Before Ebay came along, getting four of a rare was a little more difficult. My friend I use to play against had 4, count'em 4, Zombie Masters. I was soooo jealous. We didn’t play tournaments so we didn’t know what the true power rares were. Thats not true, we did, but we didn’t care to pay the over inflated local card store prices for meekstones and millstones. Last month I bought 4 Zombie Masters for just $4 so I knew it was time to create my own Zombie deck. This deck probably isn’t Type 2 and even if it was, I wouldn’t take it to a tournament unless someone else was paying the entrance fee. For those of you so into the IBC block that think playing less then three colors is a sin, you may be in for a surprise. This deck is just a ton of fun to play. Lets start by seeing what the core ideas of a Zombie deck are.

The core combo of the deck is to turn an opponents land into a swamp. Then play a Zombie Master to give all zombies swampwalk. Almost all the creature cards are zombies which gives you an armada of unblockable creatures. Theres a wide variety of zombie creature cards that can work with Zombie Masters. For those who dont know, Zombie Master gives all zombies regeneration and swampwalk. Now we need a card to turn our opponents lands into swamps. Theres two solutions that come to mind. The first is Evil Presence. For one mana, you can turn target land into a swamp. Its cheap to cast and if you pack four of them, chances are you can play it within the first couple turns. A problem with Evil Presence is if youre opponent is already playing swamps. Kind of a dead card then. Another possibility is Tainted Well. It does the same as Evil Presence but is also a cantrip. It costs three mana so you have to decide which is the better option. Heres a sample Zombie Master deck with red thrown in for creature control.

2 Agonizing Demise - creature removal plus direct damage

4 Terminate - ultimate individual creature removal card

4 Evil Presence - turns opponents lands into swamps, letting zombies march through

1 Coat of Arms - great game ender since almost all creature cards are zombies

4 Pyre Zombie - a zombie with the benefit of direct damage

2 Phyrexian Scuta - 5/5 zombie for a few extra life

3 Bog Raiders - automatic swampwalk in case the Zombie Masters arent out

3 Grave Defiler - gets zombies into your hand even faster

2 Lava Zombie - pump ability works great with swampwalk

2 Gravedigger - retrieve a Zombie Master from your graveyard

3 Gravebane Zombie - recyceable zombies

2 Bone Dancer - take control of that Spiritmonger you just terminated

2 Lord of the Undead - almost as good as the Zombie Master

4 Zombie Master - this and evil presence are the core combo of your deck

The choice of zombies goes on and on. There is a ton of versatility to be had. Coat of Arms works nicely as a game ender. You can splash just about any color depending on what you want your strengths and weaknesses to be. The deck above is great against creature heavy decks but enchantments and artifacts could shut you down. Green or white could have just as easily been splashed I prefer red direct damage and creature control as this is an offensive deck and the direct damage can help get the last life points off of your opponent. And one thing not to forget, Zombie Master is not a zombie creature type so he doesnt get the swampwalk and regeneration benefits.