Black/Green Zombies for Post Return to Ravnica Standard
September 18, 2012 | Posted by Dee
As I write this, there are only eight cards left to spoil in Return to Ravnica because someone spoiled a ton of cards yesterday on MTG Salvation Forums.
Now that we know most of the set, I thought it was a good time to start brewing. The first deck I built was Black/Green (BG), or Golgari, Zombies, because the tribe got some powerful cards in the Golgari guild.
Check out the decklist below.
| BG Zombies | |||||||||||
Creatures (25)
Spells (12) | Lands (23) Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
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Lotleth Troll
[Preorder Lotleth Troll on eBay at a low price]
The Lol-Troll is the main reason to add green to your Zombie deck. This two-drop is really good because it has three great abilities and a respectable power/toughness.
Trample might not seem that powerful for a 2/1 creature but you can pump it up with Dreg Mangler’s scavenge ability. Also, Lotleth Troll has a buff ability to make itself bigger.
This ability interacts very well with Gravecrawler. You can discard Gravecrawler to give Lotleth Troll a +1/+1 counter. Then, you can cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard because Lotleth Troll is a Zombie.
In situations when you need a big creature, you can discard Dreg Mangler instead of casting it and then activate its scavenge ability to make Lotleth Troll really big. This play adds a total of four +1/+1 counters to Lotleth Troll.
The Zombie makes use of the +4/+4 buff very well with its trample and regeneration abilities.
The regeneration ability is useful because it makes Lotleth Troll able to survive removal spells like Abrupt Decay and Dreadbore and boardwipe spells like Supreme Verdict and Bonfire of the Damned.
Dreg Mangler
[Preorder Dreg Mangler on eBay at a low price]
This is the other green Zombie from Return to Ravnica. It’s not as good as Lotleth Troll but it’s still pretty good.
Haste is one of the best abilities for creatures and 3/3 is a beefy body for three mana. There are many 2/2s and 2/1s in the format so it’s good to have a cheap creature that can beat them up.
With Rancor on Dreg Mangler, you can keep your opponent from chump blocking effectively with smaller creatures because of trample.
Also, Rancor goes well with haste creatures. You can surprise your opponent with five hasty damage by enchanting a freshly cast Dreg Mangler.
And that’s not all. Dreg Mangler gives you something do with your extra mana after it dies. Its scavenge ability can buff a creature, which can very useful since the deck has trample effects with Lotleth Troll and Rancor. Buff and trample work very well together.
Rakdos Cackler
[Preorder Rakdos Cackler on eBay at a low price]
Rakdos Cackler gives the deck a third one-drop creature with two power. By adding it to the deck, you increase your chance of having three two-power creatures on the board by turn two.
That’s a really aggressive start. Most decks won’t be able to deal with it.
I originally had Blood Artist at this spot. However, the card is not that good without sacrifice outlets like Falkenrath Aristocrat and Mortarpod. Plus, Rakdos Cackler is much better with Rancor than Blood Artist.
Rancor
[Buy Rancor on eBay at a low price]
Rancor is one of the best cards for aggro decks so it makes sense to add it to this deck. It gives you explosive starts where you’re attacking for four or even six damage on turn two.
The power bonus from Rancor helps your small creatures trade with bigger ones. For example, your opponent can play a 4/4 to try to stop your assault. You can counter this by just enchanting any of your two-power creatures. They will become big enough to trade with the 4/4.
Rancor gives the deck resiliency. If your opponent kills the enchanted creature, Rancor goes back to your hand ready to buff up another creature. It’s really hard to deal with permanently.
The trample from Rancor makes chump blocking an ineffective strategy for your opponent. For example, Lingering Souls is usually good at slowing down aggro decks. Rancor trumps that strategy because you can run over the Spirit tokens and still deal damage to your opponent.
Four-Drops
[Buy Garruk Relentless on eBay at a low price]
I went with Garruk Relentless to give the deck a card that can do multiple things. Garruk can function as removal. For example, he can kill annoying creatures like Fiend Hunter.
He gives you a recurring source of 2/2 Wolf tokens. This ability is helpful against boardwipe spells. Also, a steady stream of Wolf tokens ensures you won’t run out of creatures to enchant with Rancor.
If you’re able to transform him, Garruk can win you the game with his -3 Overrun ability. With his -1 sacrifice ability, you can search for the best creature in the deck, Geralf’s Messenger.
The other four-drop is Disciple of Bolas. This creature combos well with Gravecrawler, Geralf’s Messenger, and Rancor. It refills your hand in the mid game so that you can have enough cards to outlast your opponent.
Golgari Guildgate
[Preorder Golgari Guildgate on eBay at a low price]
I’m not very happy to play this card because it can slow you down. However, I think you need the extra green mana for Rancor, Garruk Relentless, and Abrupt Decay.
Also, Deathrite Shaman seems like decent sideboard card against other Zombie decks but it requires green mana to be effective.
You don’t want to play Forests over Golgari Guildgate because they don’t help you cast Geralf’s Messenger.
Sideboard
[Preorder Deathrite Shaman on eBay at a low price]
Deathrite Shaman seems good against other Zombie decks because it’s an ongoing source of graveyard hate. It exiles Gravecrawler and Dreg Mangler and it stops the undying shenanigans of Geralf’s Messenger.
Plus, you gain life when it exiles creature cards in the graveyard.
