Dawn of the Dead (Waterbury- 3rd, Day 2)

[NicolaeAlmighty]

When there is no more room in Hell... The dead... will walk the earth.

Innovation!

That's what seemed to be lacking at Waterbury this year. I saw lots of "top tier" decks, and little variety. There was the rogue stuff, but for the most part it collected at the back of the room. The top tables consisted of Oath, Drain, and Stax. Woot! The tiers of the format, right? Oh wait... there was a combo deck I believe. Still, that's what this format is, right? Wrong! Day two was where it was proved, as the Dead rose to be the top seat above those supposed tiers. As many of you know, there has been a thread called "Wild Zombies" by a Canadian who won a Mox (http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=25424.0) with the deck, and when I found it I was pissed! I had been building a Life from the Loam/ Infestation deck for a while! I tried his out to see how it played out, but found it to be lacking in some areas... So I began reworking on my list. To be honest, I was curious as to how he answered some of the big problems in the meta... Red/ Black/ Green were definitely lacking. What did I do to improve it? After much speculation and testing, I dropped Red for White. Why? Much better matchups. Oath suddenly wasn't so scary... and neither was Colossus. Let's see a decklist first, then I'll try my hardest to recap my matchups:

Dawn of the Dead

3 Zombie Infestation

4 Dark Confidant
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Werebear
3 Kataki, War's Wage

3 Null Rod
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
3 Life From The Loam
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dark Blast

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Crop Rotation

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl

4 Bazaar Of Baghdad
4 Bayou
3 Scrubland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Swamp
1 Forest


Sideboard:
3 Orim's Chant
3 Ray Of Revelation
2 Choke
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Oxidize
1 Seeds of Innocence
1 Darkblast
1 Pernicious Deed


Woah! Rogue to the fullest! This deck does some savage things... Let's go over some specific card choices though.

Werebear
In the article above, the creator advocated using Wild Mongrel for some quick and easy beats. That's all good and fine and well, but sadly I ran into a problem. This deck is about the Dead rising! George A Romero style! Who wants cards in their deck that compete? Werebear is hot! Threshold is... Oh... I dunno... really easy to accomplish! Then you have a beater that doesn't compete with the Infestation for damage! At worst, you have mild mana acceleration since you're usually Strip Mining/ Wasting every turn...

Kataki, War's Wage
Resources? Naw, let's tie them up. This lil hottie makes easy resources much harder to manage. Nevermind the bonuses against Stax, regular decks will hate having to tap Moxen and land during their Upkeep... I realize it does little against the awesome power of Yawgmoth's Will, but we're getting to that...

Life from the Loam
Card advantage wins games. Crucible wins games. Why not combine them?

Swords to Plowshares
Oath? Colossus? Notta chance! The best hoser around for such things... Well... Oath does kinda have some "protection" cretaures and what not... but that just gives us the time we need!

Null Rod
Yeah I know, there's a Kataki up there... But Null Rod is the way to go! Mana denial win's games on it's own! I mentioned Mr. War's Wage not being able to stop Will well... This sure does. Those of you that might think Chalice, trust me. Null Rod is the way to go. It might not be blazing fast, but that's why you have discard elements... Clear the path. That or accelerants...

Why all the tutors? Imperial Seal? Crop Rotation? I like to find what I need, and I like to get things started now. It may be Bazaar, it may be Life, it could even be Strip or sideboard elements. I definitely enjoy finding what I need when I need it.

And the best for last...

Dark Confidant
Mmmm yummy. This guy is fucking amazing! You can't imagine how much I love seeing this guy turn one... With such a low mana curve, free card draw/ damage is AMAZING! At one point Sunday I had three of these guys out... It was SAVAGE! Don't leave home without four... 

Well that's all fine and well... but I know what you're thinking. "Man, he just probably played a bunch of random crap and somehow managed to squeak in." I definitely played some decent stuff, not to mention some very sweet players. I'll go over the matchups... But sadly my memory is severely lacking after the TWELVE HOUR trip home. Heh, on a brighter note we did win the "farthest trip" prize on Saturday... Woot! Take that RIW guys!

Round one I played Uba Stax. I had my favorite start! Mox, land, Confidant! Woot! He played a Welder... Then a Crucible... Then began wasting. I got Life from the Loam online, and suddenly that Crucible thing wasn't too bad anymore. He eventually got Stax online, but I had an Infestation out (Life+Infest= Mucho permanents!) I narrowly kill him before a MASSIVELY ramped Smokestack wipes my board (even Infest+Life can't make THAT many permanents a turn...   :shock:) Game two he got a game loss for forgetting an RFGed card... Doh.

