Old timers on Hive know I love my zombie decks. In the Aggro Light + Strength Steal Deception meta, they were pretty bad. Then they nerfed Over the Line and zombies got even worse. But the meta has shifted significantly and zombies seem to be doing quite well.
The Deck
This is a deck I noticed SamBam playing, and he picked it up from Mirage. These are both top players, so as soon as I saw them playing zombies, I got excited. There are some interesting twists. Mirage has been tweaking the deck, so there are quite a few versions, but I patterned mine off of this one from SamBam:
Code:
GU_1_1_CCcCCcCAeCAeCCbCCbGAFHAFHAFKCBKCBKDSKDSIBZIBZIADIADCEaCEaBAFIAJIAJIACIACOAQIAKIAKCCeCCeGAd
The first thing to notice is that this deck is cheap. Neferu at 6 mana is half the deck cost, and I don't (currently) have her, so I replaced her with a 1x Blade of Whiteplain.
There are a few new cards in this zombie deck:
Necronomics
Necronomics at 1x is a nice way to use your health as a resource. This is particularly effective in this deck given all the leech. The ideal use of the card is to place multiple 1-2 mana creatures on board, refresh 5 mana, and play Netherswarm Lord.
Half Life
Most commonly seen in control sleep decks, but Half Life has a lot of interesting targets in this deck.
- Obelisk: Probably best target. For four mana you can bring it back and GP on the same turn.
- Cambion: Another good one. Also can be combined with your GP to boost it to 4/4
- Bombfly: Need just a little more reach? Bombfly gets blitz meaning you can sacrifice it for 3 face damage.
- Looter: Can be used to trade and draw a card.
Frost Queen Nef
Can put in a lot of work as you'll see in my gameplay video. A 4/4 body that does minimum 2 face damage. She's good. Best played when they can't immediately trade, which makes her do a minimum of 4 face damage.
Neferu, Champion of the Dead
Classic Nef is an interesting one. My first thought was that she was working against the rest of the deck - easily killing off your own creatures when ahead. But the more I think about it, the more I like her. For starters, don't play her when you control the board. When behind, she's a great way to get back in the game. Additionally, her 3 damage to the enemy god will proc your necroscepter, and the 2/2 zombie leach mitigates her damage to you.
She's also basically the only answer to hidden creatures.
Gameplay
This is a game against Nature at Mythic level. Turn-by-turn breakdown under the vid.
Mulligan
As usual, it's a hard mulligan for either Scepter or Obelisk. I'm able to find it and then luck out with an Axewoman as my first turn draw.
1 Mana
Play the axewoman. I'm assuming it will be killed, but if not, then it procs frenzy next turn for the Scepter.
They immediately trade it out with their own axewoman.
2 Mana
Chiron is a big fear here, but I don't really have anything else to do, so I equip the scepter anyway.
They don't have Chiron. Pretty weak turn.
3 Mana
I'm going to play that Brimstone for card draw no matter what, so I play it first. Maybe the card I draw is the one I want to play. It isn't, so I proceed as planned. I can afford to sacrifice the 1/1 zombie to clear the broccoli. After all, I get a 2/2 zombie at the end of the turn and they don't get any favor because of scepter and the early turn number.
Staff of Roots is nice for them. Clears the zombie and has heal on board. They also luck out and get the Bombfly.
4 Mana
I consider playing Curse of Greed for just 2 mana and then hitting the god power for yet another 2/2 zombie. I decide to go for the 1/1 zombie plus an heirloom. Cards are nice to have.
A fine turn for our opponent. They do opt to save the relic for a better target.
5 Mana
Good thing we got that Heirloom, right? We can take out 2 flies, develop our board, and ping face for favor. A happy turn.
They trade out and play a Rabid Bear. Love to see that while holding CoG.
5.5 Mana
That bear is gone immediately. I trade out and then use the GP to get another 2/2 zombie.
A Tainted Treant?! WTF?! OK, I guess.
6 Mana
Checking the Sanctum, I realize I can dump a lot of cards on board. I'm ahead on God HP, and it's time to assert the aggro role to the max. No more trading (if I can help it). Force them to trade.
They use their Lightning Strike (wisely) on the Rhino. Unfortunately, that means my Netherswarm Lord is going to be a lot harder to deal with. Another Staff of Roots means another 2/2 zombie eats the dirt and they get to heal again.
6.5 Mana
Blade of Pay2Win off the top fits very nicely here. If I hadn't drawn anything good, I'd have been forced into playing the Heirloom + Looter + GP. I decide to trade out because I'd prefer he not be able to kill my Blade easily.
A great turn for our opponent. Jag + Wildire + clears my Blade. Nicely done.
7 Mana
Honestly still not worried. Particularly when we draw the Fickle. I could have gone with the Fiend + Netherswarm Lord and left the Jag to do what confused creatures do. That may have been better. Instead, I decided to take it out and lean on the Scepter for board. Also, I figure I can play Swarmlord on the next turn and get the Fickle to crazy size.
Oryx says bye-bye to Fickle. So much for that.
7.3 Mana
Remember to start every turn by looking for lethal and then checking sanctum/favor. I do, which lets me see that I don't need to trade. I can go face and clear with the rune. We also draw our second scepter. I haven't seen Chiron or any other relic hate, but having the backup is OK at this point. Also, honestly, I'm getting a little bored with the game and decide to toss out Netherswarm rather than messing around trying to develop my board more. Also, he's clearly playing at least midrange and is going to have some big creatures dropping. I'll get some card draw and buff the 2/2 to a 3/3. Should be fine.
They play a Giant. Nice card. Too late.
7.6 Mana
It's face time. I don't even play the GP correctly (should have played it first). It doesn't really matter.
The opponent does their best to clear, but it's too many stats on the board. GG!