Undead Alchemist

[TheWhiteDragon]

Undead Alchemist    3U

Creature - Zombie   
If a Zombie you control would deal combat damage to a player, instead that player puts that many cards from the top of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Whenever a creature card is put into an opponent's graveyard from his or her library, exile that card and put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.
Illus. Michael C. Hayes #84/264   4/2

I am very excited about this.  It is basically a beatstick with a dredge hose effect for blue!  Just using its triggered ability, whenever an opponent dredges and flips ghasts, narco, more dredgers, etc...they get RFG and you get a 2/2 for each!  That's awesome!  This guy is also too big to darkblast .  Granted, he costs mana and needs to be played early, but he is basically a leyline of the void for creatures and nets you a killer defense.  Is this plausible anti-dredge tech for blue mages?

[Eastman]

Might see play as dredge hate for blue decks since the color is right.  However it isn't really a beatstick - since it is a zombie itself its first ability applies to its own attacks.  Would still probably shorten the game, since each attack will generate more zombies to attack with next turn.  Also, eventually you might just have enough zombies that you can block the ones dredge will create.  

I like that it weakens the dredge player's ability to dig for answers with bazaar, since any creatures they discard won't just be exiled but will give you zombieliciousness.  I also like that it gives you zombie blockers right away when they dredge.  EDIT:  Alchemist's ability only applies to creatures that go from their library to their GY, so discarded creatures would still go to their GY and would not give you zomboids.

I'm not sure that this prevents them from putting Narcomoeba in play, since both effects would trigger.  Does anyone with dredge knowledge know the answer?

[DubDub]

So if your attack with this guy causes a Narcomoeba to be milled, they get it.  If it gets dredged on your turn, they get it.  But if it gets dredged on their turn then you get a zombie and they lose the 'moeba.  It might be a decent defense against some other parts of the dredge engine, but not 'moeba.
I wouldn't want my second attack (after picking up a few zombies on the first swing) to mill them into 4x Narco and 4x Bridge from Below.  Sure they can't really dread return anything, but they can get 4:1 ratio in Zombies created per Cabal Therapy.

[Diakonov]

Just to clarify what Dub is saying, triggered abilities stack according to active-player-non-active-player (APNAP).

[Killane]

So if your attack with this guy causes a Narcomoeba to be milled, they get it.  If it gets dredged on your turn, they get it.  But if it gets dredged on their turn then you get a zombie and they lose the 'moeba.  It might be a decent defense against some other parts of the dredge engine, but not 'moeba.
I wouldn't want my second attack (after picking up a few zombies on the first swing) to mill them into 4x Narco and 4x Bridge from Below.  Sure they can't really dread return anything, but they can get 4:1 ratio in Zombies created per Cabal Therapy.

The best play with this guy would be to swing with the tokens you get, but hold the guy himself back. It becomes very difficult for them to get anything into pay at that point.

Leyline is still likely to be better given the speed of Vintage decks, though this guy does dodge Nature's Claim.

[Meddling Mike]

Like, if you had a bunch of fast mana and managed to get this down really early or had something to slow down Dredge until you could play this it would be OK, but I'm not sure that existing hate cards wouldn't be better.

[DubDub]

So if your attack with this guy causes a Narcomoeba to be milled, they get it.  If it gets dredged on your turn, they get it.  But if it gets dredged on their turn then you get a zombie and they lose the 'moeba.  It might be a decent defense against some other parts of the dredge engine, but not 'moeba.
I wouldn't want my second attack (after picking up a few zombies on the first swing) to mill them into 4x Narco and 4x Bridge from Below.  Sure they can't really dread return anything, but they can get 4:1 ratio in Zombies created per Cabal Therapy.

The best play with this guy would be to swing with the tokens you get, but hold the guy himself back. It becomes very difficult for them to get anything into pay at that point.

Leyline is still likely to be better given the speed of Vintage decks, though this guy does dodge Nature's Claim.

His replacement effect applies to the other zombie tokens you get from him (they're Zombies) too, so I'm not sure how not attacking with him nets you anything?

And yes, I think Leyline is miles better.    is only marginally easier to cast than  (dependent somewhat on deck choice), given how often you'll need Black Lotus to cast it in time to be meaningful, and given that most of the time you'll mull into a Leyline you get to start with for free.

I think a 3/2 for  would have been slightly more competitive, and also more sensible.  I don't get all the blue zombies in this set at all.  Apparently the justification is "mad scientists and frankenstein's monster!!!"

[desolutionist]

- Do nothing.

[Diakonov]

I think a 3/2 for  would have been slightly more competitive, and also more sensible.  I don't get all the blue zombies in this set at all.  Apparently the justification is "mad scientists and frankenstein's monster!!!"

There are also red vampires and werewolves.  Since the whole theme of this set is horror, I would suppose that all bets are off.