[Unpowered] Dawn of the Dead

[Liiva]

So this is my first post on TMD but I've been reading the forums for quite some time now. I would like to discuss Dawn of the Dead.dec. Ever since i read the tournament report by Polynomial P (http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27434.0) I fell in love with the deck and managed to get myself a playset of bazaars. I had some success on a tournament I go to every month, the metagame is filled with full/semi-powered decks like fish and storm-variants, some oath and a few random/scrub decks (goblins/belcher).

First of all, I don't own any power cards.

So on to the list:

   //Lands
4   Bloodstained Mire
4   Swamp
4   Bayou
3   Scrubland
2   Polluted Delta
4   Bazaar of Baghdad
1   Strip Mine
3   Wasteland
25

   // Creatures
3   Wild Mongrel
4   Squee, Goblin Nabob
2   Jotun Grunt
4   Dark Confidant
13

   // Spells
1   Fastbond
3   Zombie Infestation
3   Smallpox
3   Null Rod
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   Demonic Tutor
4   Duress
2   Swords to Plowshares
3   Life from the Loam
1   Darkblast
22

   // Sideboard
4   Leyline of the Void
3   Oxidize
3   Ray of Revelation
4   Children of Korlis
1   Darkblast
15

Card Choices:

Smallpox: Some time ago my meta was crawling with tinker-collosus decks so i had to find an answer to it, this card has been both great and crappy. I've been able to manascrew quite some players or get rid of big creatures. The discard and saccing of land usually isn't a big deal with squee and life from the loam though losing a creature can be annoying but it's usually worth the trade-off. Last tournament I didn't see a single colossus but with the uprising of GAT i'm going to stick with the smallpoxes since they're awesome in that matchup.

Fastbond: This card was ment to compensate a bit for the lack of moxes and it can be pretty nice sometimes (loam back strip mine + 2 wastes and play them all) but that usually means im winning anyways so im thinking of cutting this for Mox Diamond since it has synergy with life from the loam and it allows for 2 mana on turn 1.

Wild Mongrel: After running werebear for some time, i switched to the mongrel and he's been doing pretty well so far. I can discard my squees to him if i don't have an infestation or bazaar. Overall I'd say a mongrel is a bigger threat then a werebear.

Jotun Grunt: Most Dawn of the Dead lists i've seen run withered wretch but I've found I hardly ever have mana to use his ability. The grunt has been so-so so far, he's a nice beater but i can't lay him down on turn 2. I might go back to the wretch or free these 2 slots completely.

Krosan Grip: I used to run 1 in the mainboard to counter chalice set on 2 but i've found it to be too random and my mana base was a bit unstable so i swapped the grip for a swamp.

Sideboard:

Children of Korlis: I don't own any orim's chants so this is a cheap replacement but it does quite well against storm based decks actually, buying me time to get a null rod into play and set a clock.

I think the other cards here are pretty obvious.

Matchups:

Fish: With swords, darkblast and smallpoxes i tend to have enough creature removal and once my infestation starts spitting zombies it's usually game over for the fish player.

Oath: preboard i pray to fetch an oath from their hand with duress and set a clock though a resolved oath means game over. 2nd game the ray of revelations come in, increasing my chance to win by alot.

Stax: for some reason i allways beat stax, the last time i remember losing a game was when my opponent played a chalice for 2 on turn 1 followed shortly by a titan though i still won the match in the end.

Ichorid: this deck is hardly played in my meta so i never faced it so far.

Flash: no-one played this the last tournament, so i don't have any experience yet though i can see chalice (yes i know i don't play them ) and leyline hitting them pretty badly.

Storm-based tendrills combo: Ahh the dreaded match-up, i have the tools to beat them but i can't get them in play fast enough. This is the matchup where you notice you play unpowered, i tend to board out all my creature removal and board in leylines and the sac-children and just pray.

