Zombie Deck

There are a few main concepts for a Zombie Deck. One focuses on swarming the field with Zombies, usually from the Graveyard, and the other is milling your opponent's deck out, and Summoning Dark Armed Dragon then swarming the field.

Zombie Mill Deck
This kind of deck is best mixed with other types of Mill Decks for best results. Cards that work well in the deck are Vampire Lord, Vampire Lady, Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower, Malice Ascendant, Robbin' Zombie, Gravekeeper's Servant, Needle Worm, etc. A powerful strategy is having three Bone Towers at a time, meaning every time a Zombie monster is Special Summoned the opponent discards 6 cards from their deck.

Another good strategy is using Zombie Master in conjunction with Card of Safe Return and Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower. Zombie Master can Special Summon a low-level Zombie with a discard that is replaced by a card with Card of Safe Return (resulting in a "free" Monster). Then, your opponent must discard cards from his/her Deck due to Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower. You can add Mass Driver or Cannon Soldier to the mix to Tribute the Monster Special Summoned by Zombie Master, freeing 1 Monster Card Zone and dealing 400-500 points of Damage to your opponent. You could continue doing this until your opponent either loses all of his/her Deck or runs out of Life Points. Should you have two Zombie Masters, you can summon Master #1 with Master #2's effect. Sacrifice Master #2 and revive with Master #1. Sacrifice Master #1 and revive with Master #2... Your opponent will either Mill out or Burn out. Relying on the Burn method alone will most likely Mill yourself out first unless your opponent lost a lot of Life Points early in the game.

A FTK situation (least number of cards needed in hand under worst circumstances: all six in the opening draw, which are Call of the Mummy, Card of Safe Return, 2x Zombie Masters, and a card to get Zombie Master in the Graveyard, preferably Foolish Burial)-activate Call of the Mummy and Card of Safe Return to normal and special summon Zombie Master #1 and Soul Absorbing Bone Tower. Use Foolish Burial or some other way to get Zombie Master #2 into the Graveyard (if Master #2 is in your hand, you can discard any Zombie, discard Zombie #2 for Zombie #1's cost, and then revive Zombie #2 for Zombie #1's effect). Initiate the combo, and your opponent will lose 2 cards from their deck for every 1 card in your deck,

Zombie Burn Deck
This kind of deck is manely based around using the following cards.
 * Poison Mummy
 * Dark World Grimoire
 * Everliving Underworld Cannon
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Ectoplasmer

First you need to gather "Dark World Grimoire", "Everlasting Underworld Cannon", "Ectoplasmer" and "Card of Safe Return" together with 7 cards in your hand. When you then end your turn you discard a monster card and Special Summons it to your side of the field. Then "Everliving Underworld Cannon" will deal out 800 points of damage to your opponent and with "Card of Safe Return" you can draw another card. Repeat this proces 5 times and now you should have; dealt out 4000 pints of damage to your opponent and with "Ectoplasmer" you just tribute one and you will win the duel.

Chaos Zombie Deck
As of now with the new forbidden list released March 1st 2009 Chaos Sorcerer is now limited so it is possible for a zombie deck to run with light and dark monsters to pull out a Chaos Sorcerer onto the field. Of course this deck can also use Plaguespreader Zombie to synchro summon with Chaos Sorcerer and attack with the monster after using its effect. If you use a Thunder King Rai-Oh in a Chaos Zombie Deck, after you use his effect, it also helps to summon out Chaos Sorcerer.

Zombie World Deck
With the release of Structure Deck 15: Zombie World, a new deck has emerged using Zombie World and other cards like Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon and Paladin of the Cursed Dragon to summon monsters from the opponents graveyard and then using them to synchro summon with them. This type of deck can be deadly against non-zomble type decks that are heavy on tribute summoning when Zombie World is in play since you can only tribute summon zombie type monsters. Anti-zombie cards like Getsu Fuhma and Marionette Mite also work well in this deck.

Zombie Synchro Deck
This deck is based on getting Plaguespreader Zombie onto the field and then synchro summoning big synchro monsters fast by swarming the field with zombies, then recycling Plaguespreader Zombie to perform another synchro summon. The cards for this deck can also be taken from Structure Deck 15: Zombie World, which also enables you to take your opponent's monsters for synchro summoning. Also, Burial from a Different Dimension is recommended for this deck as it enables you to return Plaguespreader Zombie and Mezuki to your graveyard, for synchro summoning and Synchro Material Monsters.

