Whenever I see the word "Zombie" in a new set, I always like to revisit the archetype a bit in order to see if anything could be good. I decided to raise these zombies from the dead due to some cards that I saw from Aetherdrift, and I thought that we could at least make a deck that is fun, and who knows, it may be competitive too. We have received decent support lately with cards like Gisa, The Hellraiser. Although she isn't a zombie herself, she creates them every turn, and acts as a lord for them. Not to mention, the ward cost on her makes it so that she adequately fills out the top end of our list. She will help us immensely with swarming the board with skeletons, and efficiently rebuilding after board wipes. There are also going to be some ways to play our zombies from the graveyard, whether it be re-casting or embalming. Since we have the opportunity to raise our dead, we have to give it a shot. There is too much flavor that entices me. This will be my mono black list for the new set, as I think this is the best mono black deck to showcase as many new cards as possible. Any other mono black deck would likely just be adding one or two cards into an already good mono black deck, so I wanted to give you as much as I can with the new cards showcase. Without further ado, let's check out the deck!
As you can see, we have plenty of lords in the deck. We are going to make these vanilla zombies huge, both to use as infinite blockers, and to have a threatening attack. We also brought back Unstoppable Slasher for some extra fun, and to guarantee that we have alternate win conditions when needed. In typical zombie fashion, we also don't mind getting rid of some of our creatures if it produces extra value for us. We can get rid of one of our zombies to deal with any problematic creature with Final Vengeance. I chose this over Eaten Alive because it allows us to sacrifice enchantments too, and there are some useful enchantments that support our zombies, so that could prove useful too. There are new cards in the deck, so let's take a look at those.
Aetherdrift Zombie Support Cards
This card is awesome. One of the coolest things about it is that you don't even have to play it with zombies. This card makes things zombies for you. The main reason that I chose to include it here is that, of course, we can re-cast our creatures from the graveyard, and it acts as another lord for us. I think it is worth it enough to load up on some more gas for the rest of the game if we do happen to run out of gas. The fact that it is non-legendary is also incredibly helpful. Since there aren't a ton of four mana zombies in the format, this fills that mana slot pretty well. The card is already going for over $10 a piece, so I believe that people are expecting it to be format-impacting somewhere. I have a feeling commander players are excited to get their hands on it.
You will start to notice a bit more of an unconventional theme here for your typical zombie deck. We aren't playing as many creatures as we normally do, but we have permanents such as this one that create zombies for us, and will also support the zombies going forward. We also wanted to combo the Start Your Engines Mechanic with the zombie package, and I believe that it can help send it over the top. If we absolutely need it, this card can also act as a tutor for us, which I believe can prove useful, and it could be a threat. If that isn't as relevant at the moment, we can also sacrifice it to Final Vengeance.
This one is helpful for the early game. It can act as the first bit of removal, but it's also a permanent that stays on the board. It also begins our journey towards Max Speed. If we ever end up in a bad spot, we can even sacrifice the enchantment for life gain. I think the edict effect that this provides is helpful, and it even punishes an opponent still if they aren't playing to the board. It is a pretty crazy three-for-one on turn two, or at any point in the game.
We want to use this to deal with the creatures or vehicles an opponent may have that are a huge threat to us, and that may prove harder to remove. If this deck was being made for best of three, I would probably move these to the sideboard. This is a deck that we will play in Early Access, so I am just focusing on best of one currently.
Yes, you are correct, we sadly were not able to include any of the new zombies in this deck due to being just a mono black deck, but we received some awesome black cards that support the zombies that are currently here. Muraganda Raceway seems almost free for us due to having less mana restrictions. I touched on this card a decent amount in a previous article, but just know that it plays well off of the Max Speed Mechanic, and we never like to turn down a Sol Ring printing in Standard.
Here is another one that I will play for you in Early Access to see if it performs well. I think zombies always deserve a chance, and I also believe that this is a deck nobody will be expecting. It could be bad, but it is at least worth a shot. Who knows, maybe it will prove good enough to take into the ranked queue. If nothing else, it proves to be a fun deck that is once again easy on the wallet, and not too bad on the wildcards.
