Esper Zombie 2.0
75 cards, 15 sideboard
2 {Glacial Fortress}
1 {Cavern of Souls}
4 {Drowned Catacomb}
3 {Hallowed Fountain}
4 {Godless Shrine}
4 {Watery Grave}
1 {Nephalia Drownyard}
4 {Isolated Chapel}
23 lands
3 {Restoration Angel}
3 {Cartel Aristocrat}
3 {Snapcaster Mage}
4 {Gravecrawler}
2 {Disciple of Bolas}
4 {Geralf's Messenger}
3 {Thrull Parasite}
22 creatures
4 {Azorius Charm}
3 {Cloudshift}
3 {Dimir Charm}
3 {Rapid Hybridization}
2 {Supreme Verdict}
15 other spells
Sideboard
2 {Tribute to Hunger}
3 {High Priest of Penance}
2 {Jace, Memory Adept}
2 {Dissipate}
2 {Duskmantle Seer}
2 {Detention Sphere}
2 {Blind Obedience}
15 sideboard cards
Notes:
Updated this to post GTC.
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Bump
Playtesting is going very well.
Duskmantle is doing work against control decks. And rootborn/verdict is taking care of Aggro decks too.
Decided to drop the resto angels and one Geist for aristocrats, they answer so many things and having a sac outlet via messengers and crawlers is amazing.
Took out a hallowed fountain for a moorland haunt for flying matchup
Cause if its all ground, then there is little need for moorland, but if its flyers, then bringing back crawlers isn't gonna do anything, so making flyers will help block and stall until I can board wipe.
Also took out the 3 think twice for aphinx's.
I disnt need much early game draw, so sphinxs is a lot better late game with bigger draws And life gain.
Put back in the fountain, took out a snapcaster.
Needed that extra money now with sphinxs
Gonna try to finish building this so I can take it to an FNM.
Anything else you guys might change to it?
Looks good! I know my deck would struggle against this.
How is {Cackling Counterpart} working out for you?
Quote from: GeauxJuice on March 01, 2013, 05:41:41 AM
Looks good! I know my deck would struggle against this.
How is {Cackling Counterpart} working out for you?
Pretty well, being able to token copy a messenger or Geist token is game changing, especially at instant speed.
{Vizkopa Guildmage}+ {Exquisite Blood} could be fun in here bit expensive that's the only problem...
It would be too expensive, the exquisite blood and then for the Mage I'd have to drop my 2 drop slots of either aristocrats, counters or charms, and its honestly not worth it.
Now don't get me wrong, the Mage and blood combo is good, but just not this deck, in my eyes.
How consistent is Messenger in here?
Pretty consistent, I usually hard cast 1-2 and then usually get a counterpart on it.
Did you possibly have another idea?
Bumping up.
I'm not sure what I'd replace it with to be honest. He just seems hard to consistently drop him on turn 3 in here. I'd also consider taking the {Moorland Haunt} to a 2 of. In the match-up that it matters in, you'll need 2 to have a better chance to draw it. Also it's not bad when you have a dead guy and just simply need a chump blocker, or a Flyer to get over. I love {Cackling Counterpart} so much, being able to copy a Messenger is just cruel though... 😉
Messenger tokens wont come back with undying. With that in mind it feels like that space could be better used. Looking at this I feel like you had a good esper idea that started to mold into an awkward splice of that idea and general esper control. I dont see heavy control cards like sphinx's rev making a big enough impact here.
What I want to know before really diving into suggestions is what is your goal? How do you want to win? Approach it from this standpoint, if i were to walk up on the final turn what do you want it to look like? What is in the yard, hand, field, life totals, etc.?
Ok, I disnt know about the undying tokens not coming back, mainly because I disnt think too much on it. But now that you say it, makes complete sense. Lol.
And I had think twice before sphinxs, but I thought I would probably need the life gain more later game, including some card draw.
The decks initial strategy was to make tokens via counterpart with snap to flash it back if need be, while holding on to verdicts and rootborn for field wipe/populate combo.
But it got pretty difficult to rely on that with as much spot removal there is, so that's why I grabbed aristocrat. I think I changed how the deck works with that card to be honest, because I gave an answer to control and spot removal, but now the original goal is hard now that I'm willingly sacrificing my own creatures.
Im going to toss how I would approach esper zombies together, but I wont have much time to explain my picks till later.
That's fine, There is no rush :)
So I took your ideas and loved them, but I added a drownyard because I felt my later game lacked a bit, so being able to mill them could buy me some stall time along with safe passage.
That's kinda what I see wih this, I don't know how my late game will happen, but on the other hand, I don't see the point of this deck to make a slow game.
{Sorin, Lord of Innistrad} in place of 1 {Cloudshift} and 2 {Safe Passage}
Sorin provides no protection for my guys, whereas safe passage and cloud shift do.
There is so much burn and spot removal in the meta
Right now. It's a great suggestion, but sorin just doesn't belong with this deck.
Well I want to try and provide how this deck works.
This isn't really too much of an aggro deck like most zombies, it's more tempo based, in the sense I can't afford to swarm, which isn't bad. What I do is I poke and poke with messenger and aristocrat.
I have the ability to reset messenger a lot. Either cloud shifting or resto angel, then I has snapcaster cloud shift. There is even sacrificing him to protect aristocrat for ping then tapping and extorting parasite to give him back undying. And cloud shift also works wonders with parasite too with resetting him to help reset messenger too.
Also, say all I have on my board is messenger and they try to kill/burn. Rapid hybrid him in response, now I get a 3/3 token and he comes back for a ping. Then I have a cloud shift in hand, reset him.
And safe
Passage really does a lot. It answers burn, which is what I want. Late game that is, so I can drownyard out some of their answers while.
{demonlord of ashmouth} might have a place here
I was thinking about him, because sac mechanics are great with this deck.
I have been looking at a bunch of cards. I was debating {disciple of bolas} also. And then there was {altar's reap} and {devour flesh} or even {griselbrand} with {forbidden alchemy} digging.
Also, {skirsdag high priest} could be a player to spawn 5/5 flyers
Nothing wrong with that.
So I'm conflicted between {demonlord of ash mouth}, {skirsdag high priest} and {disciple of bolas} as a 2 of.
I have demonlord but each one works great with this deck but each also brings something of its own that's beneficial.