The crew ranks the best zombies for a Zombie deck in a handy tier list!
===
Follow us on your favorite podcast app!
▲ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4LviEgd…
▲ iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…
▲ Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR…
Buy our merch! Clear out Richard’s garage! https://mtggoldfishmerch.com/
#MTG #magicthegathering #mtgcommander #edh #mtgone
source
First of all, I play grimgrin not to be a hipster but because he is actually a dominant force of nature. Second of all Varina has got to be the strongest zombie commander. I had to take my Varina apart because my group just couldnt keep up. Wilhelt, scarab god, not mentioned but sidisi brood tyrant, both gisas, they just couldnt hang.
Everything from double feature was a waste of resources
I would honorable mention Bladewing Death Tyrant
I'm getting tired of RIchard's hot takes. A little dishonest just to buzz…
Liliana tutor is a on theme tutor 1 to hand 1 to bin.
We need a two headed Giant of Humans Versus Zombies game
No gleaming overseer?
Crim run Morophon Zombies 😎 please!!! 😭 For the memes.
Green is more of a color than white by a lot, and Red may have more cards in the Zombie pool, but green feels way more like a zombie color. Honestly, before innistrad, and mainly Wilhelt, I would have put green above blue for my Zombie pairing.
Seth. SETH. Necroduality WASN'T YOUR ICONIC ZOMBIE CARD? My life is a lie
Im also a hack magic player and I agree. there is no value in a 3 color commander that lets easily loot for 5 each turn
I downgraded wilhelt to varina, adding the exile anything removal is good and it simply lowers the power to have better games into pods.
Lords in order: death baron(richard said eh then banged on about swampwalk evasion), diregraf captain(combo piece lord), haunted one(not actually a lord but better than the other lords)
Card draw: crypt breaker, graveborn muse(sometimes kills me), lilianas standard bearer(i like no life loss wipe recovery or big draw on combo turns), undead auger>midnight reaper
Wipes: the only real zombie wipe is meathook massacre, though noxious ghoul is fun
Removal: swift end is fine but fleshbag and overcharge amalgam are where it's at
Absolute disrespect on Noxious Ghoul. That card is beyond insane. Regularly wipes opponents board every turn after it hits and is a must remove.
Also Endless Ranks is ASS. It's so slow and doesn't do nearly as much as it sounds.
Death priest of myrkul goes hard! Not a zombie. Doesn't need to be.
Murderous rider is an easy A.
The double feature looks way better in person.
My Zombie deck has gone from Korlash (B) -> Varina (WUB) -> Tormod + Ravos (WB).
I love the alt art Korlash, but the deck couldn't make up its mind whether it was zombies, voltron, or swamps-matter. I rebuilt to Varina, to focus on tribal lords and recursion, but there were too many choices with two extra colors and turns out I didn't enjoy looting (would rather cast the zombies than feel like I'm just digging for combo/synergy).
But I'd played WB Zombie Solemnity the one time I built a Standard deck, really liked Wayward Servant (plus Binding Mummy, and a fun-of Unconventional Tactics), and in part was trying to relive that. Plus God-Eternal Oketra is a house. So I pulled it out of mothballs and trimmed the U. Tormod was a decent source of tokens, even with no stylistic changes. Ravos was the best way I could find to get W, since he is an anthem, fits the raise dead theme, and in doing so enables Tormod pretty well.
I think Varina made a better commander, but just didn't click with me as well, having to fight against urges towards good stuff and control + mass reanimator. Plus it freed me up to try some other Esper deck, since I try not to duplicate CIs.
Don’t listen to Richard on this episode he’s clearly never played a zombie deck before
dinosaur tier list when?
the full color version of endless ranks of the dead is way better than the bw one because you can actually tell what's going on. the bw version is a cool idea but in execution it loses all the glory of the original. the card is still ass in commander regardless
Grave Titan is one of the best zombies, change my mind. I do agree Diregraf Colossus is better though.
Seth is the truth! I don't know what the others are thinking half the time
I enjoy undead butler over relentless dead
You really had to pick your brains for this episode!
Thank you Crim for defending Death Baron's honor.
Tomer rating Undead Augur and Cryptbreaker at an A was wild.
WHAT? CHAMPION OF THE PERISHED AT C? DO YOU KNOW HOW EASY IT IS TO MAKE A 27/27 ONE-DROP AND SAC IT TO GISA? WTF??
