Yeah in playtesting I've always had a Trepanation Blade for turn 3 and a Undead Alchemist for turn 4(luckily). The mana curve is just making it really hard to keep an opening hand because so many things have to go right with your first draw for you to really keep a good pace going. The problem is, aside from Walking Corpse there really isn't any zombie two drops.

Just had an idea. What about some Mindshrieker s, just for early game before you get out a Call to the Grave ?

Hmm, the 'Shrieker would work, but I doubt you'd want to be spending your mana on it. It seems like the best case scenario would be Trepanation into Alchemist into Call to the Grave . You probably wouldn't have the mana to spend on the Shrieker's ability. I'd say either add some Walking Corpse and don't attack until Undead Alchemist hits the field, or maybe throw in a few Mana Leak like Kingboo suggested. It'll help your board position immensely if your opponent loses their two-drop before you even get to milling.

Yeah, I agree with Nageri again, Mindshrieker is just a great card, plus it millsss.... Otherwise, spot removal maybe? Doom Blade , Go for the Throat , even Victim of Night , any of them would fill the turn two nicely if you didn't have 3 one drops.

@MtaRidley, what about Cemetery Reaper ? I gave many reasons for him a few comments up.

Yeah Mindshrieker is only good if I'm willing to spend them mana early, and turn 3 and 4 are taken up by trepination and alchemist. I'm playtesting with spot removal and counter magic for turn 2. Probably going to go with a couple Doom Blade s just to pave the way for your zombie army by turn 4 or 5.

What I would like the deck to look like at the end is about deck:zomill-3. Please take a look and comment =D.

I like the idea of some removal, I hadn't thought of that before. Might have to add some to this deck as well. Plus, if your army gets really huge, you could potentially take out your own Undead Alchemist for a one-turn KO with physical damage (though that's not as much fun).@kingboo3000: I'm not saying the Cemetery Reaper isn't a good card, but I wouldn't use it for more than a singleton. But that's just me. Geth would technically work well in this deck too, but you're not really getting full use out of him.

Thats exactly what I was thinking just in case you need to do a "win now" emergency situation late game or spot removal early game. I'm running a couple Cemetery Reaper s because 1. I don't run any of the skaabs because I'm focusing completely on milling my opponent and not myselfe because I really can't see any benefit to milling myself, but I may be missing something. 2. With one or more on the field it protects my tokens from Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite type effects a little more, even if I would need both on the board to protect them from her specifically. 3. 10 3/3's is alot more intimidating than 10 2/2's and for just 3 mana as well as its secondary effect lets me make use of my graveyard.

Drop Skaab Goliath that card is so bad. He has trample which isn't much of an advantage when he is going to get doom bladed the second he comes out. Plus you lose any creatures you may have in your graveyard from him to put out more valuable cards. also i'm not seeing where you are getting the creatures to put cards in your graveyard.

Drop the Diregraf Ghoul and add grave crawlers this is a must for your deck. drop the Unbreathing Horde and Abattoir Ghoul and add ghoul raisers.

Hmmmm.... Yup, I agree that Skaab Goliath isn't too helpful here.

Heh, wait, Grave Crawlers aren't out yet... They're in Dark Ascension. Can you still link to them?

I definitely intend to heavily modify this deck once DKA releases. Increasing Confusion and Zombie Apocalypse are probable. I will likely remove Skaab Goliath then. I can see your point, but I have found it a very useful card in other decks. You aren't doing anything with your graveyard anyway...

Okay, I've edited it heavily for the Dark Ascension cards that have been revealed so far. Do you think this is a viable option for Standard, or should I add some removal and counterspells (like Doom Blade or Mana Leak )?

On second thought, perhaps I should splash red for Warstorm Surge . Against a creature-heavy deck, I could potentially win with a single attack. What say you?

Going the control route will put your deck in par with other t2 decks. Warstorm would be a mistake mate.

Definitely needs some dual lands. Diregraf Captain?but overall I love the balance or zombies to control spells. Could you explain forbidden alchemy, I never quite understood the card as opposed to Ponder?

Hmmm, if you're playing Cemetery Reaper, you might want to leave out Zombie Apocalypse. No synergy there, yuck.Same with Unbreathing Horde. I would cut those two for Diregraf Captainss. I'd say you want at least 3 of these. Of course, this stupid site hasn't linked to them yet...

Agreed, 4x Drowned Catacombs would be appropriate. You COULD put in Darkslick Shores... But I think they'll end up hurting you more than helping.

@bboytse, Forbidden Alchemy digs farther than Ponder. It's also an instant, which let's you play draw-go. Lastly, it dumps the rest of the dig into your graveyard, which let's you put flashback spells, Gravecrawlers, and just creatures in general into your graveyard for some oh-so-lovely card advantage.