GAT: a bit like fish but with bigger threats, smallpox really shines here. Yixlid Jailer is annoying though.

So my main problem so far has been the storm-based decks, how can i improve this match-up? Also should i make changes to the deck with leylines and the new Yixlid Jailer getting more popular?

/Liiva

[netherspirit]

You should be able to hand Jailer's quite easily, although if you're that worried you can always put some more removal in the sideboard. As for Leyline I think you should probably run a few Disenchants or Seal Of Cleansings, which would also help against Oath.

Storm decks can probably be got around easily enough with Root Maze and Sphere of Resistance, I can see your Null Rods being very useful here too.

Good luck with the deck!

[GenioDeArena]

Hello there, ive been trying to make a very similar version of this deck for Legacy, and besides that the formats are quite different, Ill like to share thoughts
1 First the Mongrel is great!!! fine beater even in Legacy with a very huge creature base, the mongrel rocks!
2 krovikan Horror might help to increase the rate of zombies.
3 Circular logic
4 Ive been trying diabolic intent, but seems win more
5 Could this engine be transformed into a contamination/stax deck?
6 At least for extended Enigma and verdant Eidolons, plus Cavern harpy were awesome but too inconsistant, maybe survival of the fittest, will help, but im just guessing.

I hear you comments.

[Liiva]

Hello there, ive been trying to make a very similar version of this deck for Legacy, and besides that the formats are quite different, Ill like to share thoughts
1 First the Mongrel is great!!! fine beater even in Legacy with a very huge creature base, the mongrel rocks!
2 krovikan Horror might help to increase the rate of zombies.
3 Circular logic
4 Ive been trying diabolic intent, but seems win more
5 Could this engine be transformed into a contamination/stax deck?
6 At least for extended Enigma and verdant Eidolons, plus Cavern harpy were awesome but too inconsistant, maybe survival of the fittest, will help, but im just guessing.

I hear you comments.

I'm not familiar with the legacy version and since you can't run bazaar in legacy, you'll lose your draw engine.

1. I agree on the mongrel, he's a fine beater.. imo better than werebear or tarmogoyf.
2. It will also make the deck even more vurnable to graveyard hate and (unless playing vs aggro) the zombies are just a means to finish the opponent off, it usually doesn't matter if i have 2 or 5 in play.
3. Circular logic is blue, and can be at best operational at turn 2 which is too slow.
4. Yes and this deck doesn't have anything broken to tutor for.
5. I doubt that it would be fast enough for vintage.
6. Sorry, no idea what you're talking about here

Anyways, i've made some changes to the deck:
-1 fastbond
-1 swamp
-1 zombie infestation
+1 lotus petal
+1 mox diamond
+1 sol ring

I'm still afraid flash will run over me with only duress and post-board leyline as disruption, any ideas on how to improve that?

[Polynomial P]

Well, if there is any time that dawn of the dead could come back, it is now. Combo is on the decline and creature based decks are all the rage.

Things have certainly changed alot since the last time I played dawn...including the printing of Jotun grunt and Tarmogoyf.

I think the deck really needs to be powered to run correctly, so here is the list I would run right now. You can make adjustments to deal with the loss of power.

4 Dark Confidant
3 Aven mindcensor
4 Tarmogoyf (OMG so good)
3 Zombie infestation

4 Squee
4 Leyline -  Any deck that does not run Force of will MUST run leyline maindeck. That is my new motto.
4 Duress
3 STP
1 Vamp
1 Demonic
3 Life from the loam

4 Bazaar of baghdad

5 Mox
1 Black lotus
2 Waste
1 Strip
1 Swamp
4 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
5 Fetch

SB
3 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 STP
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Oxidize
1 Krosan Grip
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Engineered plague?

Now, since you cant be full powered, You MUST run lotus petal and I guess mox diamond isnt bad either. Ive never been a fan of sol ring since your curve is low and because everything has a 1 in the cost, not 2. Good luck.