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.

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,

Burning Skull Deck
With the official release of the Burning Skull Archetype into the OCG, a Zombie Deck that resolves the combos of Burning Skull Head and Skull Flames along with the ace monster (Speed King ☆ Skull Flames) with both support for Zombie and FIRE monsters can prove effective when used in the correct matter. Effective support cards for this type of Deck can be Zombie Master, Ribbon of Rebirth, Tutan Mask, Goblin Zombie, and Foolish Burial (for the Special Summon of Speed King ☆ Skull Flames) as well as cards that usually support Burn Decks such as Dark Room of Nightmare and Spiritual Fire Art - Kurenai (due to the FIRE Attribute of the Burning Skulls).

Light Zombie Deck
Currently there is a new deck type Light Zombie deck in Japan's main competition. This deck focuses on Light monsters like Thunder King Rai-Oh,Malevolent Mech - Goku En and Paladin of the Cursed Dragon, as they can all be boosted ATK by Honest. Also, Goblin Zombie and Pyramid Turtle can search Paladin of the Cursed Dragon. Of course, this deck should be helped with numerous backrows, so Skill Drain and Royal Oppression are added.

Twilight 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 Twilight Zombie Deck, after you use his effect, it also helps to summon out Chaos Sorcerer.

Zombie Swarm Deck
This kind of deck focuses on Special Summoning Zombies, especially from the Graveyard. Pyramid Turtle and Goblin Zombie searches out most of the Zombies, while Zombie Master, Il Blud, Book of Life, and Mezuki reuse their effects. Card Trooper and Magical Merchant helps get monsters in your graveyard. Card of Safe Return is obvious in this deck, since it works very well with Monster Reborn, Book of Life, Zombie Master, Il Blud, Mezuki, and Vampire Lord. Also, since many high ATK monsters can be special summoned quickly, Deck Devastation Virus becomes a useful card in this deck. Since the winning concept is being able to get cards into the Graveyard and Special Summoning them to beat down the opponent, a King of the Skull Servants theme can work as an alternative splash theme. Another way to use this deck well is to use Armageddon Knight or Foolish Burial to send a powerful zombie to the graveyard and then revive the monster. The preferred method to quickly send cards to the Graveyard remains through the Lightsworns, and a somewhat recent build makes heavy use of them for massive card advantage and deck thinning, at the cost of lack of protection. There is also another variant of the deck that contemplates Dark Armed Dragon, useful itself as a huge beatstick. As for support, Burial from a Different Dimension works very well to replenish the Graveyard of RFG monsters, mainly Mezuki, Plaguespreader Zombie, and DARK monsters removed through Allure of Darkness.

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 zomble type monsters. Anti-zombie cards like Getsu Fuhma and Marionette Mite also work well in this deck.

Zombie Norleras Deck
Sky Scourge Norleras is an interesting option for a Zombie Deck, working best with Despair from the Dark. It goes as follows: simply have Norleras in the Graveyard, then use Phantom of Chaos to gain its effect and reset both players' fields and hands (and draw a card as well). Then, through Mezuki's effect revive any massive beatstick from your Graveyard (Despair from the Dark, Ryu Kokki, and so on). This strategy can turn the deck in a potential OTK.

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.

Strength & 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. Perhaps the most notable and obvious weakness of the deck is, however, its overdependance 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. 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). More importantly however, the March Banlist has crippled the deck even further by Limiting Mezuki, Plaguespreader Zombie and Card of Safe Return, thus severely damaging the deck.

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
 * Getsu Fuhma
 * Despair from the Dark
 * Ryu Kokki

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
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Card Destruction
 * Foolish Burial

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

Synchro Monsters

 * Doomkaiser Dragon
 * Revived King Ha Des
 * Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary
 * Black Rose Dragon
 * Dark End Dragon