Fast Zombies
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A type of zombie[2] that is fast. If these zombies are alive, they should count as Technically Living Zombies. If you spend most of your first encounter standing there staring at one thinking it's Not a Zombie, your chances for survival are pretty grim. Deadly Lunge is a common middle ground between this and Zombie Gait, in which a zombie becomes fast once its prey is quite close[3].
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Is it weird that a Zombie has haste[1]? Aren’t they supposed to be slow? Some people in house found it weird, but modern pop-culture zombie storytelling has opened the door to non-plodding zombies, some of which are terrifyingly quick!
—Aaron Forsythe, a card designer of, Magic: The Gathering
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Mark Rosewater, in his 3rd podcast[4] about the Innistrad Set[5]. said that this trope has it's origins in video games. He said that zombies are an ideal video game mook because they come in mass, are slow, and typically arn't able to withstand ridiculous amounts of damage[6] and thus are low threats on their own. [7] He said Fast zombies were a progression on that enemy. Such as an Elite Mook, or a Video Game Boss.
Film
- Zombies in Zombieland, which is why staying in shape is important.
- In World War Z, the zombies never even seem to slow to a mere sprint.
- 28 Days Later and it's sequel contain just zombies, though they're infected with a virus rather than reanimated corpses.
- The 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead featured this type of zombies.
Tabletop Games
- In Magic: The Gathering there are some creatures with the zombie subtype that have at least one ability associated with speed (such as haste). The page quote comes from a card designer bringing up the trope on the card discussion of Blackcleave Goblin.
Video Games
- Half-Life 2 has fast zombies[8], which are not only fast, but quite agile and capable of jumping and climbing.
- The zombies in Saints Row the Third can run pretty fast for zombies, but still do so with a very pronounced stagger.
- ↑ This is an "evergreen keyword ability". This particular ability prevents a creature from having "summoning sickness". Summoning sickness is what a creature has if it is under your control, but hasn't been their since the beginning of your turn (typically because the creature was cast that round (summoned), hence the name). Summoning sickness prevents a creature from attacking or using an activated ability with tap (or the failed untap mechanic) in its cost. As you probably concluded, haste is a mechanic associated with speed.
- ↑ or creature highly analogous to a zombie
- ↑ although Deadly Lunge isn't a strictly zombie trope
- ↑ His podcast is named Drive to Work
- ↑ Not that innistrad has fast zombies. He was a fan of large masses of Plodding Zombies, and as head designer of Magic R&D, he has quite a say in how things go.
- ↑ In some case they only go down easily if you headshot them
- ↑ Feel free to look at the Night of the Living Mooks page.
- ↑ as in that is what they are actually called