Zombies, such a cruel fate for those who crave the blessed sleep. Whether it be wars, collecting body parts or even digging up graves, there is never a shortage of corpses for any Necromancer or mad scientist to reanimate.
Esper Zombies is a midrange tribal deck focusing on getting out as much zombies as you can, beefing them up with your zombie lords and disrupting your opponents plays or pesky creatures to swing in for the win. With the new addition to zombies with the Amonkhet block released, there have been some great additions to the deck to see that the undead horde is not to be trifled with.
The key component to this deck is Gravecrawler, Prized Amalgam and Relentless Dead. while Gravecrawler cannot block and is a mere 2/1. It is only one mana to cast and can be recast from your graveyard as long as you control a zombie. Relentless Dead is also a pretty synergistic card with this deck since when it dies, you may pay to bounce it back to your hand, but at the same time also allows you to pay to bring a zombie from your graveyard, right onto the battlefield. Both are pretty good cards that pair well with the next three cards in the list. Finally, Prized Amalgam is a persistent zombie that'll keep coming back from the dead every time you cast Gravecrawler from your grave.
Diregraf Captain is a zombie lord that also makes your opponents lose life for every zombie that you control dies. It pairs well with the aforementioned Gravecrawler,Relentless Dead and a sac engine. For every paid to cast gravecrawler and saced, your opponent loses a life. It is very deadly if you have both your Diregraf Captains out in the battlefield.
Wayward Servant, the new card from the Amonkhet set is a 2/2 zombie for that whenever another zombie enters the battlefield under your control, each opponent loses one life and you gain one life. considering we will be mostly generating zombies and with Gravecrawler, we will be gaining life no matter what. Perfect against prison decks since its an area of effect trigger than a target trigger. Definitely a card that your opponents need a response to.
Diregraf Colossus is a powerful three drop. It gets a +1/+1 counter for every zombie in your graveyard and whenever you cast a zombie spell, create a 2/2 black zombie token. With Gravecrawler in your graveyard, you can beef Diregraf Colossus up and that same turn, if you have any open black mana, can instantly make a threatening board presence for sure.
Lord of the Accursed is in my opinion, the greatest zombie lord for this deck, not only is it a 2/3 that beefs your guys, he also has an ability which, if you pay and tap it, all zombies gain menace until end of turn, an evil game ender indeed, watch as your opponents choose which big zombie to block with two of his or her creatures, as all of your other zombies push through for massive, or even lethal damage
Cryptbreaker Is an excellent one drop for tossing your Prized Amalgam and Gravecrawler into the grave to use later, as well as giving you a few zombie tokens to beef your army up. Its second ability can also give you card draw at the cost of tapping down three zombies and losing a life.
Ather Vial is an excellent card for this deck as all of yor zombies are three and below, it also bypasses any counterspells or flashing in an important zombie to change the tides into your favor.
your instant and sorceries are your average staples for white, black and blue. Cryptic Command for utility purposes. Fatal Push And Path to Exile for removal, Serum Visions for cantrip and filter for your next draws and Collective Brutality for removal, hand disruption, softening your opponent while beefing yourself, or all three if you choose to escalate.
your mana base is simple since you're in three colors, you have Flooded Strand, Marsh Flats and Polluted Delta for fetches, Godless Shrine, Hallowed Fountain and Watery Grave as your shocklands, Cavern of Souls because tribal and blue is mean to the zombies you're trying to cast and Darkslick Shores for fastland action. You also run three Island, Two Swamp and a Plains for your basics. If you want to improve it more, then consider adding Mutavault since it becomes a 2/2 with all creature types until end of turn.
Your sideboard can be tweaked to your liking depending on your meta, though it is considered to use these cards if you have them.
Disenchant, for those pesky Blood Moon Decks or any prison and/or affinity decks
Leyline of Sanctity For burn or any midrange decks running hand disruption
Nihil Spellbomb for Dredge or any graveyard based deck.
Phyrexian Crusader for those pesky decks running Red, White or Both
Stony Silence For any affinity or artifact based deck
Supreme Verdict for removal or a game ender if you have enough zombies for Diregraf Captain to drain your opponent for lethal.
And finally Surgical Extraction for any graveyard based Combo deck.
