Living Dead

**Overview**

*"The Living Dead faction captures the zombie aspect of carriers spreading the infection to other player's minions by "turning" them. Living dead also expands the theme by destroying minions that become zombies, runners instead of walkers, and even animal zombies! This faction also captures a delay in the zombie transformation with the bury mechanic and can bury minions from the discard pile. Enjoy swarming bases with the Living Dead! Living Dead is one of 5 factions in the Apocalyptic Expansion featuring Rebels, Dystopian Regime, Catastrophes, Wastelanders, and the Living Dead."*

**Details**

### **General**

* Name: Living Dead
* Author: Lonan
* Complexity: 4/5
* Version: 4
* Last Updated: 6/21/23

**Mechanics**

* Burying
* Energy
* -1 Power Counters

**Background**

Living Dead was a faction born out of my desire to capture things about zombies that were not captured in the official faction. I felt like burying and uncovering matched the zombie lore quite well and soon the Living Dead faction was made.

### Breakdown

Living Dead have the typical minion distribution of 10 minions and 10 actions. They have 22 total printed minion power. However, the "Carrier" gains two +1 power counters upon being played for an equivalent 30 power or 3 power average per minion. Among their actions, they have:

* 2 play-on-minion actions. 2x Zombite
* 1 play-on-base action: Graveyard
* 7 standard actions: 2x Endless, Recently Buried, Escape, Too Loud!, Mutation, and Herd Mentality

**Cards**

**Minions (10):**

**1x Patient Zero (5):** Bury a minion from your discard pile. Talent: Uncover one of your cards that was not buried by this card.

**2x Zombear (4):** Destroy a minion here of power 2 or less. Bury it here after it goes to the discard pile.

**3x Runners (3):** Place one Energy on this minion. Talent: Remove an Energy from this minion to move this minion to     another base and uncover one of your cards there.

**4x Carrier (0):** Place two +1 power counters on this minion. Ongoing: At the start of your turn, remove a +1 power counter from this minion, then if there are no +1 power counters on this minion, bury it and another player's minion here of power 3 or less on this base.

**Actions (10):**

**2x Endless:** Bury a minion from your discard pile.

**2x Zombite:** Play on another player’s minion. Ongoing: This minion has its abilities cancelled. If this minion has zero power at the start of your turn, bury it here. Talent: Place a -1  power counter on this minion.

**1x Escape:** Search your deck for a minion of power 3 or less and bury it.

**1x Recently Buried:** Bury up to two minions of power 3 or less from your discard pile.

**1x Graveyard:** Play on a base. Talent: search your deck for a minion and place it into the discard pile.

**1x Too Loud!:** Uncover up to two of your cards.

**1x Mutation:** Play on a buried card. Special: After this card is discarded from play. Choose a base.  Until the end of  your turn all your minions there gain +1  power.

**1x Herd Mentality:** Choose a base. Move all your minions of power 3 or less from there to another base.

**Bases:**

**(17) Remote Farm (3 2 1)** The winner may bury a minion from their discard pile on the base that replaces this one.

**(22) Z City (5 3 1)** After you play a minion of power 4 or more here, you may destroy a minion here of power 2 or less and bury it here after it goes to the discard pile.

**Strategy**

The Living Dead thrive on having a healthy discard pile. Have minions in mind that you would like to bring back. Some cards are power restricted in what they can bring back, but the Runners are excellent targets that can chain for an uncover burst alongside their movement. In the early game, control the board with your Carriers and Zombite. They take a while to trigger sometimes, but can be very powerful when they "turn" an opponent minion. Don't underestimate the subtle board control here. Since the Carriers trigger removing a +1 power counter at the start of the turn, you can accelerate their ability by burying them and uncovering them to remove a +1 power counter right away. You only have one turn left then and you can bury it and another player's weak minion along with it the next turn.￼

**Pairing Suggestions**

The Living Dead can support just about any faction that gels well with itself, but if you want to take advantage of start of turn uncovering, Superheroes is an excellent suggestion. Uncovering MMCs at the start of your turn can instantly turn into superheroes for amazing bursts. Also there are many large minions to spam through Living Dead's recursion. When playing with the Glove, protecting Carriers is excellent!

Another pairing to consider is Kung Fu. Removing +1 power counters from Carriers can be an effective way to antagonize an opponent with many weaker minions