Zombie Freedom - 5th and 18th at Worlds 2024

maninthemoon 2767

This is the Freedom list I built for worlds. Sadly I bubbled placing 18th, but Santa made the cut and took 5th 🥳

I showed this list to multiple players and testing groups at worlds and I want to make sure it's public as soon as possible with UK Nats coming up so fast, but this "write up" is not finished. I'm going to be adding a lot more when I have time ❤️ If you would like to easily reference this list you can add it to your "Favorites" with the "⭐️".

Necromancy:

Like most deck builders I had to try my hand at necromancy for worlds. How to rase Mulch form the dead was a hot topic among a lot of competitive players and testing groups. As I was analyzing the strongest parts of the Mulch and my experience playing Loup I settled on Audrey. In my opinion Audrey was the strongest part of Mulch and provided both a free way to break ice and reasonable kill protection. I set out to build a deck that could make solid use of Audrey without Knobkierie + Imp. I settled on Freedom + Leech. This still gives the deck a reasonable ability to "restart" Audrey after a purge with help from Bankhar and Crew. Quickly into testing the first versions of this deck I knew this was likely going to be my worlds deck.

Muntal Bost tested this entirely internally leading up to worlds. Based on our testing we believed the deck had winning matchups into almost all of the current meta corps. I was definitely spearheading the development of this list, but I got a lot of support from the team throughout the process of refining the list.

BinkBonkle and ThatsNoMun both took this list to worlds as well placing 53rd and 81st. Both wishing they had gotten more reps in before swiss. ❤️💔

How to Play:

Mulligans

Vs HB rush you want Tsakhia "Bankhar" Gantulga and Draw Vs yellow you want to keep a hand with Solidarity Badge, but mulligan for money and draw Vs AgInfusion you want Steelskin Scarring, Leech, Paladin and Daily Casts. For any other matchup mulligan advice ask in the comments and I'll add it

Early game:

Coming soon

Mid Game:

Coming soon

Late Game

Coming soon

Match up spread for Zombie Freedom:

(Advice coming)

HB

Shoot The Moon - Very Favored

Boring PD - Favored

Reg Asa - Extremely Favored

Asset Sports - Very Favored

Barf Thule - Untested

Jinteki

Reg Glacier Ag - Favored

Sisyphus Ag - Very Favored

Punitive Jinteki - Untested (likely even)

QTM PE - Favored

NBN (Most complicated Faction)

Kill NEH (No False Lead) - Hard Favored

Kill NEH (With False Lead) - Harder Even

Kill Azmari (Identified list) - Favored

Kill Azmari (Unknown list) - Harder Favored

Tempo/Vegan NBN (With Single Tag Punishment) - Even

Tempo/Vegan NBN (Without Single Tag Punishment) - Very Favored

Wayland

BD Outfit - Slightly Unfavored (this was one of the only decks we struggle with at worlds)

Rush Ob - Untested, probably unfavored (but rush ob can't beat Lat easily)

Asset Ob - Extremely Favored

BTL - Untested

Fasset - Theoretically favored

Sorry I don't have time to add more right now. I'm basically falling asleep as I type. I will keep updating and adding more when I have time. Feel free to post comments with any questions. I will try to update the DL with answers and example as I'm able.

Huge thank you to NSG, the volunteers, the OP team, the Judges and all the players who came together to make worlds 2024 possible!

PS: When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object something amazing can happen. 123 love you back. Lisanice2meetU.

11 comments
22 Oct 2024 Santa

Thanks for brewing this sick list! Seems to go well when I clone up runner! Much love! ❤️

Bost!

22 Oct 2024 Havvy

loving this deck, and huge congratulations on an amazing performance at Worlds!

23 Oct 2024 caleb38

Bubbling at 18th must sting a bit, but hey, 5th is still awesome. Awesome deck. geometry dash scratch

24 Oct 2024 knack

Wow, the bots are getting really good ^

Anywho, awesome list! I'm having fun jamming this list. I ran into issues which might just be a piloting problem.

Having leeches and Botulus be the only source of virus counters was problemantic. I played against an asset spam deck that didnt put ice down for many turns so the botulus was dead and the leeches were in the latter third of the deck. Would you recommend replacing the casts with fermenters to solve this problem?

