getting lifegain from my demon and die. 3- wr aggro (play): go with a fast hand: Wanderer, Heir, T3 push their anointer of champions to swing through, play infiltrator. They get T3 solemn recruit and T4 Gisela though, so things look a little grim. Play baby Jace, and they have Angelic Destiny for Gisela. Did I say grim? I meant dire. Find another push for her, as long as they take the bait and kill something of mine when I attack. They trade an envoy for an Eldrazi token, so I push. Next turn the destiny comes back on their recruit and I chump with Heir to stay alive. On my turn I flip Jace and minus to push the recruit from the graveyard. Attack with all, their turn the play always watching and pass, I attack again. They play Kytheon with an Infectious Bloodlust, but they don't have the three left for invulnerability. Sac Jace for the last push, swing to win. What a match! 4- urw (play): Wanderer, Jace, they play TitI and I push. They get their own Jace and I murder. They stall at three land and disconnect. Discard broken concentration to counter radiant flames, peck away with wanderer and bidding tokens with plenty of resources in hand and graveyard. Win. 5- uw spirits (draw): Cryptbreaker, discard haunted for a token their eot. They get rattlechains my eot, but then attack, and haunted comes back with amalgam discard and I trade the token. They cast a bygone bishop. Swing with just the amalgam and keep building with Cryptbreaker. They get Nebelgast Herald and the other Rattlechains, eot I try to murder their bishop but they Essence Flux. Get a Cryptbreaker discard into Gisa's Bidding and then start attacking with the horde, they don't have enough board presence to stave it off. 6- ug ramp (play): Wanderer, Heir, they play elvish visionary, I push it, swing with all and play Cryptbreaker, holding back the Heir's flip cause I have broken concentration in hand but only 1 blue. They play another visionary. Attack with just the Wanderer, they let it through, then pulse the first visionary from the gy. Their turn they play displacement wave, and I flip Heir for the counter, then they replay visionary. I salvation a visionary and keep attacking. They play another wave to wipe the board, replay visionary. I get my Heir, Wanderer and Cryptbreaker back out, plus a copter that they hit with reclamation sage. I discard into a bidding, trying to go wide enough to swarm before they hit 10 and the inevitable ulamog. Their turn they stay at 9 and cast vexing scuttler to get a wave they can't cast yet, my turn I shall with all for the final 5 damage. 7- gu ramp (draw): not a great start here. Push, haunted, bidding, 4 land, but that's after first mulligan and I don't want to drop to six cards. They start with Oath of Nissa so I'm worried they'll have something halfway to ult by the time I can play anything, but luckily I never see any PW. Push is good for their t2 ballista, but I'm top decking lands and dark salvations forever, and that's not a great help against the oblivion sower they put down. I get a huge stroke of luck topping mindbender though, which knocks out ulamog and pull from tomorrow (that has to be the highest possible value you can get from a mindbender in this game, right?), and I toss a couple land to bring back the sacked haunted dead. They're playing around dark salvation (wisely) and won't block mindbender with the sower, so I start using the salvations to grow an army, get a Cryptbreaker to help things along, and go for it. They get a couple Filigree Familiar and an Abbey, but it doesn't slow me down too much.
Final verdict: My votes go to Hello World's The Jumping Dead and my Churn Undead. They're successful, they'll get you to 40 and keep you there, but more than that they're the ones I most enjoy playing. Modulo's was in the running too, before that last one surprised me. I also don't know that anyone totally nailed the Orzhov aggro deck here, which I think would be best as a hybrid between WW's and Elk's builds, something like:
Joined: Nov 20, 2013 Posts: 806 Location: Bama gulf coast
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Congrats Elk! I didn't get around to testing, it's always great to read all the testing logs and stories. When I am feeling like some zombies I will come back to this thread and dig up some builds.
Good job to all the testing everyone especially Barney, Flakey, and Nomad.
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The Last Fight Club Champion
"If there can be no victory, then I will fight forever." —Koth of the Hammer
Congratz to Elk, winner of this round with his orzhov zombie deck, with a Throne as personal touch. We will send you Lili at home as promised within 8 working days, dealing with Bolas atm...
Wish I saw this while the poll was open. My deck that Barney based his off was partially a flavour build (eeevil mono black necromancer with full zombie tribalism). I could've put something a little more competitive forward- namely Orzhov with its better 2-drops and some vehicles (terrible for flavour though).
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"Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark! Obey the call... of Kel'Thuzad!"
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Oh boy Elk is not going to be happy with me. I was on a 15-0 winning streak with his zombie deck when I ran into Espère Control and lost twice in a row to it. *rrrriiiiippppp!!!* The deck retires 15-2
Woodland, your deck is still alive and well, currently on a 9-0 winning streak
Ah nuts 11-1 now, losing to mono black zombies. Better not lose again
Lol oh no!!! Ran up against Boros auras and got slammed by Gisela with cartouche. Tons of first strike vigilant guys too and I've got an army of zombies with nowhere to go. 11-2, I lost both my Zombie decks tonight!! Disaster. Stupid -1/-1 counters quest!! The bane of my existence
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