This week’s deck is a Zombie deck. Zombie decks are of great interest because of their roles in a variety of metagames. In some places, like several parts of California, the local environment seems almost devoid of Zombies, while other places, like Boston, seem to be virtually overrun by Zombie decks.

This deck comes from an avid player in New York named Josef. Here is what he had to say:

Hello Jason. I'd like to know if you could fix this deck for me. It runs okay now, but I'm thinking that it could probably be a bit better. I would like to know if you could give me some suggestions on how to improve it. Thanks in advance for helping me out!


Josef’s Zombie Deck
43 cards total

Monsters
3 Poison Mummy
3 Des Lacooda
3 Master Kyonshee
3 Patrician of Darkness
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Vampire Lord
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
1 Cyber Jar
3 Shadow Ghoul

Spells
3 Call of the Mummy
2 Book of Life
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Tribute to The Doomed
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
1 Change of Heart
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Traps
1 Imperial Order
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of The Haunted

This is a solid deck, and there aren’t a whole lot of major fixes I can suggest for it. However, there are several tweaks I can offer that will allow you to get the most out of the decision to play Zombies.

First off, let’s look at what we need to drop. The three Poison Mummies and three Master Kyonshees are okay choices, but in my opinion, there are more useful Zombies you could be using. Those six cards are going to go. The three Shadow Ghouls also need to be dropped. This deck is already heavy on tribute monsters, and the three Shadow Ghouls don’t really serve much purpose. They’re nice, but there are better things to pull with Pyramid Turtle, and with four other tribute monsters in the deck, you’re already running the risk of having dead cards in your hand.

The four tribute monsters are going to drop down to three. One Patrician of Darkness will be removed to keep the deck tribute-light. You’re generally going to be pulling these with Pyramid Turtle, so having more than two in the deck to increase the chance of drawing them is a waste of a card. Patrician of Darkness is a great monster and an integral part of any Zombie deck, but two of them are really enough.

We’re also going to drop one Des Lacooda, which must be manually flipped in order to trigger its effect. Because of this, it’s a lot easier to run two and protect them with Patrician of Darkness, Mirror Force, and Ring of Destruction, than it is to run three and try to do the same. However, you have to realize that sometimes this monster may be a dead card and build the deck to minimize the number of times that situation comes up. By using only two copies of Des Lacooda, you have a fair shot at drawing one, and it will ensure that you aren’t stuck with multiples in your hand at the wrong time.

Call of the Mummy, another tribute monster, will also drop down to two. It's a great card, but having multiples could be a negative thing because its utility can sometimes be limited. It’s in your best interest to use that third slot for a more useful card, like Book of Life.

Lastly, Magic Cylinder will be dropped for space reasons. Test this, and if you like the deck more with Magic Cylinder, by all means, run it. Magic Cylinder takes a lot of heat, but to be honest, I really see it being a flavour card. If you like Magic Cylinder and you’re the kind of person who can use it well, it will probably do incredibly well for you. If you don’t use it well and it doesn’t fit your play style, you might be one of the many who regard it as a poor card. Removing this card if it does not work well for you will give you room to add a card that will work better.

Now we can start adding cards back into the deck. I highly recommend three Giant Rats. These cards will maintain board presence and help you get to your all-important Pyramid Turtles as quickly as possible. The three Giant Rats will fill some of the slots freed up by removing the Poison Mummies and Master Kyonshees.

Another three of the open slots will be filled by Royal Keeper. Royal Keeper is a very high-utility monster. It acts as a 1900 attacker, but also gives you the advantage of being able to slap it into defense position if the turn doesn’t go the way you want. Royal Keeper provides a good deal of damage control while still giving an offence, which is very useful.

The deck also needs two Spirit Reapers. A Zombie deck’s success is completely contingent on its ability to abuse Pyramid Turtle, and in my opinion, the three cards that make Pyramid Turtle effective are Patrician of Darkness, Vampire Lord, and Spirit Reaper. Patrician of Darkness is invaluable for its attack value and its ability to act as a wall. Vampire Lord is important for three reasons: its ability to destroy traps before they see the light of play, its attack value, and its resiliency. However, Spirit Reaper is the best of the three because it’s a one-card game-freezing monster. It’s quite possibly the best defensive monster in the game, so its inclusion here is a total necessity.

A third Book of Life is also a must. Again, this is one of those cards that make Zombie decks work as well as they do. It’s useless on the first turn because it cannot be activated until the opponent has at least one monster in his or her graveyard. However, once that condition is fulfilled, all bets are off. For someone playing against a Zombie deck, there is nothing more frustrating than finally offing that Vampire Lord only to see it Book of Lifed back onto the field. And, the fact that it can take out Sinister Serpent or remove a destroyed Tribe-Infecting Virus from the game is the icing on the sweet, sweet Zombie death cake.

I’d also suggest adding a second Tribute to The Doomed, which Book of Life allows. Tribute to The Doomed is an underrated card, but in a deck with this much recursion, it can be a good way to get that Vampire Lord into play. It’s also going to tech those bothersome Jinzos and Goblin Attack Forces that seem to enjoy shoving Vampire Lord around. Realistically, a well-built Beatdown deck is going to eat Vampire Lord for breakfast more often than most players are willing to admit, but the option of blowing away any monster card on the field is going to curb that possibility.

Lastly, if you can get your hands on one, I’d suggest putting a Ring of Destruction into the deck. Again, this is going to help make sure that no Goblin Attack Forces, Giant Orcs, or monsters with equip spell cards on them are going to destroy your Vampire Lord in battle. Ring of Destruction is also going to tech Tribe-Infecting Virus and will help mitigate the damage that card can do to a themed deck like this one. However, if you don’t have a Ring of Destruction, just cut it out of the decklist and run the deck at 40 cards instead of 41.


Final Changes

-3 Poison Mummy
-3 Master Kyonshee
-3 Shadow Ghoul
-1 Patrician of Darkness
-1 Des Lacooda
-1 Call of the Mummy
-1 Magic Cylinder

+3 Giant Rat
+3 Royal Keeper
+2 Spirit Reaper
+1 Book of Life
+1 Tribute to The Doomed
+1 Ring of Destruction


Zombie Deck—Jason’s Fix
41 cards total

Monsters
2 Patrician of Darkness
1 Vampire Lord
2 Des Lacooda
2 Spirit Reaper
3 Royal Keeper
3 Giant Rat
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
1 Cyber Jar

Spells
2 Call of the Mummy
3 Book of Life
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Tribute to The Doomed
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
1 Change of Heart
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Traps
1 Imperial Order
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of The Haunted


Now you have a revised Zombie deck. Virtually any opening monster you could play is a good choice, except for maybe Cyber Jar. This deck can maintain board presence with the three Pyramid Turtles, three Giant Rats, and two Spirit Reapers. The Giant Rats will help accelerate the basic functions central to all Zombie decks. How you manage your choices with Pyramid Turtle and Book of Life will be the main game-breaking decisions, so take any choices involving those cards very seriously.

Finally, side decking is really up to you. Delinquent Duo and Confiscation might be good if you encounter a bit of Exodia in your area. Tribe-Infecting Virus is always a good choice, but beware of it being Change of Hearted and/or subjected to Snatch Steal. If this happens, Tribe-Infecting Virus will become your worst nightmare. Sinister Serpent can also be a good choice if you're facing Control decks. However, there really aren’t many cards to side deck against. This deck is very well-balanced, fast, resilient, and capable of overextending in the midgame and recovering very quickly.

I hope that helps, Josef. Thanks for sending in your deck!