In the early game, I found myself clicking for credits more often than I liked which gave corps a few more turns of breathing room. Did you have to click for credits a lot in the early game? or do you pilot in a such a way that you're not clicking for as many credits.

The deck doesnt seem to be particularly MU hungry. Would Patchwork be a better console for 1 less MU but smoothes out the econ?

I love Crew in here and also have some turns where I have to click for credits to afford the 4 to break down something like a Tatu Bola.

24 Oct 2024 ThatsNoMun

@knack I'm not maninthemoon, I did also play this deck at worlds and by the end of day one had a pretty good grasp on how to pilot it!

Against assets, your virus generators are Audrey and Consume. These should be your priority installs. Audrey does double duty here as it gives you kill protection due to its interaction with Steelskin. It's counterintuitive, but you should actually install a second Audrey against assets, that's ultimately your most reliable way to generate counters. Your goal against assets is to stay slightly solvent and never end up in a position where you can be punished for a run you're considering.

Keiko was chosen for 3 reasons:

There are games where you need additional MU. Being able to Botulus a single sub ice goes a long way towards preserving your Crews and also acts as a token generator if you don't need to run the server. The deck really wants The Twinning, which means it really wants Poemu, which synergizes strongly with Keiko. Given the above, it's a credit every turn of the game.

While Patchwork is also money, between Bankhar and Audrey, it can be hard to spend extra card trashes, and it sometimes cannibalizes your friendship economy package. You'd have to build the whole thing pretty differently.

I found myself clicking for credits often in icy matchups, and then I realized this deck is more about inevitability than early stopping power. Slow down--take a turn or two off. Prioritize economy instead of viruses with The Price; once you're solvent, you can start threatening hard.

25 Oct 2024 knack

Thank you @ThatsNoMun for the very detailed explanation. Knowing what you know now, would you trade daily casts for fermenters or leave the casts?

25 Oct 2024 ThatsNoMun

@knack I think I would leave Casts. The Price value on them is incredible, and they give you consistent drip that lets you threaten trashing turn over turn in the mid to late game as opposed to having to crack a Fermenter when you need money.

That said, it might be that Fermenter is better, and I'm just not seeing the vision. I guess I'd say to try it out and see how it feels :shrug:

27 Oct 2024 maninthemoon

Thanks for the questions @knack. I'll be getting to flushing out the write up in a day or so. In general I avoided fermenter because the rig is vert MU constrained until you get the Keiko. I think the Daily Casts do a lot of work and all and all this deck can't actually spend that much money. The money is mostly there of Arruaceiras Crew and clearing tags 🙃

2 Nov 2024 hemraa

Did you find the Ashen Epilogue useful? Is there something else you would use the influence for instead?

15 Dec 2024 LiamHz

This looks amazing! Do you have any Jnet replays of this deck you could share?

24 Dec 2024 LiamHz

I've played 40 games with this deck on Jnet the past week. At first I was horrendous, but have gotten up to a ~50% win rate lately. Some notes:

  • Installing Leech + Audrey, then repeatedly running an un-iced R&D is very strong. You'll be able to consistently trash / get virus counters / see new cards. Crew + Charm to bust open the door can be worth it. This is the main thing that boosted my win rate

  • Most turns I find myself drawing once, playing a card, then running. Getting value out of your runs once you're setup with Bankhar you can Freedom ID trash to charge Leech / Audrey / Consume / Solidarity Badge -- this is how you grind your opponent into the ground.

  • Probably obvious, but without Bankhar or Audrey you have no way to get through ice without blind installing Boomerang / Botulus, which always feels bad. Draw aggressively with Nuka / Moshing / Steelskin to find your breakers if you need to pressure the scoring remote

  • Related, think about what cards you need in the specific matchup before drawing / installing. With beginner Sable decks it often felt like I could just play my hand tactically and get value -- this deck you have to invest clicks / cards into drawing and getting set up asap, so know what you're looking for.

  • Against asset decks double Audrey is really good, they'll charge really fast. Against Weyland Glaciar Botulus / Crew is great for deleting ice -- Labor Rights (I've gone up to two copies) to get your crews back and play them multiple times. Solidarity badge can let you move Ashen Epilogue to the bottom of the deck, so you don't accidentally lose it via Bankhar. Generally I run out of gas and get locked out if I don't manage to Labor Rights two crews, and play Ashen Epilogue once I'm decked out

I really enjoy this deck, thanks for sharing it!