Need help removing 6 cards from this deck.

[Coldfire0]

This is my first attempt at building a deck. I like the way it's turning out so far, but I need help getting it down to 60 cards. Also, any constructive criticism is welcome. https://deckstats.net/decks/86636/726627-black-blue-zombie

[Philippe Saner]

If I were you, I'd cut Rise from the Tides (not enough instants and sorceries), Contingency Plan (card disadvantage), Fogwalker (mediocre and not a Zombie), Eternal Thirst (card disadvantage), and Feast on the Fallen (just seems kinda meh).

That aside...in general, you'll be better off with more copies of your best cards and fewer different cards. Four Cryptbreakers is much better than two Cryptbreakers, a Returned Phalanx, and a Seagraf Skaab.

You're really spoiled for choice when it comes to good Zombie cards. I recommended a bunch to another player a while back, so I'll just link you. You can add Lord of the Accursed, Prized Amalgam, Diregraf Captain, Plague Belcher, and Dread Wanderer to that list; they were left off either for being blue or for being printed after I wrote that post.

[NimrodPlanetE]

Hiya.

I agree with Philippe Saner, except maybe for Eternal Thirst. Yes, I wouldn't play it because of the "Whenever ..."-ability (not-possibility = 0 counters), but in casual it can be quite disturbing.

Some other suggestions and sorry if they were already mentioned in Philippe's link:
1) Sacrifice-mechanic - Altar of Dementia, Grave Pact and Delraich / Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder and creatures that offer advantages. Grave Pact is a board cleaner for you.
2) UB-Control - Need I to say more? Yes, use Gravestorm And beware, this can come (very) expensive regarding money and it will alter your deck quite strong because U-Control shifts to blue and for B-Control Vampires (Gatekeeper of Malakir) are imho more suitable than zombies, but nonetheless: If you add in some disruption (and card draw) spells, you'll have a (very) good UB-Control-Zombie for casual.
3) W(U)B-Zombo-Cleric - Yes, very old regarding that this were one of the strongest tribal back in Onslaught / Legions and today quite expensive BUT zombies and clerics (WB, sadly, so no blue) form a damn strong tribal which can even sandbag todays RG-Aggro-Decks without problems while they spit out tokens like hell and give you lifepoints beyond measure. If you're interested, I recommend you look for old clerics / zombies on magiccards.info and also demons There is a broken mechanic where you can put out Scion of Darkness in turn 2: Dark Supplicant.
4) Splash red? Or UBR? There are a lot of possible choices, although I don't like decks that effectively play more than 2 colors because no / wrong mana = you're sitting ducks.

Cheers.

[Coldfire0]

Thanks for the suggestions, appreciate the help.

[Nekikami]

What is the reasoning for only 60 cards? I'm only asking because I once thought that limiting to 60 cards, 4x of each card was the perfect way to build a deck. While it certainly helps your odds of getting your combo... I'm not seeing a combo in this deck (if I missed it, please point it out.).

While I'm not claiming to be an expert deck builder, I have run through many iterations of Zombie decks. Some have failed miserably, other worked pretty well. Here is my current deck, which works well but can still probably cut some cards (Grave Pact would be the first one to go). Please see the deck description for explanation of the deck function and reasoning for cards. Hopefully it will help.

https://deckstats.net/decks/43397/708607-nephalia-zombies

[NimrodPlanetE]

Hiya.

In short: The reasoning to go for 60 cards is the draw probability. First, you only form a deck out of those cards which you want to play. Secondly, you want to draw and thus play these cards. Now it's self-explanatory that unwanted cards don't go into your deck AND that the possibility of drawing a wanted card gets smaller the bigger your deck is. THIS IS WHY WE PLAY TUTORS: TO PLAY THE PROBLEM SOLVER AND NOT TO WAIT UNTIL IT SHOWS UP!