"Are there even any green zombie cards?" Polukranos Unchained; Storrev, Devkarin Lich; Underrealm Lich; Ghoulcaller's Harvest; and Grizzly Ghoul have left the chat
How is Liliana's Standard Bearer worse than the scorpion? I've never seen that scorpion before now, doesn't seem that good
What I learned from this video is that I'm apparently alone in flavoring all my zombie decks as aristocrat liches and generals.
We must see a zombie showdown! Lol
Please bring back budget cedh decks
i just abolutely adore this podcast group, i really cant watch other MTG podcasts since i started watch the goldfish group :)))))
Relentless Dead is best played mid/late game with a carrion feeder/instant speed sac and enough mana to use your graveyard as a response. I.E. Overcharged Amalgam, Undead Augur, Vengeful Dead.
1:12:55 Overcharged Amalgam. Card is S tier, it counters Bojuka Bog, Nihil Spellbomb, almost anything trying to exile your graveyard. Also a free counter if you have Rooftop Storm out.
One card that is probably not that good but is very flavorful for me is Dawn of the Dead.
Come on, Death Baron is cool. I like when my zobies are scary to block.
Army of the Damned was upgraded and it's called 'Empty the Pits'
And it's instant speed. Don't underestimate delving away at the end step before your turn.
Zombie commander player here, for anyone interested in playing high powered zombies read further:
I have 2 rules for my zombies deck, no planeswalkers and no non-zombies. Thats it.
Wilhelt is a combo piece and a phyrexian arena on a commander, so he's a huge target for people to get rid of. He's slower, and though he generates extra bodies often enough you're not swinging, so he's a "ill sit here and make zombies, and dig for my wincon" commander. I ran him as a turbo adnauseum deck searching for gravecrawler + phyrexian altar/rooftop storm + Acererak. He often had a lot of trouble dealing with interaction and in the end i figured he wasn't the optimal zombie commander.
So who is? Well…
Varina is the best for now. She's a 4/4 so she's difficult for people to get rid of, she gains you life which often than not you'll lose life for good cards like city of brass, vampiric tutor/imperial seal, etc. but her HUGE advantage is that she sculpts your hand and graveyard. Having 5 cards in hand, 2 of them zombies, allows me throw those zombies in the grave where they belong and allow me to dig for counterspells/combo pieces/answers to problems. The one downside she has that i've noticed is often by turn 6/7 i'm down to 1 or 2 cards in hand from the heavy interaction i have to do to keep up with CEDH decks.
As for the video referring to "no good white zombies" my 2 MVP's for white are wayward servant and corpse knight. Both being zombie combo pieces. Ive won turn 3 by pulling out gravecrawler +wayward servant + phyrexian altar.
Lastly with varina because of her sculpting it allows for me to play a higher mana curve of zombies, since they're going in the grave for my 1 -2 drop interaction spells. So ill run mikaeus the unhallowed, rothulk, sidisi undead vizier, wilhelt, god-eternal oketra, havengul lich, and my hand will just pop those babies into the grave for easy reanimation.
For anyone interested heres my deck list: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/rjUZSMdF6k6xG-Rv5d3MEw
I don’t know what kind of Zombie decks WOULDN’T play relentless dead. Recursion+reanimation on a cheap evasive body. You can do some cool tricks with this at instant speed reanimate a overcharged amalgam or end of turn reanimate Sidisi get win con. Zombies are one of the most synergistic tribes and there is a ton of depth to relentless dead that may not be clear at first glance. Give it a shot you will not he disappointed!
Toner was hellllaaa right about Endless Ranks 😂 sad but true 🥲
Varina gives you token doubler, god eternal oketra and some sweet orzhov zombies plus she goes through the deck so fast and fills the yard it's a joy to play.
I appreciate Crim picking Gravespawn Sovereign there.
Necroduality Undead Alchemist Etrrnal skylord lich lord of unx Cleaver Skaab secrets of the dead Havengul Runebinder Poppet stitcher Havengul lich laboratoy Druge Military intelligence and Reconnaissance Mission.
yeah you need the colors of the stained glass on the Original Endless Ranks of the dead. WAY too much is lost when you double feature that card.
I wonder how long they talk after the podcast lol
No way you can just walk away with such hot takes
Nevinyrral has been given the short shrift. Makes zombies die (which is their job) and maximises rage around the table. Plus stack your triggers to have loads more zombies
Bonus points for Gift of Immortality on him
Tomer has got some real bad takes on zombies.