other than pro blocker i really dun like Phyrexian Crusader in here. it puts uroponent on 2 clocks which prolongs there life.try adding 2x downyard as lands, works great if u have a dead skaab and nothing else.snappys would make this deck morempowerfull but if ur on a budget i wont argue. as nice as ERotU sounds, its too slow for the meta, ide rather have a more solid 4 drop card or draw...finally i see ur maybeboard cosnists of alot of XX mana..it doesnt perform well in 2 color decks really so ide stay away from those.if u want hexproof killer try Tribute to Hunger instead...

The reason I main board Crusaders, is i see a lot of Red/X or White/X decks. I suppose I could Try [Cemetery Reapers] instead, but I think they'd be too small (p/t-wise) to be effective.

The other problem I'm running into is not having enough control over what my opponents get to see and use against me. I was hoping the discard would fix that.

For starters, you only have 59 cards listed here :p

Another thing, Skaab Ruinator is a tough fit in this deck. He's powerful but I feel like he really needs a specific type of deck (self-mill) to reach his full potential.

I like the Phyrexian Crusader and would suggest that you keep him in.

I also agree with what IAmKingTony said, with the addition that Delver of Secrets  ^{Flip  Flip} also doesn't seem like it quite fits here. Yeah, he'll likely be a 3/2 flier pretty fast, but that's not guaranteed, and I think you could be better off with another zombie in his place. I say drop both Skaab Ruinator and Delver of Secrets  ^{Flip  Flip} for Cemetery Reaper and Despise . Of course, you'd have to modify your land ratios to mirror the changes if you decide to do so.

Awesome, I appreciate the feedback.Do you think I should try Stitched Drake along with Cemetery Reaper instead of Ruinator? The concept in the cards is the same, just less requirements.

Also, I'm thinking of mainboarding Surgical Extraction and replacing Think Twice with Ponder , is this a sound idea?

I agree with tony, your deck cannot use Skaab Ruinator if the only fact of the matter is that it hurts your Unbreathing Horde tremendously. Now if your having problems with things like geist, you have to get the cards that can target them. card:Geth's Verdict is good if you can kill anything else they could sac. Also since we are getting rid of the ruinator, we could basically drop the blue outta here unless you want the counters. In its place you could go straight black, maybe red if you like Slagstorm to combat Geist. Then again there is always discard>Surgical Extraction to remove all geists.

Now that I think about it, I could drop Skaab Ruinator for Stitched Drake , drop Delver of Secrets  ^{Flip  Flip} for Cemetery Reaper , and without the grave intensinve requirements of Ruinator, drop Forbidden Alchemy and keep Think Twice to still be able to add Ponder .

Which woud shape the deck into something like this:

4 Diregraf Ghoul 4 Cemetery Reaper 4 Phyrexian Crusader 4 Unbreathing Horde 3 Stitched Drake

3 or 4 Despise 3 or 4 Surgical Extraction 3 or 4 Mana Leak And then Ponder, Think Twice, Dissipate, Doom Blade and Go for the Throat?

Do 3 despise 3 extract, 4 mana leak. Also I would maybe think about card:Geth's Verdict in place of either doom blade or throat. Then have the other one in side.

Ok, I've updated the Decklist based on feedback I received.

How does this look now?

Also, those Victim of Night s aren't set in stone, just an idea. I'm also kicking around the idea of including Smallpox as I still have my Timespiral playset and they're begging to be played.

Maybe use Darkslick Shores ?

It seems odd seeing a standard Zombie deck without Cemetery Reaper s. Is there a reason you aren't using them?

Depending on your meta, Doom Blade might be a better mainboard than Go for the Throat . It depends on if you see more Grave Titan s than Inkmoth Nexus es and Wurmcoil Engine s.

Ghost Quarter is an option against decks which rely heavily on dual lands or special lands (Moorland Haunt , Kessig Wolf Run , Inkmoth Nexus , etc.)

@Epoch

Check again, it's been updated, but I'm beginning to think the updates might take a minute on the backend. Also, I see quite a bit of both, primarily though i see lots of Black/X or St. Traft.

Last Week looked like this:

2 Red Burn/Gob decks

R/B Vamps

U/W and U/B/W St. Traft

Mono White

Mono Black Infect

A few others i didn't get to see. (We played 3 rounds, I lost each one.)

You might go with Dismember rather than Go for the Throat or Doom Blade then. It can kill most threatening creatures, barring Titans and Wurmcoils, and is appropriate for the diversity in your meta.

Maybe drop Stitched Drake for Skinrender ?

I like Skinrender but his mana cost scares me (lol) and I think the Drake has an edge simply with Flying. Although it wouldn't be a bad idea for the sideboard.

The problem I have with Stitched Drake is the double-blue cost on top of its additional casting cost. It seems rather restrictive, and doesn't offer any real advantage besides flying. Skinrender on the other hand can kill or weaken a threat when it comes in and then stick around as a decent-sized creature for only one more mana. I suppose it has a pseudo-cost of requiring another creature to be on the battlefield so it doesn't kill itself with its own ability, but that's a minor note and you'll probably kill that other creature as a result.

True Enough. It would help to have more board control for when i don't hit that counter or sac spell.

If you are struggling with being out numbered if you tried [undead alchemist] you would be able to mob zombies in a short amount of times, just a suggestion

Undead Alchemist creates the problem of not being able to deal damage to your opponent. It might give you a few more Zombies, but you aren't likely to mill your opponent to death unless your deck is dedicated to doing so.

Yeah, I had Undead Alchemist in before, it's clashes too hard with Phyrexian Crusader (negates his Poison effect), and give the opponent a much longer clock of 60 cards vs. 20 life.

Hm... looking at it now, im wondering if I shouldn't go Mono Black... but what to replace the blue with?

I would put in Call to the Grave , that card is crazy!!!

my first deck in MTG was to form a zombie deck too!! and i did a mono black one.. one of the problem i think is the major zombie hitter Phyrexian Crusader deal infect and the others deal normal. that is a one of the major reason wy i think my deck didnt work previously.. good luck finding a solution~ my solution was a infect deck

-2Unbreathing Horde Its a great zombie mid to late game coming for 4+ counters on it. But early on having 2 or more in hand really cripples you. Found this out in personal experience. Maybe +2 Walking Corpse or Stitched Drake .

Take out Despise outright. I feel it is the weakest discard spell in standard right now. The way I see discard is you either go all out or not at all. If you really want to discard Distress is much better. A turn later but you can take anything, with so many grave effects and flashback, you might want to try using Night Terrors instead. In my current control deck(dont have it posted here sorry). I use 4distress and 3night terrors, coupled with 4Surgical Extraction I cripple opponents hand and deck early on.

I dunno how sold you are on gaining life, I like card:Geth's Verdict over Tribute to Hunger . More Dismember is always good but I understand if its hard to get due to popular demand still.

I just don't like Endless Ranks of the Dead . Zombies seem like they should be a semi-aggro deck type, not quite as fast as humans or elves. Endless Ranks just seems slow for the deck overall. -2 Endless rank. +2 card:Ghoulcaller's Chant Bringing back 2 of your other zombies from the grave and casting them is better than generic 2/2 tokens.

Don't know exactly what to say to take out... But 1 or 2 Call to the Grave can help you regain or just keep board control.

How about now? This is increasingly tedious.

You're investing a lot of board space in high-cost discard spells. I would be careful about that.

Maybe Lashwrithe and a few more swamps.