Subject: FWD: Zombies with Zest - Shaddy

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------

From: Shaddymaze@aol.com

Date:  Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:42:24 EST

This post is regarding the use of Zombies. How to use them, support them, battle with them...even love them. I've always been a fan of Zombies, even way back in the day when Castle of Dark Illusions and Pumpkin the King of Ghosts was all we had.

I shall now introduce some the Zombie theme which is sometimes duplicated, but not truly achieved in the current Metagame. To start off, having a Vampire Lord, a Spirit Reaper or two, and some Pyramid Turtles do not make a Zombie deck alone. They need support, not to mention some other Zombies.

The key with Zombies is two words Special Summoning. Now, with that said there are plenty of cards that help Zombies get on the field without the pesky term of Normal Summoning:

Call of the Mummy: If you don't have a monster on your side of the field Special Summon a Zombie-type monster from your hand. Tribute? What tribute?

Special summon Vampire Lord or, my favorite, Despair from the Dark with an unholy attack then Normal Summon another one. This allows you to get out that 2800 attack beatstick first turn without having to use a Graceful Charity/Monster Reborn Combo. Save them.

Reasoning: Your opponent calls a monster level, you keep picking up cards from your deck and discarding to the graveyard until you get a monster. If opponent calls it right dump monster in graveyard, but if they called it wrong, free Special Summon. Who calls level 8? (cough: Despair from the Dark:cough) Now some of you will say, darnit Shaddy stop talking out your behind; you could lose a lot of good cards, not to mention what happens if they call it right. Read on.

And now the broken special summons of Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted: C'mon you know what they do.

Book of Life: Special Summon a Zombie-type monster from your Graveyard and remove a monster from play from your opponents graveyard. "Win-freakin'-win" you might say, but don't forget you get three of these bad boys in your deck, you'll have to make sure they have stuff in their Graveyard, otherwise you can't use this good book.

Since you're removing things from your opponents side from play, The Shallow Grave just because a free special summon from the Graveyard.

Rope of Life: When a monster on your side of the field gets destroyed as a result of battle discard you hand and special summon the monster just destroyed with 800 more attack. Hmm, not good to discard hand you say, but get used to setting Book of Life's and that Call of the Haunted. What could be better than discarding that Despair from the Dark and then get both the monsters back?

Huh? TELL ME! Anyway, you're probably wondering, "Yo, Shaddy, what's up with all this talk about Despair from the Dark?" Well, I'll tell you...

Despair from the Dark is a level 8 Zombie with 2800/atk and 3000/def, with an interesting ability. If you opponent ever uses Don Zaloog (I mean, c'mon who runs him anymore!) and they choose either effect and happen upon this fella, you get to Special Summon him from the Graveyard. Note: It has to be by your opponents effect. So try to single this guy out by putting down those magic's and waiting for them to use Confiscation or Delinquent Duo or Don Zaloog or Spirit Reaper or...well I think you get my point. By the way, he also has a little brother, Fear from the Dark, 4 star 1700/atk and 1500/def, with the same effect.

"All right Shaddy, you've told us about this 'Despair from the Dark,' but besides being a huge beatstick, so what?"

You just don't learn, do you? Konami, being the smart people they are made a Super rare Zombie that needs an 8 star or higher to feed on. This monster is Berserk Dragon (No relation to Berserk Gorilla), and came out in the same set as Despair from the Dark. Coincidence? I THINK NOT. However, Berserk Dragon can only be Special Summoned with the Quickplay Spell card known only as "A Deal With Dark Ruler" (It has a picture of Dark Ruler Ha Des scratching his chin; it's really funny) Anyway, "A Deal With Dark Ruler" says that when a level 8 or higher monster on your side of the field is sent to the Graveyard you can Special Summon a Berserk Dragon from your Hand or Deck. This is the ONLY way to get out Berserk Dragon, but once you get him out in this manner you can use those recursion on him, making them very abusive. With 3500/atk (0/def) not much will own this monster in battle. Oh, almost forgot, Berserk Dragon has an effect (of course). He can attack all monsters on your opponents side of the field once, but if he does can't attack lifepoints, similar to Azure Priest. He also loses 500 attack after every one of your end phases. Which might be a good thing if they Change of Heart it.

