Greetings fellow Cubers and welcome back to Unboxed: the weekly article series that shines a spotlight on themes and topics about the best format in Magic: The Gathering! Thank you to everyone who has supported the series and if there is a topic or theme you would like covered, leave your thoughts in the comments below! With that said: Let’s get Cubing!
With the leaves changing and the autumn winds beginning to blow, it is time to kick off the month of October with a four-week miniseries on some of spookiest tribes Magic has to offer for Cubers. While I was tempted to choose some of the more obscure tribes such as Horrors, Nightmares, and Demons, I decided to stick with the more popular tribes this time around from the ghoulish undead to the howling winds in the night. I have a soft spot for black cards dating back to my days as a new player, but never fear: this mini-series will include more than just black cards. The first tribe in this series also dates back to my time as a new player during the Onslaught block. My friends had gravitated towards the tribes found within and while they quickly latched onto the Elves, Clerics, and Goblins, it was the tribe centered in black that caught my eye. To kick off this miniseries and shoutout to the tribe that made me fall in love with the game, this week’s article will shine a spotlight on the Top Ten Zombies. Honorable mentions will of course be included since Zombies are one of the most supported tribes in the game’s long history.
In case you were my curious on my thoughts about the upcoming Secret Lair, here is the short version: I still love the art of Secret Lairs, have zero issue with Magic crossovers with other IPs, and think the idea of giving Cubers more options to express their Cube’s themes or their love of the game is always good. Having said that, the execution of this Secret Lair is extremely inadequate. There is so much that could have been done to make this so much less of a problem and it is a shame that any or all of those steps were not taken.
Important Notes:-
The data being used for the cards on the top zombies list will be taken from Cube Cobra based on cards that are in hundreds or thousands of unique Cubes across all rarities.
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Only cards with the type Zombie will be included for this list. If you would like to see a list of cards that create Zombie tokens, leave a comment below and it shall be a future list
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I have plenty of noteworthy cards mentioned in this article, but this is by no means all of them or a guide of any kind. It is your Cube, so build it the way you want to!
What better place to start this list than with a zombie from the Innistrad block that can keep coming back for more. Gravecrawler has great stats for a one mana creature and is a viable tool to use even if you do not support black aggressive strategies. The ability to bring itself back to play if you have another zombie on the field is great in “Aristocrats” strategies where you’re continuously sacrificing your creatures for value that adds up to victory. It may not be able to block for you, but if you are constantly attacking with Gravecrawler, sacrificing it, or recasting it from your graveyard, you certainly will not mind having one less blocker on the field.
It is fitting that a “buffed” Gravecrawler places right ahead of the original. While you need to pay three mana, and have one or fewer cards in your hand to bring Dread Wanderer back, he does not require you to have a Zombie in play to do so, which is a big help if you do not have quite enough Zombies in your deck to make Gravecrawler consistent. Even though he may enter tapped, he works just fine as a piece for the “Aristocrats” strategy, and unlike Gravecrawler, he can block for you in a pinch! I am sure it is a close debate as to which you would rather have, but I will give the slight edge to Dread Wanderer since I like his consistency over Gravecrawler.
Story Time of the Week: Zombies have a special place in my heart for being both the tribe that got me into Magic and the defining theme in the peak of my official event career to date. A few years ago, I was at a MagicFest with my friend (Hi Gary!) and we both entered an Amonkhet/Hour of Devastation Sealed event with over 350 people. We both sat down, opened our pools, started to build our decks, and felt good about our game plans. His deck was a strong blue black control deck using The Scarab God as the win condition (I am still amazed at how good this card was) and he piloted that deck to a strong 5-0 match record. My deck, on the other hand, played 12 uncommon white/black cards (an absurd number for sealed) and I got insanely greedy by splashing red for Glorybringer. My draws must have been pretty good that day because I also went 5-0 and we both got 1st and 2nd respectively. I will be extremely appreciative when I can next attend a MagicFest even if I may not be able to use Zombies every time.
In eighth place, we have a black five mana creature that allows you to cast Demonic Tutor to go along with a 4/6 body that is, at worst, going to trade one for one by having deathtouch. I feel that Sidisi does not get the respect she deserves, as she is incredibly efficient at being a threat on the board, difficult to remove if you are not playing white/black removal spells, and effective in turning a disposable creature on your field into the best card in your deck for that situation. Cubers have been looking for good black five mana creatures to play with and I do not think you will be disappointed at what Sidisi offers you.
While Mikaeus, the Lunarch serves a great role for a +1/+1 counter strategy, his evil counterpart brings a lot more to the table overall. While the triple black mana symbols in his cost may be a bit rough at times, the rest of his card more than makes up for it. He is difficult to block in combat through his Intimidate ability, provides a soft counter to any scary humans your opponent may try to attack with you with, and gives your other non-human creatures a second chance by granting them Undying. The last ability alone makes your board incredibly resilient and having a Persist creature in play with this Mikaeus, along with a free sacrifice outlet, can end the game rather quickly.
