Ultimate Deck - Darwinian Undead [ Edited ]

[puntwothree]

So a certain forum personality has (reportedly) left us, leaving something of a void. Previously, (s)he had posted every plant deck (s)he used to reach Ultimate League.

I figure, voids are dark. Voids are spooky. Zombies like voids.

Up until this point I have been reluctant to post any of my competitive decks in any public forum. This is a nerf-happy game and I don’t want my favorite cards to face the nerf-hammer. But... well... most of these cards here have survived multiple rounds of nerfing. The average rarity is high, making future nerfs less likely. And the game gets staler every time nerfs happen without new content.

I figure, if there are too many future nerfs, if the game gets too stale, I might just stop playing.

So here it is. The deck I used this season (more than any other deck - because I never use just one - because I bore easily) to reach Ultimate. I won’t apologize for rarity, but I will provide a few tips on how I play it. (I don’t keep personal statistics, but I would guess my winrate v/ good competition is around 75%. This deck has the potential to beat or lose to just about anything. See if you can spot the turn 2 win.)

1) The Two Win-Conds.

The game-ending cards in this deck shouldn’t be hard to spot. Kitchen Sink Zombie is a one or two turn clock if it isn’t dealt with. And Dark Moon Rising can be G/O immediately with enough zombies on field. But your objective isn’t to vomit zombies and expect them to stick or play Kitchen turn 6. There is two much plant removal for that. You want to either:

- Play Interdimentional Zombie into Transformation Station, which can overwhelm a plant deck quickly; or

- Teleport a Gentleman Zombie on turn 4 or 5 (holding Dark Moon), so as to generate brains with him without ever allowing him to be vulnerable to removal.

2) The Berry Match-Up

This deck likes to go small and wide a lot, leaving some vulnerability to Strawberrian & Co. You want to be very deliberate with your zombie placement so Strawberrian doesn’t have a good place to land. If necessary, plan to place Gentleman Zombie in front of Strawberrian and Leap him during Zombie tricks into something that can trade up.

Kitchen Sink Zombie is a much better win-con in this match-up than Dark Moon Rising. Your zombies may not stick, but that Armor 1 goes a long way v/all of Berries’ direct damage (and you can frenzy over most of the Berries in the game). Shuffle your Moons away from your starting hand if you see a Hedgepig or Sunflower, and look for your Kitchen.

3) Rose/Cyclecap/Chompzilla

It may seem odd to lump these guys, but there is an important reason for doing so: they all play 2-drop environments that will ruin your day. If a Planet of the Grapes or a Solar Winds hits the field and you’re not prepared for it, you should probably just concede.

In the Rose/Cyclecap/Chompzilla match-up, you should absolutely never drop a Summoning or Dance Off on Turn 1. Hold that sucker as long as possible, and see if you can’t get a Transformation Station in your opening hand.

In the Rose match-up in particular, Kitchen Sink Zombie is pretty bad. Only drop him if you have no other choice or you’re doing it with Teleport. Plan to win with Bad Moon Rising or with a combination of small zombies and random superpowers. Rose is probably your hardest match-up, because in addition to Solar Winds she can and often does pack Brainana, Dark-Matter Dragonfruit, and Shrinking Violet. Sometimes you’re just going to lose.

4) Using Your Superpowers

The Prof. has two excellent superpowers you should use most of the time when you get them and two *meh* ones. However, the zombies generated by Dance Off are both Mustache zombies. The Prof. is the hero I chose for this (Brainy-centric) deck because Dance Off with Mustache Waxer generates brains, and Dance Off with 2x Mustache Waxer generates even more brains. You can Bad Moon on Turn 6 with +2 zombies with 1 Mustache Waxer in play, and Turn 4 with 2 Mustache Waxers in play. 

Meanwhile, Summoning usually gives you something *meh*, but it has probably close to a 50% chance of giving you something *meh* that is costed at two. It thus makes sense to drop on a Transformation Station... or Solar Winds.

In summary, Dance Off and Summoning should never be dropped turn 1 on an empty field. Use them to play defense, or offensively in conjunction with the cards named above. 

Here’s the deck: