Thriller

Posted on May 26, 2017

One of the most interesting things about Standard right now is watching how the Zombies deck evolves to match the metagame. Heading into the Pro Tour, Mono-Black builds were common because they set the aggressive baseline of the format. At the Pro Tour, we saw builds beginning to come to the surface, since those builds give you somewhat of an edge in the mirror and some amount of reach in the form of Wayward Servant. However, today brings something a little different.

B/U Zombies ? Amonkhet Standard | Dalgleish, 5-0 Standard League

Instants (6)
2 Fatal Push
4 Grasp of Darkness

Sorceries (4)
4 Dark Salvation

Enchantments (2)
2 Liliana's Mastery

Rather than splashing White for Wayward servant, this deck touches Blue for a couple of interesting cards. In the maindeck, you’re only splashing for Gisa and Geralf. This is card allows you to dominate board stalls. In any game that goes long, you have the ability to just keep recasting key threats, such as Relentless Dead to keep the draws flowing or Diregraf Colossus to further pad your board presence.

What’s more interesting is the sideboard options that you gain by adding Blue to your deck. In particular, if Aetherworks Marvel is a deck that you’re particularly concerned about, you gain access to a full four copies of Negates as well as Transgress the Mind. The combination of these cards plus fast pressure means that you’ve got a great gameplan against Marvel decks if they continue to be a dominating presence in the metagame.

Additionally, having access to some number of Dispels and Negates seems like a good place to be against the Torrential Gearhulk decks that have cropped up in order to fight against Aetherworks Marvel. In either case, having access to Blue cards in order to supplement your copies of Transgress the Mind seems like a great place to be, though it is unfortunate that you have to give up some of the aggressive pressure in order to make it happen.