The Almighty Dirge

Standard* Reanimator Tribal UB (Dimir) Zombie

Tom2401

Creature (24)

• 4x Cryptbreaker
• 4x Diregraf Colossus
• 3x Fleshbag Marauder
• 2x Gisa and Geralf
• 4x Prized Amalgam
• 4x Relentless Dead
• 3x Risen Executioner

Land (23)

• 4x Choked Estuary
• 3x Island
• 4x Sunken Hollow
• 11x Swamp
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Instant (9)

• 3x Catalog
• 4x Compelling Deterrence
• 2x Grasp of Darkness

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Ever After
• 3x Ruinous Path

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Sideboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Creeping Dread

Instant (12)

• 3x Altar's Reap
• 3x Murder
• 3x To the Slaughter
• 3x Unsubstantiate

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Infinite Obliteration

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Voracious Null

Enchantment (3)

• 3x Graf Harvest

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Murderous Compulsion

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Again and again, I live and die. No hells, no heavens... only this.

- Dirge, the Undying

While Zombies are slow and cumbersome when compared to the swiftness of the Vampires and the tenacity of the humans, Zombies do one thing they both fail to do; they survive no matter how many times they are slain. With that being said, board wipes are seldom an issue since your graveyard will be an extension of your hand.

The Deceased

Cryptbreaker: Card draw and an opportunity to pitch zombies to get a zombie token is difficult to pass up.

Relentless Dead: The all-star of the deck. Difficult to kill because it can bounce itself when it dies and can replace itself on the board, Relentless Dead provides so much value.

Diregraf Colossus: While you don't really want your zombies to be sitting in your grave doing nothing, it can't really hurt when you've got a really beefy zombie for only 3 mana out of it.

Fleshbag Marauder: A removal spell on a stick in and of itself. Recur and sac it with Relentless or G&G and you've got a constant removal spell.

Gisa and Geralf: Gisa and Geralf make this deck more or less possible because of the constant opportunities to return your zombies. On top of that, it's a four mana 4/4 with virtually no real drawback for us.

Prized Amalgam: "Prized" is a massive understatement. The Amalgam is one of the best cards to pitch to any discard outlet since it'll recur anytime you bring a zombie back. Be mindful though that it only recurs at the next endstep and it's tapped.

Risen Executioner: It's a zombie lord that can recur itself, what more can I say? While it does hurt that is added for every other creature card in your yard in order to recur it, Relentless Dead can work around this restriction.

The Hymns

Compelling Deterrence: A bounce spell that hits pretty much any annoying threat on the board you see. It has the added bonus that it also forces your opponent to discard since you'll be controlling a zombie most of the time.

Grasp of Darkness: Great spot removal that can kill off quite a long list of potential threats. Obviously a bit weak towards creatures with higher toughness so boarding more "absolute" removal may be in order.

Catalog: Rather quick and painless card draw. Nets you two card, which is nice, and has the added benefit with fueling your grave.

Ruinous Path: Your best answer to Planeswalkers. The awaken is more or less and in case of emergency button.

Ever After: Singleton copy because it can recycle itself and it's rather expensive mana-wise. However it provides a lot since it can recur any zombie and Gisa and Geralf, which would make them a zombie and benefit from Rissen Ex.

The Tomb

Lands are lands, though don't run too much land that enters tapped. The deck is fairly slow as is so there's no need to make it slower.

Westvale Abbey  : Considering the resilience of Zombies, it isn't particularly hard to enable the Abbey flip. In fact, it's actually possible to completely revert what you sacrificed because of how much the zombies can recur

The Flowers

Altar's Reap: Mainly used to swap Catalog out in certain match ups. Why? Because Anguished Unmaking and other spot exile removal pose serious threats. Sacing your Zombie to Altar's Reap will not only net you cards but also return your zombie to the safety of your yard.

Unsubstantiate: Used in any Madness match ups where the discard of Compelling Deterrence is exactly what they want you to do.

Infinite Obliteration: While killing threats is nice, removing them before they hit the board is even better, I'm looking at you Reflector Mage. Side in against match ups where you know there's going to be a troublesome card.

Murder: They don't run walkers you don't run Ruinous Path, simple as that.

To the Slaughter: If you ever need to board more removal, Slaughter provides just that. It may be a little inconsistent to hit Delirium, but still worth forcing your opponent to sac their own stuff

Creeping Dread: Kind of an odd ball in this deck, but mainly useful for any blue match up. Ever After is a big recurring threat, with that being said odds are it won't slide again game 2. Since it's useless to us if it's just going to bite a counterspell, toss in a card they may or may not consider countering. If it resolves, great. We can force them to lose life on top of keeping their hand down. If it doesn't, it saves us 2 mana had we tried the same with Ever After.

The Graverobbers

Any spot exile: Zombies need to return from the grave. If it removes them from the game, they can't be returned from the grave. As pointed out earlier, sacrificing or killing your own zombies is some times neccessary.

Stasis Snare and the like: Same as above, sac or kill their targets first. Bounce with Compelling Deterrence second.

Shamble Back: It's funny how a Zombie token producer is a pretty serious threat to a zombie deck.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: This card requires an immediate answer when it hits the board.

Void Shatter: In control match ups, you won't really care about counter magic. However, you will have to care about this because it exiles whatever is countered. Reserve Unsubstantiate for returning whatever zombie you cast back to your hand.

If you liked this deck, feel free to upvote it. If you feel like I missed something or there's something that can be improved on, don't be shy to share it - I'm always open to ideas and improvements.

If Zombies are too slow for your tastes, check out my build on Vampires.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Exclude colors	WRG
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 5 Rares 7 - 4 Uncommons 5 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.73
Tokens	Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Zombie 2/2 B