For example, my Izzet Gatling-Gun fun-deck: https://deckstats.net/decks/87016/731168-izzet-gatling-gun/en

Although the winning combo consists of 3 cards (Lava Spike / Ideas Unbound + Izzet Guildmage + Desperate Ritual) there are a lot of cantrips / tutors in this deck to enhance the possibility of getting one or all of the desired cards (Doomsday, Lim-Dûl's Vault). Look at TPS decks: They play mostly 1 or 2 of the same cards, even if they are not restricted, because they only need them 1 or 2 times and use tutors to find them. So, 60 cards or very close to 60 cards boosts the speed of a deck greatly in comparison to 82 cards.

Concerning your deck: First, my friend, I'll gladly comment your deck and I hope that my advice will be helpful, but please open a new thread It's kind of rude to post your deck in the deck-post of another player and asking for advice.

Cheers.

PS: I'll give you my advice for your deck on your deck-list in the discuss section.

[Philippe Saner]

Even without combos, playing exactly 60 cards is good because it makes your deck more consistent. Adding cards beyond the first 60 reduces your chances of drawing your key cards, and adds the possibility of drawing marginal cards instead.

Anyway, I just realized I forgot a few cards that deserved a recommendation: Compelling Deterrence, Liliana's Mastery, Thought Scour or Mental Note, and Gisa and Geralf. Also, Shambling Goblin has been rendered obsolete by Festering Mummy.

There are a couple of critical decisions you need to make before going forward.

First, what's your budget?

Second, what basic strategy do you want your deck to employ? The traditional Zombie deck is a moderately fast synergistic aggro deck that excels at bringing dead creatures back for another go, but by playing cards like Sire of Stagnation you show interest in a slower, less synergistic deck that wins through enormously impactful single cards.

Regardless, it'll help to sort your deck a bit better. Here's a type/cost sorting:

//Lands

2 Submerged Boneyard
12 Swamp
11 Island

//Creatures

2 Cryptbreaker
1 Returned Phalanx
1 Miasmic Mummy
2 Stitched Mangler
1 Unbreathing Horde
1 Voracious Null
2 Liliana's Elite
2 Diregraf Colossus
1 Gavony Unhallowed
1 Hound of the Farbogs
1 Lamplighter of Selhoff
2 Advanced Stitchwing
1 Noosegraf Mob
1 Sire of Stagnation

//Other spells

2 Graf Harvest
2 Spontaneous Mutation
2 Cemetery Recruitment
1 Unsubstantiate
2 Murder
3 Rise from the Grave
2 Grave Betrayal
2 Dark Salvation

As for adding more cards, you're really spoiled for choice. Obviously I've suggested more cards than you can ever use, so it's up to you which to play. Regardless of which path you take, I suggest dropping expensive low-impact cards like the Lamplighter of Selhoff.

There aren't many hard-and-fast rules about how many of each card to play. But there's a good column on the official site that can provide some guidance, on this topic and on others. Here's the archive: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/117690 (The articles about card-counts are Four of a Kind, Three's Company, Take Two, and One for All.)

PS: When it comes to lands, you can do better than Submerged Boneyard. Also, 25 lands will be too much if you end up going the fast aggro route.

[Coldfire0]

I don't really have a budget, I guess I'm willing to put another 50$ into this deck. The reason it's kind of messy is because I'm new so I'm just working with what I have. Also, I'm interested in making this a faster deck, the only reason sire of stagnation was in there was because I was trying to counter my friend's stupidly-powerful green elf deck. Obviously playing the high mana cost creatures is appealing, but I also enjoy flooding the field with smaller zombies.

I did find a nice combo with rise from the grave. My friend played a Pelakaa Wurm and I used murder and rise from the grave to make it a black zombie (with menace) under my control, which actually worked out really well. However, I'm more concerned with replacing inefficient cards, like lamplighter and Hound of the farbogs.

[Philippe Saner]

Unfortunately, the rise of monoblack Zombies in Standard has spiked some prices. 50 bucks would've gone further two weeks ago.

Still, Diregraf Captain and Compelling Deterrence are dirt cheap. And 50 bucks is actually quite a decent budget for casual.

Here's a sketch of what a $50 upgrade might look like. Going by mtggoldfish for the prices.

