Build of the Week: Gisa's Ghoulish Good Times

This week we're going to do something a bit more themed than my previous decks. We are going to build mono-black zombie tribal. There are actually a few generals that line up with zombie tribal, and not all of them are mono-black! I almost made this a Sedris deck, but he's going to show up in the deck retrospective series and kind of wants a different play style. I settled on Gisa since she reinforces the main two things that zombies want thematically, swarm style attacks and sacrificial fodder. Zombies also have a strong tie with the graveyard and coming back over and over again.

Lets start with all the zombies worth playing:
Self recursive dudes:

Ashen Ghoul
Balthor the Defiled
Dregscape Zombie
Geralf's Messenger
Gravecrawler

Sac Outlets:
Carrion Feeder
Corpse Harvester
Gnawing Zombie
Gutless Ghoul
Nantuko Husk
Putrid Imp

Value:
Coffin Queen
Corpse Connoisseur
Festering Goblin
Fleshbag Marauder
Gempalm Polluter
Grave Defiler
Graveborn Muse
Gravespawn Sovereign
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Khabal Ghoul
Lifebane Zombie
Liliana's Reaver
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Necromancer's Assistant
Noxious Ghoul
Phyrexian Delver
Skin Render
Twisted Abomination
Undead Gladiator
Vengeful Dead
Viscera Dragger
Withered Wretch

Lords:
Cemetery Reaper
Death Baron
Lord of the Undead
Soulless One
Undead Warchief
Zombie Master
Zombie Trailblazer

That's 40 cards! I never though zombies would be this plentiful. We could look at non-zombies...but for flavor reasons we are only putting zombies in the deck. I'm going to cull a few right off the bat because 40 creatures plus 37 lands doesn't leave us much room for cool support cards.
Cut:
Gnawing Zombie
Putrid Imp
Festering Goblin
Graveborn Muse - This card is great, but its really likely that we will manage to kill ourselves.
Skinrender

That gives us some about 30 cards to fill in. We definitely want to stick with what makes our deck cool, so lets put in the zombie themed cards of note:

Wake the Dead
Dread Return
Living Death
Army of the Damned
Necromantic Selection
Endless Ranks of the Dead
Grave Pact
Necropotence
Tombstone Stairwell
Necromancy
Phyrexian Reclamation
Entomb
Patriarch's Bidding
Zombify
Oversold Cemetery
Palace Siege
Call to the Grave
Zombie Apocalypse

These cards are all about the grave. Tombstone Stairwell in particular is really cool as it provides us with just so many zombie bodies for effects like Noxious Ghoul or Kabal Ghoul. The Palace Siege pulls double duty as both another Oversold Cemetery and as a way to drain people for the health we will undoubtably be spending on our various effects. We don't need to worry about pumping up our devotion too much as a mono-black deck, and by golly do we get so much devotion out of our permanents.

We only have a few slots left to play with now, but we will likely end up with more. There are just too many support cards that we want. Some more zombies are going to get the axe, but since we started with a high count we will only be dropping to reasonable numbers.

Artifact mana:
Sol Ring
Worn Powerstone
Grim Monolith
Thran Dynamo
Gilded Lotus
Caged Sun

That's a much smaller commitment than I usually advocate for artifact mana, but we aren't really trying to blitz the game down here. More like we are trying to slowly consume the table. That brings us to 97 slots, so we go back to our zombie list a figure out the weakest ones to cut.
OUT:
Dregscape Zombie
Liliana's Reaver
Twisted Abomination
Cemetery Reaper
Zombie Trailblazer

Liliana's Reaver is a very good card, but its obvious that we want to have more of a etb bent to the deck. Cemetery Reaper costs a bit too much to activate, and while he does eat other people stuff, I don't want to be exiling creatures from my yard.

That gives us enough room for the final pieces, Mass Pump, more wraths, and Gisa speed.
IN:
Obelisk of Urd
Eldrazi Monument - This works wonders with Gisa's ability, and is hilarious with Tombstone Stairwell.
Coat of Arms - This card increases the power of Gisa's ability exponentially.
Thousand Year Elixir
Swiftfoot Boots
Lightning Greaves
Damnation
Mutilate
Decree of Pain
Skullclamp


And for the last section, our mana:
Ancient Tomb
Cabal Coffers
Crypt of Agadeem
Deserted Temple
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
29x Swamp
Unholy Grotto
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

And everything altogether:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gisas-ghoulish-good-times/

Just a whole lot of Swamps! There are some pretty big mana plays black is able to make, but none of them seemed on theme so I went another way. I hope you guys liked the mono-black tribal and I'll be back again next week for some more shenanigans. Soon enough I might even be making some Dragons!