Constructing Flavor: Plants vs. Zombies Posted by Seth Weinstein on June 12, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Constructing Flavor focuses on Magic decks built around a particular flavor or lore theme. These can be focused around a particular tribe, storyline, character, or concept; if it’s flavorful, we wanna see it! If you have a themed deck you’d like to see featured in this column, send the list to firesidemagic@gmail.com.

When Innistrad was originally released, I saw the card Grave Bramble and immediately started cackling with glee. I immediately recognized the tribute to PopCap’s wonderful tower defense game, Plants vs. Zombies, and I was inspired to recreate the game in the world of Magic. I built one deck each to represent the Plants team and the Zombies team, and in typical Duel Decks fashion, tried to balance them against each other as much as possible.

The decks were badly unbalanced and it didn’t go well, but with the release of Plants vs. Zombies 2 looming closer every day, I thought this would be a good time try again. My problem was that the Zombies deck was always much more powerful than the Plants deck, and the general nature of Magic’s “dueling” didn’t really capture the feel of tower defense. Luckily, I discovered a variant that seems to capture the flavor of PvZ perfectly: Horde Magic.

In a nutshell, here’s how the variant works:

Players fight as a team against a single Horde deck, which is autopiloted

The Horde deck is constructed of 60% creature tokens

Each turn after the 3rd, the Horde deck flips over cards until it reveals a non-token, then casts them all. All Horde creatures have haste and attack each turn if able.

The Horde deck takes damage in the form of milling cards, and loses when the deck is empty

You can click the above link for more detailed rules, but those are the basics: simply survive until the Horde runs out. Seeing as that’s the theme of PvZ too, Horde seems perfect.

Here are my original two decks:

Zombies

Lands

4x Spawning Pool

17x Swamp

1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

—

Spells

1x Accorder’s Shield

1x Batterskull

1x Grappling Hook

1x Kitesail

1x Nim Deathmantle

1x Ronin Warclub

2x Endless Ranks of the Dead

2x Zombie Infestation

1x Army of the Damned

1x Dead Reckoning

2x Ghoulcaller’s Chant

1x Stir the Grave Creatures

2x Bog Raiders

1x Cemetery Reaper

1x Contagious Nim

2x Cyclopean Giant

1x Deepwood Ghoul

3x Diregraf Ghoul

3x Dregscape Zombie

1x Fleshbag Marauder

1x Gluttonous Zombie

1x Grave Titan

1x Graveborn Muse

1x Gutless Ghoul

2x Unbreathing Horde

1x Undead Warchief

2x Walking Corpse

Plants

Lands

1x Bant Panorama

2x Dryad Arbor

9x Forest

3x Horizon Canopy

1x Island

4x Khalni Garden

2x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

1x Plains

—

Spells

3x Entangling Vines

2x Captured Sunlight

2x Green Sun’s Zenith

2x Incremental Growth

2x Rampant Growth

1x Battlegrowth

2x Beast Within

1x Vines of Vastwood

2x Diviner’s Wand

1x Springleaf Drum Creatures

3x Avenger of Zendikar

2x Dryad Arbor

2x Magus of the Vineyard

1x Phytohydra

2x Sprouting Phytohydra

4x Utopia Tree

2x Vigean Hydropon

2x Vinelasher Kudzu

1x Wall of Roots

2x Wall of Vines

It’s clear from looking at these lists that these decks are not very good. Let’s remedy that by scrapping what we don’t need and keeping the stuff that works well, and then we can rebuild with Horde in mind.

Zombie Horde Deck

First thing we need to do to get our Zombie deck ready to horde is remove any spell that isn’t autopilot-friendly. The Horde deck has infinite mana and no hand or life total, but must be able to run itself. Things like targeting, life gain, most activated abilities, and card draw are simply out of its wheelhouse. This takes care of Cemetery Reaper, Cyclopean Giant, Dead Reckoning, Deepwood Ghoul, Fleshbag Marauder, Ghoulcaller’s Chant, Graveborn Muse, Gutless Ghoul, Stir the Grave, Zombie Infestation, and all Equipment and Land.

Fortunately, the remaining steps are easy: we throw in 55 Zombie tokens and 5 Zombie Giant tokens, do a quick Gatherer search for Zombies and Zombie-related cards, and fill the deck with the baddest undead ghouls we can find. The new Horde deck now looks like this:

Creatures

1x Aphetto Vulture

1x Barrow Ghoul

1x Black Cat

1x Bog Raiders

1x Contagious Nim

1x Death Baron

1x Diregraf Captain

1x Diregraf Ghoul

1x Dregscape Zombie

1x Geralf’s Messenger

1x Gloomdrifter

1x Gluttonous Zombie

1x Grave Titan

1x Gravebane Zombie

1x Gravecrawler

1x Grixis Slavedriver

1x Lightning Reaver

1x Maalfeld Twins

1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

1x Nested Ghoul

1x Order of Yawgmoth

1x Severed Legion

1x Shadow Rider

1x Shambling Remains

1x Soulless One

1x Sutured Ghoul

1x Thraximundar

1x Unbreathing Horde

1x Undead Alchemist

1x Undead Warchief

1x Vengeful Dead

1x Walking Corpse

1x Wight of Precinct Six

1x Zombie Mob Spells

1x Army of the Damned

1x Endless Ranks of the Dead

1x Moan of the Unhallowed

1x Quest for the Gravelord

1x Syphon Flesh

1x Zombie Apocalypse

—

Tokens

5x Zombie Giant

55x Zombie

Looks nasty! Let’s turn to the Plants deck now and get ready for war.