Now onto the support.

With all this Graveyard Special Summoning, Card of Safe Return soars to new heights. Draw a card every time a monster from your Graveyard is Special Summoned to your side of the field...let's see there's Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, The Shallow Grave, 3 Book of Life's, and Rope of Life. 8 Graveyard Recursions, that's more then a Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity combined.

Tutan Mask: Made especially for Zombies, Tutan Mask negates anything that targets a Zombie Monster on your side of the field. I can't say how many times this little common has saved my Despair from the Dark or Berserk Dragon from getting Change of Hearted, Snatch Stolen, Ringed, or Tribute to the Doomed/Dark Cored.

Speaking of Dark Core, we've been removing opponent's monsters from play, it seems to be a nice theme in this Zombie deck. Dark Core will let you dump Despair into the Graveyard for recursion and you get to remove their monster from play. Nobleman of Crossout helps when they put a monster in defense, which usually happens with these behemoths.

Speaking of defense, it can often arise that they keep putting stuff in defense or keep discarding that Sinister Serpent or Koriboh, make them pay. Coffin Seller will do 300 direct damage every time one of their monsters is sent to their graveyard. This can especially come in handy when those abusive Scientists keep launching crap at you. Remember, you're the one in control of the Graveyard! (BTW, I feel very sorry if Zombies go up against a Gravekeeper's deck, because they're the one's in control, {tear} "What's wrong Shaddy?" I had a bad experience. "What happened?" I HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE!)

Speaking of bad experiences, Tribe Infecting Virus is any Type based decks arch enemy, be careful to remove this guy from play as soon as you can.

Now onto the monsters:

Pyramid Turtle: When destroyed and sent to the Graveyard as a result of battle he allow you to Special Summon a Zombie-type monster from your deck with a def of 2000 or less. He'll be able to get out some good Zombie, which makes him very suicidal.

My favorite Zombie is Ryu Kokki. Besides having the most hilarious name (second only to Giga Gagagigo), he's a 2400/atk 2000/def Zombie, making him Pyramid Turtle friendly. He's easy to get out and watch out for that effect. When it does battle with a Warrior or a Spellcaster destroy the opposing monster at the end of the battle step. All right, I'll give you a situation I was in. Ryu Kokki was on my side, opponent summons Kycoo the Ghost Destroying (how fitting) and puts an axe on him. I smile as he attacks my Kokki I take 400 and gladly say "Good-bye to that problematic Kycoo," Kycoo being a Spellcaster. This effect also comes in handy when they attack with a GAF and almost always put down a Waboku to defend it. Attack with the your big bad Kokki and that Waboku doesn't prevent the battle from occurring, so Kokki's effect would still kill the GAF, being a Warrior. Being able to match Jinzo is also a plus, as you can suicide, then Book of Life Kokki back in and remove annoying Jinzo.

Patrician of Darkness: Control what monster your opponent attacks. 2000/atk and 1400/def make him battle worthy, and his effect of controlling that attack can be annoying, especially with a Spirit Reaper on your side of the field.

Vampire Lord: Just keeps coming back, and with Patrician on your side, battle damage won't even be in Vampire Lord's vocabulary. Just keep in mind that Magic's hurt the most, so calling magic's might be a good idea, except if you're looking for Book of Life bait.

Gilasoruas: You might find it odd to have this Dinosaur in a Zombie deck, but remember you're removing so much from play that you can special summon this and then quickly sacrifice it for Kokki or Patrician. Coffin Seller also allows you to kill whatever they just Special Summoned and they still take 300, plus you could always Dark Core it. This also comes in handy with the next monster.

Fiber Jar: Ah, Fiber oh Fiber. Save this puppy for when they have little defense, flip it and reset the game...sort of. "Oh wait, those monsters removed from play, they're not yours are they, muhahahaha." Special Summon whatever you can to take them out in one swipe. If you were lucky to remove a Koriboh or two, attack worry free. If you're sort of in a jam, spirit reaper can be used to even up the hand advantage that they would otherwise have. Card of Safe Return and all the Deck Special Summoning will thin the deck quickly, not to mention what Reasoning will do.

And that's all folks, my name is Shaddy, and you can email me at Shaddymaze@aol.com