Dreadhorde Arcanist is one of only eleven red Zombies in the game’s long history and it makes the list this week. A 1/3 stat line is efficient enough for a two mana creature, but this card is truly at its best when it attacks. Casting an extra Lightning Bolt or other red burn spell from the graveyard for free is a nice bonus and if you can increase the attack power, the possibilities with this card increase exponentially. There is also the extra bonus of having trample to maximize your damage output. You will have to have enough one mana spells for this to be good, in case the pump effects are not there, but you have plenty of options there too from Path to Exile or Fatal Push to the dreams of Ancestral Recall.
Rotting Regisaur is the newest card to make this list, but its impact has already been felt by the Cube community and boy do those stats look good. A 7/6 for three mana is an incredible rate the likes of which the community only sees in rare instances and normally, when the stats on a card are “too good to be true”, there is always a catch. Interestingly, Cube is a format where you can turn his drawback into helping you accomplish your plans by discarding cards you want to go into the graveyard. Any cards that have graveyard-based mechanics mostly mitigate his drawback and you can even discard incredible threats that can be reanimated back to the battlefield if you support that archetype.
Another, but not the last, three mana Zombie comes in fourth place for this list and unlike the raw stats and discard outlet that Rotting Regisaur gave you, this one looks to give you raw card advantage. Midnight Reaper has one of my favorite art pieces from the game in recent years and the rest of the card is even better as you get an efficient three mana 3/2 that turns your dying creatures into extra cards that the low cost of one life a piece. Even at its worst, you will block with it or watch it die to a removal spell while you draw a card and lose one life since the wording of the ability counts itself too. You might not be able to maximize its potential with every other creature you have, since tokens do not work with its ability, but that is a small price to pay for a card that debatably does the best Dark Confidant impression we have ever seen.
War of the Spark keeps proving why it was one of the most powerful sets for Cubers with God-Eternal Kefnet coming in third place this week. It is an extremely strong midrange blue threat in part due to the fact that it flies and how you essentially need to out-tempo it if you ever want a chance to fully answered it. You also get the opportunity to gain an additional copy of a key instant or sorcery spell and it is even cheaper than the original by getting a two mana discount. Put that all together and you get a card most blue decks in Cube would be happy to have as well as one your opponents would rather not see on the other side of the table.
If you are someone that likes a sense of uncertainty and randomness in your Cube, Fallen Shinobi is an incredible addition. Similar to Gonti, Lord of Luxury, it allows you to play cards from the top of your opponent’s library, but unlike Gonti, it is more likely than not your opponent will not be able to prepare effectively. The Ninjutsu ability allows you to put this creature into play and attacking on turn four while immediately letting you use the top two cards of your opponent’s library against them since you can then cast them for free. Getting a couple lands at that point in the game is not that bad and any non-land cards you hit with this effect is incredible value. Having a 5/4 stat line does not hurt either!
Not only is Murderous Rider the best Zombie card on this list, but it is also one of my favorite cards in recent memory for it combines two of my favorite things in all of Magic: Zombies and destroying my opponents cards. While the 2/3 lifelink body is certainly not bad, a removal spell stapled onto this card through the Adventure mechanic pushes its power level to incredible heights. The removal spell part of this card being an instant and being able to also destroy an enemy planeswalker makes it even better. It is a built in two for one and having a relevant creature type never hurts a card that is already a Cube mainstay and will continue to be so for a very long time. This card does so much and has so many options built into it that it was an easy pick for 1st place this week.
For Pauper players everywhere, there are some high-quality Zombies for your consideration. Carrion Feeder is an incredible sacrifice outlet that grows bigger and bigger for each creature you feed to it. Gray Merchant of Asphodel is a win condition in and of itself by being able to instantly defeat your opponent if you have enough black mana symbols on your field. Gurmag Angler uses the Delve mechanic to make its cost as cheap as one mana and a one mana 5/5 seems pretty good even with no other abilities. Putrid Imp is a flying version of Rotting Regisaur in that it is both a threat on the battlefield and a discard outlet that you can use to great effect.
For Peasant Cubers, you get access to all the sweet commons mentioned above, plus some Zombies that truly push the boundary of what a non-rare or non-mythic card can do. Tidehollow Sculler allows you to disrupt your opponent’s plans by temporarily removing a non-land card from their hand, which can be great at almost any point in the game. Skinrender is an excellent two-for-one that gets around Indestructible and can neutralize a strong creature even if it does not outright destroy it. Foulmire Knight is another example of why the Adventure mechanic is so powerful through being a slow removal spell in the form of a 1/1 with deathtouch and having the potential to replace itself. Tomebound Lich gives you good card selection on a 1/3 with deathtouch and if you attack with it, you can possibly get even more card selection.
And that is the list for this week! I hope you enjoyed a look at the potential Zombie additions to your Cube. Zombies are a tribe that will be getting plenty of support, even over twenty years after their introduction to the game. If you are going to push tribal themes in your Cube, there should be no shortage of undead minions for you to choose from!
Join me next week for a tribe you will really want to sink your teeth into and until then, may you keep preparing for the Zombie apocalypse!
Special thanks to Cube Cobra for letting me contribute to the best Cube resource around, Gary Thompson for compiling the bulk of the data used for this article, and Maegan for being the best editor a writer can ask for!