When exploring the Plants’ avenues to victory, I pondered several strategies. Do I focus on defensive Plants with a finisher of the Avenger of Zendikar variety, as the prototype did? Do I go Treefolk Tribal (seeing as trees are plants too) and attempt to overrun with Doran, the Siege Tower? Or do I pump out an never-ending swarm of Saprolings to chump-block until the Zombies beg for mercy?

And then I thought, por qué no los tres?, and went to work building a Commander deck.

Plants “Survivor” Commander Deck

Our previously-mentioned buddy Doran is the easy pick for a commander here. His GWB (“Junk”) color identity allows for the leafy green Plants we know we’ll need, in addition to some auxiliary off-color trickiness. The deck will be loaded with high-toughness creatures, back-breaking late-game effects, and hopefully at least a few ways to make gobs and gobs of Saprolings.

Let’s start by pulling from the original deck all the Plant defenders and their friends that will make a return here. Utopia Tree is nice ramp and color fixing, and reminds me of PvZ’s Sunflower. Magus of the Vineyard, a.k.a. Crazy Dave, completely loses his downside when we’re playing against a deck with intrinsic infinite mana. And since the original deck didn’t have a lot of post-Innistrad contributions, it’ll be happy to (finally!) add Grave Bramble, in addition to Tree of Redemption and Gatecreeper Vine.

Since so many of those Plants have defender, we should throw in some cards that care about that. Rolling Stones allows our Plants to join the fight and take advantage of Doran’s ability, and Axebane Guardian is similarly a no-brainer. Perimeter Captain, Stalwart Shield-Bearers, and Wakestone Gargoyle aren’t very flavorful, but they do nice things for defenders and give this deck some much-needed staying power. Plus the first two have very appropriate flavor text.

On the Treefolk side of things, there are more than enough goodies that deserve adding:

Black Poplar Shaman keeps his fellow Trees alive

keeps his fellow Trees alive Bosk Banneret is good acceleration

is good acceleration Deadwood Treefolk blocks well and recurs things from my graveyard

blocks well and recurs things from my graveyard Fendeep Summoner turns Swamps into blockers

turns Swamps into blockers Indomitable Ancients aren’t dying from combat anytime soon

aren’t dying from combat anytime soon Lumberknot is going to get huge, especially if we get a good Saproling sacrifice outlet going

is going to get huge, especially if we get a good Saproling sacrifice outlet going Nemata, Grove Guardian could be that aforementioned outlet

could be that aforementioned outlet Orchard Warden gives us a little more life gain

gives us a little more life gain Thorntooth Witch seems like she’d be good at killing Zombies

seems like she’d be good at killing Zombies Timber Protector can make it very, very hard for the Zombies to gain ground

can make it very, very hard for the Zombies to gain ground Treefolk Harbinger finds any of these, turn 1!

finds any of these, turn 1! Treefolk Healer can essentially block two Zombies per combat

can essentially block two Zombies per combat Verdeloth the Ancient has no good reason to not be in this deck

The more astute of you may have noticed some odd omissions. Why no Dungrove Elder, for instance? The focus of this deck is defense, so I left out the Treefolk that expressly wanted to attack. They’ll all get their time to shine once Doran comes around! Also, the “garden protector” flavor that a lot of these Treefolk have fits well with PvZ; rampaging trees, not so much.

Now for Saprolings, an area I admit I am not too familiar with. I decided to scour some Ghave, Guru of Spores decklists for ideas, since he’s the king of GWB Saprolings. With that and a Gatherer search for Saproling goodies, and I came away with some solid inclusions:

Doubling Season , because it’s always the reason for the Season (and Parallel Lives isn’t as flavorful)

, because it’s always the reason for the Season (and Parallel Lives isn’t as flavorful) Golgari Germination can help mitigate any fatalities during combat

can help mitigate any fatalities during combat Greener Pastures is going to trigger every turn for us

is going to trigger every turn for us Jade Mage can pump out Saprolings whenever you’ve got extra mana

can pump out Saprolings whenever you’ve got extra mana Mycoloth can make a lot of Saprolings, given proper setup

can make a lot of Saprolings, given proper setup Necrogenesis and Night Soil cut off graveyard antics while making Saps

and cut off graveyard antics while making Saps Saproling Symbiosis seems like it could make for a pretty explosive turn

seems like it could make for a pretty explosive turn Selesnya Evangel and Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree can generate only one Saproling at a time, but at least they can do it every turn

and can generate only one Saproling at a time, but at least they can do it every turn Sprout Swarm is a Swiss army knife of Saproling production

is a Swiss army knife of Saproling production Thelonite Hermit is a Saproling lord, and can make some himself if you’ve got the time and mana

is a Saproling lord, and can make some himself if you’ve got the time and mana Verdant Force can block just about any Zombie, and oh yeah it makes Saprolings every upkeep. His buddy Verdant Embrace can come too.