Zombie Dark Armed Deck
This deck plays like a Teleport Dark Armed deck, but is has much more zombie type monsters in the deck. Its main goal is to get exactly three DARK monsters in the graveyard by using cards like Reckless Greed, Allure of Darkness , Armageddon Knight in combination with cards like Different Dimension Capsule and Burial from a Different Dimension so that you can special summon Dark Armed Dragon and to swarm the field with zombie monsters for an OTK.

Monster Cards

 * Dark Armed Dragon
 * Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
 * Armageddon Knight
 * Pyramid Turtle
 * Bone Crusher
 * Mezuki
 * Il Blud
 * Zombie Master
 * Spirit Reaper
 * Sangan
 * Krebons
 * Psychic Commander
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch

Spell Cards

 * Shrink
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Brain Control
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Different Dimension Capsule
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Book of Life
 * Emergency Teleport
 * Foolish Burial
 * Call of the Mummy

Trap Cards

 * Raigeki Break
 * Threatening Roar
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Crush Card Virus
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

Extra Deck

 * Iron Chain Dragon
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Doomkaiser Dragon
 * Magical Android
 * Thought Ruler Archfiend
 * Goyo Guardian
 * Stardust Dragon (Use with Card of Safe Return)

Racoon City
A variation on Bright City that utilizes Goblin Zombie, Paladin of the Cursed Dragon, Malevolent Mech Goku En, and Skill Drain to summon Light Zombies and control the field with Skill Drain and Thunder King. The main card for this deck is Honest which will work with nearly all targets in the deck. When used with Zombie World honest can be brought back and returned to the hand with its own effect.

Strength and Weaknesses
Depending on the type of deck its strength can vary, but the overall power of a Zombie Deck remains one: its ability to quickly swarm the field with monsters (it is not uncommon to clog up one's entire Monster Cards zone in one turn) and gaining quite powerful draw power through Card of Safe Return and/or Allure of Darkness. Excluding the Zombie Mill variant, however, a Zombie Deck has some weaknesses: its most powerful monster, Despair from the Dark, while capable to wreak havoc and destroy most opposition, can become easy prey of every huge beatstick with 2800 ATK or more, and the same apply for the more commonly used Ryu Kokki, with a mere Monarch being able to halt it. The most notable weakness of the deck is its dependance from the Graveyard. While the extreme swarming capabilities of the deck can overcome the aforementioned lack of sheer power, cards like Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, D.D. Crow and nearly every other card that can remove monsters from the game or lock the Graveyard can effectively put a Zombie player to severe disadvantage, if not outright disrupt one's strategy and cause the loss of a duel. Burial from a Different Dimension and Imperial Iron Wall can help to partially solve the problem (though the later makes Mezuki and Book of Life completely useless as well). The March Banlist has crippled the deck even further by limiting Mezuki, Plaguespreader Zombie and Card of Safe Return, thus damaging the deck. However, with the release of the Zombie World deck, it provides for the player to gain field, grave, and swarming advantage over his opponent making Zombies an extremely powerful and effective archetype.

Monster Cards

 * Kasha
 * Malevolent Mech - Goku En
 * Il Blud
 * Pyramid Turtle
 * Vampire Lord
 * Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon
 * Spirit Reaper
 * Zombie Master
 * Goblin Zombie
 * Mezuki
 * Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower
 * Paladin of the Cursed Dragon
 * Vampire's Curse
 * Plaguespreader Zombie
 * Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
 * Dark Grepher
 * Armageddon Knight
 * Ryu Kokki
 * Bone Crusher
 * Shutendoji(to reuse Mezuki and Plaguespreader Zombie)
 * Patrician of Darkness
 * Red Ogre
 * Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
 * Shutendoji

Spell Cards

 * Zombie World
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Dark World Dealings
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Allure of Darkness
 * Book of Life
 * Monster Reborn
 * Call of the Mummy
 * Everliving Underworld Cannon
 * Veil of Darkness
 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Card Destruction
 * Foolish Burial
 * Magical Stone Excavation

Trap Cards

 * Deck Devastation Virus
 * Crush Card Virus
 * Mirror Force
 * Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
 * Raigeki Break
 * Trap of the Imperial Tomb
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Tutan Mask
 * Zoma the Spirit

Synchro Monsters

 * Doomkaiser Dragon
 * Revived King Ha Des
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Dark End Dragon
 * Stardust Dragon (Use with Card of Safe Return)
 * Red Dragon Archfiend
 * Thought Ruler Archfiend
 * Goyo Guardian
 * Colossal Fighter