Good point, I'll switch out the Cemetery Reapers for Captains as soon as I get a chance (although the "loses 1 life" effect is useless). I also intend to add a Geralf's Mindcrusher. Good point about Ponder, think I'll remove an Alchemy or two.

Also, what do you think of Call to the Kindred?

Good point, I'll switch out the Cemetery Reapers for Captains as soon as I get a chance (although the "loses 1 life" effect is useless). I also intend to add a Geralf's Mindcrusher. Good point about Ponder, think I'll remove an Alchemy or two.

Also, what do you think of Call to the Kindred?

Waaaiit, when did I say that Ponder is better? I was just explaining why you're playing Forbidden Alchemy. If you REALLY want another one-drop, I would play Thought Scour over Ponder in this deck.

Hmmmmmmmm............. That's hard. It won't always find a zombie, as you have an abbundance of non-creature zombie makers, but it COULD give you a free Mikaeus. I'd say nah.

I know YOU didn't say Ponder is better, but it'd probably work better than Alchemy in this case, because I don't really want a lot of stuff in my graveyard. Hmm, Thought Scour...

Hmm, but you do... Unbreathing Horde and Zombie Apocalypse are pretty graveyard relient. I would maybe take those out to justify using Ponder over Thought Scour. GAHH. Too many decisions.

AH big problem. Trepanation Blade requires you first reveal the cards and then throw them into your graveyard. Goes from a reveal state, not the deck, into the graveyard. Just keep that in mind because of Undead Alchemist And if you want to keep up the tradition of blue stuff, I'd add in Havengul Runebinder just for the roflstomping zombie horde self replicating fun.

AH big problem. Trepanation Blade requires you first reveal the cards and then throw them into your graveyard. Goes from a reveal state, not the deck, into the graveyard. Just keep that in mind because of Undead Alchemist And if you want to keep up the tradition of blue stuff, I'd add in Havengul Runebinder just for the roflstomping zombie horde self replicating fun.

The cards are still in the deck while they're being revealed. It's like Forbidden Alchemy, you can just see what's on top of the deck.

I like the Runebinder, but I have a few graveyard-relient cards in Mikaeus and Zombie Apocalypse (if I ever manage to get those). I also intend to put in a few Havengul Lich, because my friend and I pulled three between us at the prerelease.

Well... "Look"ing at the top cards of your library isn't the same as "reveal"ing them. But I don't know if it's considered a different state.

Unsummon nice combat trick, once the engine really gets going and you have a decent amount of zombies to attack with, instead of waiting a few turns for your army to mill them out, why not just unsummon the Undead Alchemist before combat damage is dealt and turn all that mill into real damage for the win?

Secondly, Diregraf Captain not only makes your zombies bigger and is a decent body with deathtouch for 3, its your best defense against board wipes and more importantly Ratchet Bomb (aside from artifact removal). They really had zombie armies in mind with this captain because when you are faced with an army of zombies what do you want to do? Board wipe right? Well good luck not dying when you take 1 damage for each creature that gets wiped.

What I would drop: Moan of the Unhallowed Great 4 for one card, but redundant in the long run. Too many 4 drops already as well as putting much more useful cards in that slot.Zombie Apocalypse seems great in a dedicated zombie deck, but very situational, if you want something like it in that slot thats good Army of the Damned Fits perfectly. A single copy is great because its a two for one with flashback, and fits well with the Captain, since with him out, either they counter the Army or die. Geralf's Mindcrusher seems like the perfect fit for this deck, but as a 6 drop (that I have personally considered and playtested) for what it does is really mediocre in the long run. I would trade that out for a 4th Diregraf Captain any day as its a 3 drop secondary win condition.

When you have Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul is pretty much redundant, and much better replaced by a two drop, which until DA, was hard to come by for this deck. Highborn Ghoul would fit perfectly in its place and give you a card with intimidate to throw your trepanation blade on early game to get the engine rolling. I would drop Call to the Grave, as a 5 drop its just a big target that moves slow and taps you out. If you want the same effect (essentially getting rid of Thrun, the Last Troll ) I would replace them with Geth's Verdict, as after game two you will never keep a Call down, and when you do, you hopefully will be winning by the time its even relevant. Trade out the 2 Forbidden Alchemy for two more Thought Scour, same card advantage and since you have taken out all graveyard play, you now get the card advantage while milling the correct player lol.

I hope I don't seem arrogant with all the suggestions. Take everything I say with a grain of salt. And best of luck!

You cant unsummon before combat is dealt, and expect it to still go through. it doesn't work that way lmao..