What Are Your Thoughts on Grave Strength?

Standard forum

Posted on April 20, 2015, 11:28 a.m. by SirFowler

I wanted to here the pros and cons of Grave Strength. A standard card that is unlikely to be competitive in standard, but can be powerful if the setting is right. Example, I currently have a b/r reanimator deck relying on creatures in the graveyard. I have Ashcloud Phoenix morphed and a Flamewake Phoenix on the battlefield. I have another Flamewake Phoenix in the graveyard along with 4 others. I then cast Grave Strength on the morph and brought back Flamewake Phoenix at the beggining of combat, swinging for lethal. My only problem with it is that if they kill all my creatures, I'm not able to get full use of it. What are your thoughts?

RussischerZar says... #2

Strength from the Fallen is superior I think and even that barely saw play.

There was one deck at the Pro Tour though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yrzs5KDY4SY

April 20, 2015 11:55 a.m.

RussischerZar says... #3

And yes, I know those are different colors. Problem is with all the kill spells going around in Standard, you're very likely to get 2-for-1'd.

April 20, 2015 11:57 a.m.

SirFowler says... #4

What if you played Strength from the Fallen AND Grave Strength? Then you would have an even greater chance of killing your enemy faster.

April 20, 2015 12:05 p.m.

kyuuri117 says... #5

I mean, with Commune with the Gods, Satyr Wayfinder, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, and Nyx Weaver, it's very easy to get cards into your graveyard. But as mentioned, the problem with pump spells isn't that they aren't good enough, it's that the removal in standard is so good that whatever creature you use it on is likely to just get killed in response.

That's not to say the spells aren't viable. But I think you'd definitely want to base your deck around hexproof creatures. Like, maybe run Sultai with the above spells, and have four Sagu Maulers as your finishers to use with the Strength from the Fallen / Grave Strength.

April 20, 2015 1:05 p.m.