Round two it was... 4CC I believe? I think that was round two... I definitely remember these games being quick. Game one I mulled to six, then went Lotus > Duress > Therapy > Null Rod... Down to a Bayou in play and a Strip Mine in hand and I go to topdeck next turn and get... Dark Confidant! Hell yes my deck loves me! Downhill after that... Game two He mulled to six, then went Mox/ Tundra/ Balance! Doh! He was left with three cards in his hand... Heh. Guess which three I kept? Mox > Bayou > Confidant  . You can imagine how the rest of that game went 

Round three was hateful. He was playing Gifts with Time Vault combo. Game one Null Rod and discard power fueled it... he finally topdecked the black source to play the Yawg Will in his hand... Sadly, Rod was on the board and he could do absolutely nothing. Round two was more of the same, cept I had quicker beats and Choke...

Round four was definitely an intentional draw. I was up against my teammate, and I definitely did not want to deprive either of us of any points. Nice guy, eh?

Round five was the dreaded combo matchup. I was watching this guy play my teammate next to me last round... He was savage! He killed my friend turn one game one, and turn two game two! I was a wink worried... Luckily, discard + Null Rod + Kataki served him pretty hard! Game two was more of the same, cept he definitely was under a Choke lock and running out of options after I Duressed away his Will...

Round six... was... well... interesting. This gent was playing a R/U/B/W deck but he kept calling it fish. Much closer to 4CC... Drains, Forces, Crucible... but the creatures were Gorilla Shaman, Withered Wretch, and Goblin Welder... Interesting. Game one my Zombies wreaked havoc... Game two was very close but I squeaked it out... Damn Withered Wretch.... Although he doesn't have nearly enough mana to keep up with Bazaar/ Life (he was trying to keep Werebear small). Ironically this is the gent I lost to later... Great guy! I don't mind losing to Rogue... Innovation! Well... I lost to Tinker Colossus.. but... well... 

Then I drew in... Can you believe it? Dawn of the Dead was seated first! Undefeated through a sea of good stuff! Woot! Alright, let's go to the finals!

Quarters was a non Food Chain Goblins matchup. Lets see... I resolve Infest, I win. Thats how both games went. My friends said he looked petrified after he saw what I was playing but I thought he was cool. Game two I actually kept a hand of 5 lands, Demonic, and Infest and proceeded to win easily. Zombies can take Gobbos any day of the week 

Semis I played the chap from before! Game one went as it was supposed to... Zombies go crazy! Game two he Tinkers and I can't find my Swords... doh. Game three it's close... Well... He Tinkers again and I have three Dark Confidants out and am drawing 6+ cards a turn... He attacks... I miscalculate damage and block with 2/3 of the Confidants and my Zombies. As a result, I was one card away from the Swords to win the game! DOH! Silly eh? Oh well... At least I lost to a cool guy and a rogue deck!


Summary

Now am I presenting to you a new top tier amazing deck? Hell no. I'm presenting something innovative and fun. It's competitive to an extent... Don't let my enthusiasm fool you. This could be a tough matchup against something where they say "if you don't have Force of Will, you lose"... Then again, you have the tools to win nearly any matchup.

Let's be original! Don't give up with the new ideas! They may just win you some nice stuff!   

[Harlequin]

Indeed I was rooting for Hatcher's Wretches to slap you around Nicholae. I knew if it came down to it, I would need either graveyard hate or a fast-win, neither of which I had. SO glad Hatcher pulled it off so I could play him. ^^ kudos on having the stones and skills to pilot rogue.dec to a top finish!

[LouGodKingofDustBunnys]

Congrats Nicolae on you high finish. Unfortunately I was  judging the other top 8 table so I only got to see game three between you and Hatch, but I have to say, your deck is both innovative hilarious at the same time. Against combo, I believe you would have a extremely hard time of it, but there usually isn't alot of combo at the top table at 6-8 round tourneys, so in fact, a design like was a good meta call.

Once again congrats on your finish.

[ReAnimator]

Congrats on the awesome finish!

Zombies for the win!

This is definitely the proper evolution of the shaky core of the original zombie deck and Nicolae has put in way more effort towards making this deck playable than i have in the last few months.  Nice work and nice finish.

