Today I'm just going to play some matches with Zvi Mowshowitz's B/R Zombie deck that I played at Grand Prix Atlantic City. I discussed the deck in this week's article, so I'll just post the list as a reminder and get straight to the matches.

B/R Zombies

Sam Black

234th Place at Grand Prix on 1/13/2013

Standard

 

Creatures (31)

• 3 Crimson Muckwader
• 4 Diregraf Ghoul
• 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 4 Geralf's Messenger
• 4 Gravecrawler
• 3 Hellrider
• 4 Knight of Infamy
• 4 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1 Zealous Conscripts

Lands (25)

• 1 Mountain
• 8 Swamp
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Rakdos Guildgate

Spells (4)

• 1 Ultimate Price
• 3 Pillar of Flame

Sideboard

• 4 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Searing Spear
• 1 Tragic Slip
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 2 Victim of Night
• 3 Olivia Voldaren
• 2 Appetite for Brains
• 1 Pillar of Flame

 

My understanding is that B/R Zombies is traditionally the worst matchup for the super ramp Omni-Door decks. Game 1 you're just way too fast for them, and game 2 the sideboard cards that they bring in to buy time don't gain relevant amounts of life against your giant fliers. They have to draw exceptionally well to have a chance. This didn't cut it.

This matchup is much closer. If they have one of their good draws, like Elf into Ooze, it can be really hard since you can't interact with a lot of their creatures. On the other hand, they don't have great ways to interact with a lot of your creatures either, so it's often just a race. It really just comes down to who happens to curve out better that game.

This was my first match against the Hexproof deck. It felt pretty good, but my draw game 1 was exceptional and my draw in game 2 was also well above average. Aristocrat did excellent work against the specific creatures he played. He played his fourth turn pretty badly, but the four life wouldn't really have mattered. I played well by leaving back the Diregraf Ghoul and the Aristocrat, and I think that knowing when to hold back is probably pretty important here.

I think that matchup is generally favorable for me, but it gets a lot harder if they have red. Game 1 I really needed to draw more than three lands and/or fewer than three Dragons. Game 3 I think I threw away by attacking with Olivia to let him Charm + Thought Scour her. If I'd just never attacked with her, I think she probably would have won the game. After that, I was still drawing very live, but I needed to draw spells (while the lands would have been fine if I'd had Olivia).

Overall, I'm still very happy with the build. I didn't feel like I ever wished I had fewer creatures and more removal spells or anything, though there's a pretty real chance that the fourth Thundermaw Hellkite would be better as the fourth Crimson Muckwader.

Thanks for watching,

Sam

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