Innistrad introduced to us the potential of the Magic: the Gathering Zombie tribe to be a deck archetype in Standard. Dark Ascension enhanced it further with more creature components and the Undying mechanic. In the set’s storyline, Diregraf undead arises from the necromancers and forms their own Zombie horde to invade the towns. They are literally the bad guys in Innistrad.

I am hoping though these creatures would perform more in the Standard metagame than that to mindlessly walk.

Here is the proposed decklist:

Blue Black Zombies
by Mark Ian Alloso
Post Dark Ascension Standard
Lands
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
15 Swamp

Creatures
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
3 Diregraf Captain
4 Geralf’s Messenger
2 Highborn Ghoul
4 Cemetery Reaper

Spells
2 Altar’s Reap
2 Doom Blade
3 Mana Leak
2 Sword of War and Peace
2 Tragic Slip
2 Moan of the Unhallowed
3 Geth’s Verdict

The notable components of the deck obviously are the messengers of Geralf and Gravecrawler. Highborn Ghoul is only the good Zombie two drop though I wouldn’t include more than two as the one toughness makes it more vulnerable, though its Intimidate compensates that.

The seven Zombie lords make sure your one drop gets the maximum damage on the early turns. Plus the Diregraf Captain is a pseudo-Kalastria Highborn with a loss life trigger.

Moan of the Unhallowed are additional creature support and works well in the late game and with Swords in the deck. Altar’s Reap is a favorable card draw with Gravecrawler and Mana Leak is well, Mana Leak.

The popularity of Hex-proof critters makes Geth’s Verdict an important removal component. Why is it preferred over Liliana (the latter is obviously more powerful)? The reason is the popularity of the Blue-White Delver decks. With this matchup, Liliana is just a three-mana cost edict and dies mostly to flying spirit tokens. Also, our mana curve is already congested on the three drop so I had to cut her to the sideboard.

To conclude, I would not be surprised by Zombie decks running around in MTGO Daily events and even in Grand Prix events. The important thing is that it should be well-suited to the meta, both in the main deck and the sideboard.

Comments and suggestions are very much welcome. Until the next post.