Skirsdag High Priest is there for midrange creature decks. Underworld Connections and Liliana of the Veil come in versus control decks.
Abrupt Decay is good for destroying Intangible Virtue, Oblivion Ring, Detention Sphere, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Also, it’s a solid removal spell against decks with a lot of small creatures.
Finally, we have Cower in Fear, which is a decent card versus token cards like Gather the Townsfolk and Lingering Souls. It can wreck your opponent if he’s relying on Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Arbor Elf for mana acceleration. It can also kill Knight of Glory, which can be a problem because it has protection from black.
19 Responses to “Black/Green Zombies for Post Return to Ravnica Standard”
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Y NO Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord !!!!
You cant play Putrefy in this deck ?
@ Julius
Haha. I tested Golgari Lich Lord but he wasn’t that good because the deck doesn’t have many ways to fill up the graveyard with creatures. Also, he can be hard to cast sometimes because of his steep casting cost.
@ ReiNanto
Putrefy is not Standard legal.
I think u should consider slitherhead its a great cardbto discard for troll
Why no Vraska the Unseen?
Because it is an all aggro deck, and a five drop is to steep. So sayith blue black Zombies,
I could see how Slitherhead might have been in the same spot as blood artist. Just not enough Power for Rancor.
@ rudym
Slitherhead is good with Troll but I think the other one-drops are better because they hit harder when you don’t draw Troll.
There will be many games when you don’t draw Troll and Slitherhead is mediocre without Troll.
I’d rather have cards that are good on their own to make the deck more consistent.
@ Don
I agree with cgsublimelee. Five mana is a lot for a super fast aggro deck with only 23 lands and no mana acceleration.
why u never use golgari charm? is it useless? thanks btw
@ Chen
I like the other cards better.
Golgari Charm’s first ability can kill your own creatures (Gravecrawler, Lotleth Troll).
The third ability can be good but the deck doesn’t really need regeneration. Gravecrawler can be cast from the graveyard. Lotleth Troll already has regeneration. Geralf’s Messenger has undying.
Any chance to add Desecration Demon in this Deck?
Thanks
@ Wagner
Probably not. I think the other four-drops are better.
Any room for acidic slime in the side board?
@ magicsarge
I don’t like Slime in this deck. It costs a lot for a 23 land deck and it doesn’t do enough in my opinion.
In a fast deck like Zombies, I’m not looking for a five mana 2/2 creature even though it can destroy a non-creature permanent.
I want to kill my opponent quickly and/or grind them out with cheaper threats that provide more card advantage like Liliana of the Veil, Skirsdag High Priest, and Underworld Connections.
I’ve been play testing this deck a lot. And though I’m not convinced that its better than G/W or Bant it is VERY powerful. The disciple is so good in this deck. My current build has cut all removal but 3 tragics and is Jund for Vexing Devil and Lightning Mauler. I tried the gates and found that red splash is faster and more efficient. Also overlooked Garruk will be trying him out tonight.
Good Luck
I’m sorry, but there is just no excuse for using cower in fear over golgari charm. Who cares if it gives your own -1/-1, the upsides are way too good to ignore – 1 less mana, ENCHANTMENT DESTRUCTION, possible creature regen (Even though it won’t often be useful.
I still believe Blood Artist serves a much better role for this deck that you are making it seem. I don’t believe Cackler is better than Artist. Why would you want a 1 drop that you would not play over either of the other 2 1 drops. I get it, 11 1 drop 2 power creatures. But if you had the choice, it’d be crawler, diregraf then cackler.
The great thing about blood artist is that is allows you to continually attack when the game gets to turn 4+ and your opponent has creatures to wall or handle your 1+2 drops.
Lotleth Troll, I think shouldn’t make this cut either, at least not 4 of them. For the aggressive nature of this deck, it doesn’t make sense to play around making 1 large trampling regen creature. So if you have an opening hand with a gravecrawler and a lotleth, do you not cast gravecrawler on turn 1 just so you can get a 3/2 on turn 2 that can only attack on turn 3 (and is supseptable to removal). I do not see how that keeps with the aggressive nature of the deck. Blood Artist you wouldn’t play on turn 2, unless you have no other options, you can play him turn 3+ when you can spare the mana/they actually have creatures that’ll block/trade for yours, to keep the assault of damage.
^Blood artist would NEVER, and I mean never, take the place of lotleth in this build… And the reason the cackler is in there is because the deck has loads of 1 mana spells and abilities, so it’s nice to be able to play multiple things rather then just one blood artist. If you have a gravecrawler in your opening hand yes you will drop it first turn, UNLESS, you have a diregraf or cackler (which is fairly likely). The troll just works great, even with those disciples that you may not have 4 mana to play. Bottom line is, blood artist is too slow for this deck. If you want to play him, play Black/Red zombies, not Green/Black
have you tried vailborn ghoul? with those as a 4 of, you never have to don’t cast him, in fact you don’t want to cast him. Corpsejack menace and Death’s presence are just bombs.
combos i know but in my meta game they are just beats.
Sub Slitherhead in place of Cacklers. blocker with free scavenge, or a discard to troll plus scavenge for +2/+2.
Drop murder probably, 3 mana is pretty high. Ultimate price is 2, tragic slip is 1 (with -13/-13 morbid). Or you could do mutilate, you run enough swamps to board wipe most decks with it. Just my 2 cents.
I also dislike garruk since he is a joke to kill and costs 4 mana. Makes saving for regen on trolls annoying.