I played my version of this, this weekend at 2 mox tourneys. (my version is like 10 cards different and it is mostly due to meta concerns and between the side and main there are almost no differences) I went 3-0-2 and made top 4 of  a 35 man tourney day one and went 4-0-2 and lost in the top 8 of the second tournament the next day (one of my wins was a scoop from Bebe since he had to go and he was playing my deck  ).

This deck is very competitive and really fun to play, drawing 4-6 cards a turn in an aggro deck is some fun. Obv combo is a problem, but there really isn't a lot of combo out there, and you do have disruption and mana denial, not to mention a really fast clock so it isn't unwinnable (especially after board)

Congrats again.

-Andrew

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Thanks everyone!

Combo is a tough matchup, but luckily white gives Dawn Orim's Chant... I was playing a combo deck day 1 and he went Lotus > Dark Ritual > Ritual then I Chanted... Hehehehe. Also, Null Rod + Duress + Therapy help big time. Still a tough matchup, but not unwinnable.

Indeed I was rooting for Hatcher's Wretches to slap you around Nicholae. I knew if it came down to it, I would need either graveyard hate or a fast-win, neither of which I had. SO glad Hatcher pulled it off so I could play him. ^^ kudos on having the stones and skills to pilot rogue.dec to a top finish!

Heh slap me around? Hell naw... COLOSSUS slapped me around! Wretches were trash! You think he has the ability to keep up with Bazaar and Life? Naw... Wanna know the funny thing? If I would have only left a second Confidant when he attacked with Colossus (miscalculated damage)... My next card down was a Swords! DOH! OH well... Heh you lucked out ma man! I'd of smoked you... Although I really just wanted the Emerald  :lol:

[Cross]

Why the bear over nimble mongoose? Mongoose seems like it's completely better, other than the single point of damage.

I think you are underestimating your combo matchup. You have all the tools to beat it.

[Evenpence]

Werebear produces mana to power out early loams, etc.

Huge question, though:

WHERE IS FASTBOND?

Fastbond is so unbelievably sick in this deck.  You basically get 2-3 bazaars online right away with loam.  I mean, this allows you to draw multiple loams, which allow you to draw multiple lands, which allow you to play them to draw more multiple loams/lands.

I can't believe Yawg's Win isn't in here either.  With fastbond+yawg's win, you pretty much just win.  The versatility of bazaar allows you to keep the cards you want.

Heck, with this deck, I might even want 1-2 explorations.  Can you imagine being able to play multiple bazaars to dredge back multiple loams, getting the lands you discarded to bazaar?  Next turn, you just dominate with like, 8 zombie tokens. 

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Why the bear over nimble mongoose? Mongoose seems like it's completely better, other than the single point of damage.

Werebear produces mana to power out early loams, etc.

He hit it on the head. Werebear without Threshold still serves a purpose... Mongoose without Thresh is putrid. I kinda like the thought of Fastbond... Maybe that's worth a gander. Although, I usually never end the game with more than 5 mana sources and a Bazaar... It's usually game over at four and a Bazaar with an Infest in play... Bazaar > Dredge back double Life > Discard Squee/ whatever > cast both Life > make army.

Fastbond may be worth a look though... Maybe to replace that random Darkblast people have been bugging me about... Although I still enjoy the maindeck non swords Welder/ Lackey/ whatever killer.

[Dante]

Nice job on the finish!

A couple of questions:

Why the mix of 3/3 for Duress/Cabal Therapy instead of 4/2?

Since every spell in your deck except the 1 CC spells have at least one colorless in them it seems like the 5th mox should be in there.  Was it not in there for color consistency?  Or do you not have one and used up your proxies already (although wasn't it more proxies?)?

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Nice job on the finish!

A couple of questions:

Why the mix of 3/3 for Duress/Cabal Therapy instead of 4/2?

Since every spell in your deck except the 1 CC spells have at least one colorless in them it seems like the 5th mox should be in there. Was it not in there for color consistency? Or do you not have one and used up your proxies already (although wasn't it more proxies?)?

Well, Therapy and Duress are equally useful. Duress gives me quality, but Therapy is definitely quantity. Seeing as how I don't usually have a problem with Flashback... I usually always hit what I'm aiming for... And if I'm lucky enough to follow up a Duress with a Therapy well... You get the idea.

The reason I didn't put Sapphire in there was cause I dun like it... Silly, eh? My only proxies were Emerald, Pearl, and Lotus so I coulda done it but... I dunno. Just didn't like it. Every other Mox served a purpose... Even Ruby! At one point I hardcasted a Squee just to flashback a Therapy! Maybe that's why... like you said, consistancy.

