Discussion Forum

My (not-so-local) card store is having a Magic Day on May 27th. I plan on attending. However, as I just got back into the game recently, and only have one guy to play against right now, I am a little rusty with playing (and since I'm stuck on dial-up, sadly, playing online is not a viable option). I know my decks are probably okay for fun, but against real players, they will probably get massacred. So, I'm trhowing out the life buoy, to see if I can have a couple of decent decks to take to this event. I also plan on trying to hit up a couple of FNM events, but again... I have no idea what to expect. Do they used drafted decks? Constructed?

Anyway, here's one of my current decks that *might* be viable. I call it BRAAAAAAAAINS! 8) It's a U/B zombie deck. This is my second interation of this deck, so I haven't been able to try it yet (I am still waiting for a couple of cards in the mail to complete it). It can hold it's own, and if you let me get it to midgame, you're dead. The idea is a constant steady flow of zombies to keep the pressure on the opponent, until I can get my Undead Alchemist out. Then, it begins o mill my opponent, while making me more zombies. Couple this with Endless Ranks of the Dead, and.... well let's just say I milled my opponent for 42 cards on one attack last game. 8) However, I think it is a little too slow to be competitive. It's ALMOST Innistrad-block legal... I would need to dump the multilands, Festering Goblins, Grixis GRimblades, Tutor and RItual to make it legal. The previous iteration of this deck had more Dark Rituals, and a Song of the Dead as well, to try and speed mana, but I found they didn't matter that much.

My questions are: 1) what can I replace the non-Innistrad cards with to keep this deck block-viable (considering I have half a box of Avacyn boosters on the way)? and 2) What can I do to improve this deck for other formats (I know it's JUST Modern legal, and I think it's standard legal). I have playsets of most of the cards in this deck (yes, even the Army of the Damned), except for the Alchemist and Runebinder. I don't mind spending a little to get other cards to improve this, but I'm probably drawing the line at cards that cost more that $20 a card.

I look forward to your advice.