//Lands

4 Dismal Backwater
11 Swamp
9 Island

//Creatures

4 Cryptbreaker
4 Gravecrawler
3 Miasmic Mummy
4 Prized Amalgam
2 Diregraf Colossus
4 Diregraf Captain
1 Gisa and Geralf
1 Advanced Stitchwing
1 Noosegraf Mob

//Other spells

1 Graf Harvest
4 Compelling Deterrence
1 Cemetery Recruitment 
2 Rise from the Grave
4 Dark Salvation

Obviously this is untested and my preferences might not agree with yours. But I think it should do a pretty decent job of flooding the board. And I tried to accommodate Rise from the Grave too.

You want to put Prized Amalgam and Gravecrawler in the graveyard with your various discard outlets. Pitching the Noosegraf Mob can be good too, if you need a target for Rise from the Grave. Prized Amalgam can be recurred with Gravecrawler, Rise from the Grave, Advanced Stitchwing, and Gisa and Geralf.

Ideal opener is Cryptbreaker T1, discard Gravecrawler to make a Zombie T2, discard Prized Amalgam to make a Zombie, play Gravecrawler, recur Prized Amalgam T3.

[entropize]

Another thing you may want to do is alter what lands are in this deck. For example you may want to switch out an island and swamp with
Drowned Catacomb, Evolving Wilds, Fetid pools, or Sunken Hollow. I would switch out submerged boneyard either for fetid pools or preferably sunken hollow while taking out 2 island and 2 swamps for four evolving wilds or if you want to spend a little money polluted delta. The first few lands I mentioned are not terribly expensive. I am looking at your deck as listed in https://deckstats.net/decks/86636/726627-black-blue-zombie so these are the changes I would make to it.  As for murder, you may want to switch that out for doom blade which will work against most other decks and cost one mana less to play. The sire of stagnation is a little big but if you have a way of making disposable creatures or getting creatures from the grave, smothering abomination may work better. A few other cards that might work in this deck would be call to the grave, endless ranks of the dead, grimoire of the dead, death barron, diregraf captain, and lich lord of unx. I would switch out a rise from the grave, noosegraf mob, and the 2 grave betrayal for two of call to the grave and 2 endless ranks of the dead. Another card to consider would be 2 copies of Liliana, the Last Hope since her ultimate is as good as krenko for zombies, although be aware she is expensive. I hope this helps.

[Coldfire0]

Thanks for all the help. Going to make some more changes soon.

[Coldfire0]

I just opened an Amonkhet booster and got Liliana, Death's majesty. So I think I want to incorporate that. I also got two plague belchers, and that cards seems really good.

[G. Moto]

If you're going to utilize Liliana in this deck make sure you are taking complete advantage over you graveyard. Milling cards can be risky but if you're playing a black deck with her in it, having cards in the grave is almost like having an extra hand. Also plague belcher will be useful because it can be a battering ram and also a standard version of the diregraf captain. If you're going to churn out zombie tokens make sure that you are utilizing their deaths accordingly. For example, playing vampiric rites in this deck would give you draw power, life gain and would trigger the plague belcher. You would gain while also hurting the enemy. That's just an idea but Zombie control and mass production in this kind of deck. One question that I do have for you @Coldfire0, what is your main game plan with this deck? Also what are your 2 back up contingency plans?

[Coldfire0]

Alright so taking everyone's suggestions I've put this together, https://deckstats.net/decks/86636/736550-improved-zombies I had to order a few singles in so I'll put it together and see how it works. Thanks for all the help.

[G. Moto]

  This deck definitely does look newer and more improved. I do have a slight suggestion though. The deck looks good the way it is and is definitely modern legal. If you wish to make this a standard legal deck so you can take to FNM tournaments this is what you'll need to do: Diregraf Captain and Grave Betrayal are all considered modern format cards right now. If you found replacements for them in the Shadows over Innistrad block then this would be a standard legal deck and you could compete locally with it. Here are some suggestions that you may like:
  Ever After, macabre waltz, merciless resolve, rise from the tides, stitchwing skaab, stitched mangler, Gavony unhallowed, rise from the grave (if you use the card from Eldritch Moon) and lastly advanced stitchwing. These would all fit well into your deck and would also give it the utility that it needs for most zombie plays that you can think of.