From the Comics!
Despite people reading it that way, Zombie Galacti isn't the Zombified version of Galactus, but rather a bunch of zombies that have eaten him! That’s right not even Galactus could fight back the zombie invasion. After eating him and taking in the Power Cosmic for themselves, they supplanted Galactus as the Devourer of Worlds themselves.
They spent 40 years devouring and turning others into zombies such as Thanos, the Phoenix Force, and Ego the Living Planet. With nothing left in the universe to eat, they headed for other multiverses.
In Marvel Snap
Zombie Galacti is looking to infect your board and transform them into a host of zombified creatures! ZG uses some slightly complex language, so let’s break down exactly what it does.
Game Start: Choose 6 other cards in your deck.
As sweet as this would be, it’s not you making the choices, it’s the game doing it for you. Randomly 6 of your other 11 cards in your deck will be “chosen” by Zombie Galacti. Since it’s a Game Start ability, you can also pair this with stuff like Kang or Thanos. This will give you the chance of making an Infinity Stone or Kang variant chosen by ZG.
On Reveal: Transform those cards into copies of this.
Now for the exciting part of ZG. When you play it, any of your chosen cards on the board will transform into copies of ZG. At this point you’re thinking “great why do I want a bunch of 4 Power cards”, but the beauty in this card comes from the fact it makes copies. This means that if you can preemptively increase ZG’s Power before you play it, all the copies will have that same increased Power.
7-Cost
We also need to be aware of this part of the card. Second Diner has released 7+ cards before, but they have had ways to either cheat on energy cost like Skaar or Death, or have alternate ways to play them like Dormammu. For the first time we have a 7 cost card that has no built in way to play it. This means we will need to get creative and find a way to get it on board.
Compare and Contrast
Zombie Galacti has a similar play pattern to Hela. You are playing small points cards to facilitate your final turn 6 play. With hela its cards that discard other cards, with ZG its playing as many chosen cards as you can. The main difference is the quality of increased output you get on turn 6. ZG requires not only setup of the chosen cards, but you need to be buffing ZG. If you aren’t buffing ZG before you play it then then you are getting nowhere near the kind of final turn Hela does.
Likewise Cerebro can also have a comparable playstyle. You will be spending turns 1-5 playing as many same Power cards into the board as you can before dropping Cerebro/Mystique on turn 6 for the massive Power spike. The trick will once again be in making your ZG outscale these cards. Cerebro is much easier to play since it only costs 3, but you are heavily restricted in the cards you can include into a Cerebro deck. Whether one or the other is more worth it will depend on how easy playing the 7-Cost ZG will be.
Synergies
I believe this to be Zombie Galacti’s biggest and best synergy piece. Khonshu solves both of ZG’s major hurdles; how to play a 7-Cost card and how to buff its Power. Now I’m not saying it’s perfect, you still have some work to do. You need to discard Zombie Galacti once, along with Khonshu two times if you wanna maximize it into reviving a 12 Power ZG. The catch will be being able to accomplish all that while still playing your chosen cards to transform. The dream scenario is transforming 6 cards into 12 Power Zombies on the final turn!
The next card that popped into mind for me was Pixie. Pixie might not solve the Power issue, but she can potentially solve the Cost issue in a big way. Imagine drawing your Zombie Galacti and you see it costs 0 due to swapping costs with a Wasp! After giving ZG a low enough cost, you will have some more flexibility in your turn curves to work on buffing it in your hand. With enough luck you could set up some kind of Wong engine with hand buff on reveals like Gwenpool.
Counters
Most people will look at the 7-Cost and think, how can I reduce this? We talked about Pixie earlier, and that kind of Cost reduction strategies will be stopped cold by a well timed Mobius. I wouldn’t want to be the player spending all their turns buffing ZG in hand with no way to play it.
Since ZG’s main ability is an On Reveal, Cosmo can be used to stop it from happening. You’ll need to predict where they are dropping it, but if you can you’ll make all their previous turns wasted. Cosmo will also be useful in stopping the cards which are used to buff ZG. Stuff like Nakia or Gwenpool are On Reveals, making them vulnerable to Cosmo.
Future Cards
When looking for synergies for Zombie Galacti, I decided to quickly check what future datamined cards could hook into this card. November brings us the release of Superior Spider-Man who can give you the extra energy needed to play ZG, while Hydroman can be like Pixie and give you the chance to have a 1-Cost Zombie Galacti. IT’s best new partner in my opinion comes in December with Maverick. Maverick becomes another target for your hand buffing shenanigans while also giving you a way to transfer them all to ZG. This way if you don’t draw ZG early enough you can still work on setting up the buffs for later.
August’s Day 1 Decks
ZG to the Moon
Here’s a pretty basic shell for Khonshu ZG. Cards can be flexed in and out, but the main point of the deck will revolve around discarding ZG to be revived, and having multiple bodies on board. Cards like Proxima Midnight and Wolverine jump to the board from your hand, meaning you wont have to spend extra energy on them, while Corvus Glaive and X-23 help give you the extra energy needed to play ZG straight up if you are backed into that plan B.
Undead Pile by MANGO
This deck comes from user Mango! Instead of trying to go all in on buffing ZG, they are opting for a more measured gameplan. By working in a Wiccan package, you solve the problem of playing ZG and also providing yourself with the small bodies on board you don’t care about transforming. You also get the fun tech options of Comsic Ghost Rider and Sandman. I especially like the Sandman because with your 8 energy from Wiccan, you can still play Zombie Galacti on the final turn.
Thanks again to Mango for providing a deck for today’s article. If you want to have a deck on an upcoming card featured, follow me on X and stay tuned!
Variants
Final Thoughts
Zombie Galacti is a Series 5 card launching Tuesday in the Seasonal Series 5 Pack for 5000 tokens and the weekly Spotlight for 6000. Out of all the cards from this month, it may not be the best but it’s certainly the most fun. I have a soft spot for cards that send you on a quest. Surely this time the quest will be enough to win the game!
Let me know what you think about Zombie Galacti. Tell me about any synergies I’ve missed or ZG decks you are excited about down below!