Or do they? Whenever you cast a Zombie spell, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield tapped. Of course, playing it on curve as a 2/2 isn’t what you want to have to do, but sometimes sacrifices must be made… Later in the game, this could easily be an 8/8 or bigger as soon as it enters the battlefield, creating a must-kill threat. So as a 3-mana card, this means that if you have even 2 Zombies in your graveyard when it enters the battlefield, you’ll be getting an above-rate 4/4. Let’s break it down: Diregraf Colossus enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each Zombie card in your graveyard. It can come in as a large threat later in the game, is a great card to buy back via Relentless Dead, and can generate an army even if it’s unable to attack. Going back to the core of the sacrifice effect deck though, Diregraf Colossus is one of the most powerful new cards spoiled if you get enough Zombies to abuse it. The biggest drawback of all this synergy is that the mana is wretched and slows down what should be a relatively aggressive deck. RB MadnessĪsylum Visitor goes perfectly in the deck-you have plenty of ways to take advantage of madness and it gives you another way to recoup some cards besides Tormenting Voice.
Here’s an easy update to the build Owen posted the other day. Of course, Asylum Visitor is aggressive enough to go into other aggro shells.
Then build around those core cards with madness and sacrifice cards that play nice. In fact the “core” could very well end up being: I’m only a Diregraf Ghoul away from a Zombie shell being a very good home for Asylum Visitor as well. Vampires are the tribe of choice despite some of the obvious power in cards like Relentless Dead and Diregraf Colossus. Drana’s Emissary may be a cut too low on the power curve to be playable, but it provides another 3-drop Vampire with evasion and can effectively deal 3 damage a turn without buffs. It encourages jamming creatures and making use of Indulgent Aristocrat and Fleshbag Marauder with Relentless Dead. Picking BW was a concession toward having a good land ( Shambling Vent) and gaining access to good sideboard options. My first build took into account that the current mana in the format is back to being borderline unusable in a normal aggro deck.