I’m purposefully avoiding the Fungus/Spike/Thallid route for both flavor and gameplay reasons; Fungi aren’t really Plants, and I don’t wanna get too durdly with +1/+1 and spore counters.

With the remaining slots, I’m just going to fill some holes, add flavorful things, and throw in a few cards that just seem good for this strategy:

Blunt the Assault could buy me a huge bundle of life and another turn from an attack that might otherwise kill me

could buy me a huge bundle of life and another turn from an attack that might otherwise kill me Seedborn Muse can block, is flavorful, and combos well with the next two cards…

can block, is flavorful, and combos well with the next two cards… Glare of Subdual, which can make entire combat phases disappear…

which can make entire combat phases disappear… …and Earthcraft, which turns every creature you have into a mana dork.

which turns every creature you have into a mana dork. Entangler can allow a high-toughness or indestructible creature to take on as many Zombies as possible. We’ll just pretend that the art features vines or something.

can allow a high-toughness or indestructible creature to take on as many Zombies as possible. We’ll just pretend that the art features vines or something. Overrun , Overwhelming Stampede , and Craterhoof Behemoth as additional wincons. We’ll throw in Kamahl, Fist of Krosa too, but that one’s just for me. I loves me some Mirari Saga, and he’s flavorful in this deck.

, , and as additional wincons. We’ll throw in too, but that one’s just for me. I loves me some Mirari Saga, and he’s flavorful in this deck. …and we’ll end this off with some good ol’ ramp (more sunflowers!) in the form of Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, and Harrow

When it’s all put together with some flashy nonbasic lands, our new Plants deck looks like this:

Commander

Doran, the Siege Tower

—

Spells

1x Blunt the Assault

1x Captured Sunlight

1x Cultivate

1x Doubling Season

1x Earthcraft

1x Entangler

1x Entangling Vines

1x Explosive Vegetation

1x Glare of Subdual

1x Golgari Germination

1x Green Sun’s Zenith

1x Greener Pastures

1x Groundswell

1x Harrow

1x Necrogenesis

1x Night Soil

1x Overrun

1x Overwhelming Stampede

1x Rampant Growth

1x Rolling Stones

1x Saproling Symbiosis

1x Springleaf Drum

1x Sprout Swarm

1x Verdant Embrace Creatures

1x Avenger of Zendikar

1x Axebane Guardian

1x Black Poplar Shaman

1x Bosk Banneret

1x Carnivorous Plant

1x Craterhoof Behemoth

1x Deadwood Treefolk

1x Doran, the Siege Tower

1x Dryad Arbor

1x Fendeep Summoner

1x Gatecreeper Vine

1x Grave Bramble

1x Indomitable Ancients

1x Jade Mage

1x Kamahl, Fist of Krosa

1x Magus of the Vineyard

1x Mycoloth

1x Nemata, Grove Guardian

1x Orchard Warden

1x Overgrown Battlement

1x Perimeter Captain

1x Phytohydra

1x Seedborn Muse

1x Sprouting Phytohydra

1x Stalwart Shield-Bearers

1x Thelonite Hermit

1x Thorntooth Witch

1x Timber Protector

1x Tree of Redemption

1x Treefolk Healer

1x Utopia Tree

1x Verdant Force

1x Verdeloth the Ancient

1x Vine Trellis

1x Vinelasher Kudzu

1x Wakestone Gargoyle

1x Wall of Roots

1x Wall of Vines Lands

1x Command Tower

1x Elfhame Palace

1x Fetid Heath

9x Forest

1x Gaea’s Cradle

1x Graypelt Refuge

1x Grove of the Guardian

1x Horizon Canopy

1x Khalni Garden

1x Murmuring Bosk

4x Plains

1x Sapseep Forest

1x Stirring Wildwood

1x Sungrass Prairie

1x Sunpetal Grove

5x Swamp

1x Twilight Mire

1x Verdant Catacombs

1x Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree

1x Vivid Grove

1x Windswept Heath

1x Wooded Bastion

1x Woodland Cemetery

And there you have it: Plants vs. Zombies as a Magic game. I can’t wait to try it out! If you know some other cards that would fit great in here, be sure to let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter at @setheweinstein.

‘Till next time!