[Rapalaman1]

Fastbond seems savage! Why did we never think of that???

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Fastbond seems savage! Why did we never think of that???

Well I'm talking about it and thinking it over... First off, the list seems too tight to cut anything. Secondly, with all the Dredging... How often would it even be useful? I like the thought of it, but I don't think it's entirely possible... I'll keep working with it, but how good it really is is definitely in question.

[Polynomial P]

The best thing about fastbond is to recur strip mine over and over all in one turn. However, without crucible this deck is unable to do that. Yes, it can get a bunch of permanents in play and go from 4 mana to 10 mana in a turn, but wouldnt the deck rather discard excess lands to zombie infestation or bazaar?

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Exactly. Life may seem like Crucible, but it really isn't.

Life more or less enables Bazaar and then fuels Infest when ready. Sure, you recur Wastes and Strip along the way... But you cannot be fooled into thinking it is Crucible.

[Polynomial P]

In this deck, to recur a strip in the grumper twice, you need 2 LFTL, 2 draws, 4 mana and fastond and 1 life. Geez, at that point it sounds like you should have won. Sorry Nicolae, I should have brought that up in our conversation earlier, but I just thought of it. I dont think fastbond makes the cut.

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Heh yeah... I came to the same conclusion! Guess we were just caught up in the circle jerk that is Fastbond/ Strip Mine...

[Rapalaman1]

As good as fastbond may be, unless you can find life of the loam, it may be hard to dump your hand and make zombies or still have threshold if you want to innitially play all your lands. Sure the recurrable waste/strip thing is good, but it's not like you have crucible and can just keep replaying it instantly.
Also, aside from turn 1-2, it's a pretty dead draw for you since your mana curve is so low and you're going to want to keep cards in hand for bazaar and infest

[Revvik]

As good as fastbond may be, unless you can find life of the loam, it may be hard to dump your hand and make zombies or still have threshold if you want to innitially play all your lands. Sure the recurrable waste/strip thing is good, but it's not like you have crucible and can just keep replaying it instantly.
Also, aside from turn 1-2, it's a pretty dead draw for you since your mana curve is so low and you're going to want to keep cards in hand for bazaar and infest

The fastbond idea almost seems like a completely different deck design, honestly.

[Liek]

Nice job on the finish. Way to outdo the rest of Michigan!

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned your 20th place finish from day one. 2 high finishes in 2 tournaments definetly shows promise for this archetype.

[NicolaeAlmighty]

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned your 20th place finish from day one. 2 high finishes in 2 tournaments definetly shows promise for this archetype.

Thanks! 

Well... I was a bit ashamed. Damn tie breakers! I didn't make t16 so I didn't think people would care... They like results, not near misses 

[Dante]

I'm surprised you haven't mentioned your 20th place finish from day one. 2 high finishes in 2 tournaments definetly shows promise for this archetype.

Thanks! 

Well... I was a bit ashamed. Damn tie breakers! I didn't make t16 so I didn't think people would care... They like results, not near misses 

Nonsense, going 6-2 in day 1 and then backed up 6-0-2 and 3rd place Day 2 give a lot more credibility to your overall showing and consistency of the deck than if you went 1-2 drop day 1.....6-2 is still pretty good.

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Well thankya sir! 

[Lunar]

@ Poly P (or anybody I guess)

why would you need 2 life from the loams to do that situation with fastbond?

Dredge loam during draw step, play loam bringing back 3 lands, loam is in yard again...play your 3 lands off fastbond (assuming you have 2 life..) activate bazaar...dredge loam again with one of those draws...play loam again bringing back strip waste waste or something like that...zap 3 lands (or more if you bring back strip waste bazaar witht he first loam..heh)

Fastbond is retarded with Loam...yes not quite the same as crucible with fastbond...but fastbond is a house at times for the deck (especially with yawg will)

I havnt tested this particular dredge based build yet, but fastbond has been pretty good in most (non-ichorid) of the others ive toyed around with...

[Polynomial P]

yeah, i messed that up and never got around to editing it. You only need one life from the loam, but two draws.

[Hatchman]

I would also like to say congrats on your deck and I would also like to point out the i did not Tinker 11/11 guy in game three I drained a bear into ripping mox off the top playing land out of yard to hard casting him, But You know what you were the only deck that I was scared of!!!


God Job!!

Hatch

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Hah ma bad! Thanks man! Twas good to lose to a rogue  :lol: