Esper Zombies (Frontier)

What the deck does:
I set out to build the best Zombie deck possible utilizing The Scarab God and Gisa and Geralf as the center pieces.
It's an aggressive zombie deck at heart, that just happens to have powerful non-zombie creatures as its finishers.

What inspired the deck:
TSG's zombie ability is rarely utilized to its full potential. It can finish off a game on its own if you can first get the opponent to a manageable life total.
I was looking at Gisa and Geralf and thought that the card would be fierce along side TSG in a zombies deck. having two cards to recast creatures provides serious backup for the rest of the deck.

Step 1: Add in the midrange all-stars. (4)
*It is worth noting that the all-stars of the zombie deck are not zombies themselves lol.

(a) The Scarab God. 2 copies.
Our finisher. The zombie beatdown may not get you the whole way there, but TSG should push things over the edge.
The opponent will be losing multiple life while I am digging deep into my deck (just for having TSG on the battlefield.

(b) Gisa and Geralf. 2 copies.
They do not have the evasion of TSG, however G&G must be removed immediately.
The grave fill is a nice bonus.
*A 4/4 for 4cmc is right on curve as well.

Step 2: Build up the zombie horde. (23)

3cmc

(a) Plague Belcher. 4 copies.
Multiple uses and very versatile.
A possible 5/4 for three is big (and I'm not worried about sending zombies to the yard)
*Forces the opponent to consider the punishment for killing our zombies in the midgame.

(b) Lord of the Accursed. 4 copies
Anthem effect really lets things snowball out of control.
Giving all our zombies menace can easily be a finisher.

2cmc

(c) Relentless Dead. 4 copies.
Late game it serves as a mini reanimator.
Has built in recursion.
*The biggest part is having menace to get through in the early stages of the game.

(d) Binding Mummy. 3 copies.
This slot was originally Metallic Mimic, before adding the white.
This is such a great tempo card. You get to tap down a blocker essentially every turn.

(e) Wayward Servant. 4 copies.
Every zombie that enters costs the opponent a life. Fits well alongside TSG or with Plague Belcher.
The life gain helps in races against aggro. get back life just for casting our cards.
I tried very hard to stay in two colors so that the deck would always curve out perfectly, especially since we have some heavy commitments to double black. The truth is, I'm going to want to play fetches for Fatal Push anyway.
Playing white opens us up to some Amonkhet zombies.

1cmc

(f) Dread Wanderer. 4 copies.
2/1 is what we are looking for in our one drop to apply pressure.
Will likely be attacking for 3 or even 4 by the midgame.

Step 3: Support cards. (9)

(a) Dark Salvation. 2 copies.
very flexible removal for 1 cmc.
can supply us with some bonus tokens in the midgame.

(b) Fatal Push. 3 copies.
*still the best removal available.

(c) Chart a Course. 2 copies.
*Getting two cards for 2cmc is a good midgame reload.

(d) In Oketra's Name. 2 copies.
Just bonkers how much instant speed ramp this is for 2cmc.
Great for zombies, but also works for TSG and G&G.

Step 4: Revisions:

Cut- Chart a Course x2
Add-Cryptbreaker. x2
A little slower, but provides a couple extra zombie bodies.
Playing it more for the card draw then we are for the discard effect.
*Discard effect can be useful in the later part of a game when we begin to draw into dead cards

Step 5: Build a mana base:

(a) Fetches.
Flooded Strand. 4 copies.
Polluted Delta. 4 copies.

(b) Battle Lands.
Sunken Hollow. 2 copies.
Prairie Stream. 2 copies.

(c) Basics.
Swamp. 4 copies.
Island. 1 copy.
Plains. 1 copy.

(d) Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. 1 copy.

(e) Unclaimed Territory. 2 copies.
Helps us cast our white zombies on turn 2 or even the black zombies on turn 1.
Always enters untapped.

(f) Concealed Courtyard. 3 copies.

Step 6: Sideboard.

(a) Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. 2 copies.
Side in for: Gisa and Geralf vs aggro decks.
Pretty big option against aggro decks.
Fuels the zombie synergies nicely.
Normally, not a good play alongside TSG, however a little better in our build.
True game ender.

(b) Settle the Wreckage. 2 copies.

• A one-sided wrath is nice since we are an aggressive deck ourselves.

(c) Authority of the Consuls. 2 copies.
Turns off Saheeli Combo.
Slows up red haste creatures.
*Can flip aggro matchups by itself.

(d) Disdainful Stroke. 4 copies.
Look at the number of decks that are built around midrange cards.
Can help us be offensive or defensive.
*The best turn 4 play in our deck against almost any deck.

(e) Adorned Pouncer. 3 copies.
Side in for: Binding Mummy vs control.
With all the zombie anthem spells it's not hard for this to be a 3/3 double striker.
Eternalize is so good against heavy removal.
*(I honestly think this is a toss up for the main deck)

(f) Sorcerous Spyglass. 2 copies.
*turns off a planeswalker, fetch land, Ixalan land, Aetherworks Marvel, vehicles,....

Final Thoughts

(A) This is a very strong deck for this format.

(B) The decks greatest strength is its versatility. It can be aggressive or it can defend.

(C) This deck can totally run someone over unexpectantly. If you have a Lord on the battlefield things get very interesting.

(D) Menace makes the deck very difficult to defend against, especially if there are some anthem abilities in play.

(E) There is so much incidental life loss for opponents. There are 10 creatures that cause life loss just for playing zombies. When you couple this with the fact that opponents play fetch lands, that greatly reduces how much combat damage we actually have to inflict.

(F) Even when it looks like the opponent has stabilized there is still a good chance we can pull things out through either incidental damage or by playing TSG or G&G and quickly rebuilding a board state.

(G) Our removal is strong. Fatal Push deals with most things that we will see and Dark Salvation is nearly as devastating. Both can be cast for only 1cmc, which allows us to remove targets and still cast our creatures that turn.