For those not familiar here's Zombie Master's info:

Alright, I'm not the most experienced Zombie player on the block. Saying that is probably a huge understatement. However I see a lot of potential in this guy. Summon one, pitch another to special summon itself, if you have a third in the graveyard or your hand, do the same with the second copy. You can then activate the third Zombie Master's effect to grab say Spirit Reaper from your graveyard, or even Pyramid Turtle to grab a high level Zombie.

Seeing this card in your opening hand isn't bad because any Zombie Masters that end up in your graveyard are just begging to be brought back later by more Zombie Masters or Book of Life.

The 0 defense really isn't that big of a deal either. It means Zombie Master is really hard to blow away with Smashing Ground.

The big thing I'm trying to nail down right now is a preliminary monster line up. I've got a few things that are pretty much no brainers, but Zombies really don't have too many good Level 4 or lower monsters. I'm also trying to decide if Vampire Lord, Ryu Kokki, or even Lich Lord are worthwhile in this deck. At this juncture I'd lean towards the latter two first simply cause they match Monarchs in attack value. All of them are easily removed from the field by Raiza the Storm Monarch which is one of this archetypes biggest thorns.

3 Zombie Master
1 Spirit Reaper
2/3 Pyramid Turtle

The only other thing that immediately comes to mind is Plague Wolf, however getting a few of those could be a royal pain.

I'm really just trying to open discussion here. I have no definite plans for the deck yet, just that I want to try it out when I get a playset of Zombie Masters.

3 Zombie Master
3 Pyramid Turtle
3 Decayed Commander
3 Royal Keeper
3 Malice Ascendant

hand control...

if the card said sent it would work good with Lich Lord for an easy 2400 monster

How? Lich lord requires to be tributed...


Anyways, on the topic at hand, i'd definitely go with the Plague Wolf + CCV/DDV approach, it can be a devastating turn of events in a single MP.

Send 1 monster, summon PW activate CCV/DDV, clear the field, Premature the other Zombie Master = game.

That's actually a pretty good idea. I hadn't even considered Card Crush Virus because of how expensive the darn thing is right now. It would be a huge help to this deck.

I might have to add Plague Wolf to my list of wants. A CCV-able monster that can turn into a beatstick. Karate Man eat your heart out. Wow I remember back in the day when some of my friends actually played Karate Man.

well im abusing zombie master with narrow pass i recall vincent tundo doing a article about it and right now it looks like it will be just nasty if u redo it to support zombie master

well in any serious discussion of making zombire master tier 1 you simply have to forget about ccv. Yes its good, yes it fits the theme, no we dont have one and prob wont for a long time.

Having said that zombie master is an amazing card. I proxied up a very rough draft of a deck that used him and the results were good. Havent touched it in a while but the monster lineup was something like this:

trib:(note I will change this if il blud is not a secret rare. As far as I'm concerned secret rares dont exist so I kind of ignore them when building decks because I cant afford them)

2x kokki
2x v lord
1x despair from the dark.,

Despair is finally playable thanks to zombie master. Just pitch him to zm effect to bring back another zombie and then book of life him later.

Non trib:
3x turtle
3x zm
1x reaper
2x rat
1x sangan
1x lily
1x exiled force
1x wildheart

I'm prob forgetting something. But I think he makes up nicely for zombies weaknesses. he clears dead hands, allows even easier special summons, and is a midlevel beatstick. COmbine him with a basic ratbox(turtle is still the lynchpin of the deck IMO) along with some creature swap shenanigans and you have a very annoying deck to face.

I kind of stopped working on it for the time being. When il bluds rarity is announced i will start again because that plays a huge role in the direction I plan on taking the deck.

Perhaps if someone provided a list of zombie cards out now, then we could hypothesize how this card could be played.

Armored Zombie
Berserk Dragon
Chopman the Desperate Outlaw
Clown Zombie
Corroding Shark
Dark Assailant
Dark Dust Spirit
Decayed Commander
Des Lacooda
Despair from the Dark
Dokurorider
Double Coston
Dragon Zombie
Fear from the Dark
Flame Ghost
Fushioh Richie
Giant Axe Mummy
King of the Skull Servants
Lich Lord, King of the Underworld
Magical Ghost
Malice Ascendant
Master Kyonshee
Nightmare Horse
Patrician of Darkness
Pharaoh's Servant
Pharaonic Protector
Plague Wolf
Poison Mummy
Pumpking the King of Ghosts
Pyramid Turtle
Reaper on the Nightmare
Reborn Zombie
Red-Moon Baby
Regenerating Mummy
Royal Keeper
Ryu Kokki
Shadow Ghoul
Skull Servant
Soul Absorbing Bone Tower
Spirit of the Pharaoh
Spirit Reaper
Temple of Skulls
The 13th Grave
The Kick Man
Three-Legged Zombies
Vampire Genesis
Vampire Lady
Vampire Lord
Wandering Mummy
Yaranzo
Zombie Tiger

I quote myself again because of this post of Den Frenzy before mine.

Hm...Card of Safe Return? Since we do run Zombie Master, Book of Life, possibly Il Blud, it could work nicely.

Card of Safe Return is probably a good idea. Other than the Manticore of Darkness combo I never felt Card of Safe Return got the respect it deserves.

I missed the new Premium Packs:

Return Zombie
Zombie/Effect
Level 4
Attack: 1000/Defense: 1600

During your Standby Phase, if this card is in your Graveyard and you have no cards in your hand, you can pay 500 Life Points to add this card to your hand.

You might have missed it, but that card is so bad, it doesn't need to be on the list. Seriously, if I want a card that can really only be used if my opponent just hit me with Drop Off, I'll use Goldd, thank you very much, at least he has other uses.

As for breaking Zombie Master, I think that one copy of Decayed Commander can be good as an extra monster to attack the opponent's hand. Plague Wolf is one of the better alternate choices, since it will die whether you Tribute it for a Virus or from it's effect, so you can just bring him back.

However, the best target for his effect is himself, Pyramid Turtle, and your or the opponent's Spirit Reaper.

Because of the way his effect is worded, I believe, and Metagame seems to agree judging from Jason's last article, that he can revive the card that you discarded for his effect. If this is true, then his power shoots way up, to being the absolute KING of Zombie swarming.

Just imagine opening the game with Card of Safe Return, then Zombie Master. Pitch another Zombie Master to summon it, then pitch a Pyramid Turtle to summon that. That gives you 2 draws, and 3 monsters on the field, one of which is the ultimate headache, Pyramid Turtle. If you happen to have Creature Swap, it gets even worse for the other guy... :knockedou

Alright, everyone has convinced me, Card of Safe Return is definitely something that should be in the first build of this deck. Right now, since we're trying to slowly build something it looks like:

3 Zombie Master
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Spirit Reaper
2 Card of Safe Return
2 Book of Life

My next question is this: Does anyone think Vampire Lord is worth playing? It does combo well with Card of Safe Return, however it feels like Ryu Kokki is a better fit attack wise for the metagame. I guess we could always run Shrink in this deck to try and help out Vampire Lord.

After reading the coverage of the World Championships, Lee Ban Siong vs. Dong-Hub Lee I wonder if 1 teched Instant Fusion would be a decent idea to give the deck access to Reaper on the Nightmare, since the summon is treated as a Fusion Summon, Book of Life and Zombie Master would both be able to bring back Reaper on the Nightmare.