Dreadhorde Invasion
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Penny Dreadful Legal
Pioneer Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vintage Legal

Dreadhorde Invasion

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and amass 1. (Put a +1/+1 counter on an Army you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first.)

Whenever a Zombie token you control with power 6 or greater attacks, it gains lifelink until end of turn.

Epicurus on Amass With Kenrith

2 weeks ago

TheOfficialCreator Thanks for all that!

This was actually one of the early prototypes I drew up when I first started playing Commander. At that point, I had been playing a 60-card Amass deck for a bit, and loved it. The Gleaming Overseer + Silent Arbiter combo was the key to that deck. And, like you, I struggled to find the right commander to use.

I think that I should update this list now, which will change a great deal of it. Your suggestions are good, and I'll include some of them. However, Yarok and others won't really work, because there are only 5 cards with Amass as ETB triggers. All of the rest of the Amass cards are instants and sorceries, except for Angrath, Captain of Chaos that has an activated ability, and Dreadhorde Invasion that has an upkeep trigger.

If you think of anything else while building your own Amass deck, please share.

multimedia on Gisa, Zom Zom Queen *Work In Progress*

2 weeks ago

Hey, well done so far, but I think you overestimate needing so many buffs (anthems).

All the artifacts for anthem effects is overkill, you have tutors that can get the better anthem. Adding more repeatable draw sources can do more for gameplay than anthems because more reliable draw helps to draw the better anthems. Coat of Arms, Eldrazi Monument and The Immortal Sun are much better than the other artifact anthems here.

In my opinion anthem effects to be worth playing need to also have card quality for the mana cost. Instruments of War and Hall of Triumph are bad cards, only providing a small anthem effect nothing else for their mana cost isn't good enough to take deck spots. Obelisk of Urd is subpar, but at least it can be mana cost reduced even to 0 with Zombies. Bad Moon is only 2 mana, but there's greater two drops that have much better card quality. Heraldic Banner can be a mana rock, but even so you can do better for a three drop.

Adaptive Automaton is a creature who Gisa can sac and who can be a Zombie lord (anthem), but it's a bad card compared to all other Zombie lords who provide another good repeatable effect. Icon of Ancestry and Vanquisher's Banner aren't worth it since there's too many nonZombie creatures here. You can get more reliable repeatable draw from other sources.

You have Crypt Ghast, Cabal Coffers and tutors to get them, you don't need Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power mana effects. These cards are better in mono white, red or blue because these colors can really use the mana ramp. Liliana's Mastery is a very low budget five drop for Zombies, not needed here.

There's several cards in the maybeboard to consider adding main deck if you have them. Areas to focus on improving with cards from the maybeboard are early game ramp, repeatable draw for only you, reanimation and more Zombie evasion.

Other cards to consider adding from the maybeboard.

Some cards to consider cutting:

Good luck with your deck.

lagotripha on Budget Death's Shadow Help!

1 month ago

I'll echo other commenters - focus in on lands and staples. A deck with bad spells and good lands usually outperforms a deck with bad lands and good spells.

Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip, Eye of Vecna Dreadhorde Invasion, are all worth playtesting to see if you can support a slower gameplan, cause getting life low without fetch into shock is hard.

I'd go mine death's shadow sideboards for cheap tech for whatever matchups you feel weakest against then run it mainboard. Unholy Heat & Terminate are worth looking at for spots if you can support the mana pips.

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

3 months ago

Caerwyn for sure! I will definitely take note to expand more in the future about that, and I'll watch my wording more carefully; it definitely wasn't my intent to suggest that Dreadhorde Invasion was better than Bitterblossom XD

Metroid_Hybrid on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

3 months ago

Dreadhorde Invasion's similarity to Bitterblossom and Ophiomancer was mentioned, but this trio of cards also represents what is generally available in Mono-Black to establish a soft-lock with Contamination and/or Smokestack..

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

3 months ago

Gleeock Agreed! I love afflict, I've been thinking of ways to incorporate it into a future plane for my custom sets.

And if you could link the deck so I could take a gander? I'd love to see it. I run Dreadhorde Invasion as a way to get chump blockers in my Toluz deck or as a token generator for a custom commander I had, but I've never really seen it used to its full potential.

And no, shadow63, I didn't forget Unlikely Aid or Rakdos. But the effort that actually defeated Bolas was after that failed stab that Rakdos set up. I guess I did forget Niv-Mizzet Reborn since he stabbed Bolas with Hazoret's spear, distracting him from the God-Eternals for a second, but again that's not really what finished him. A LOT of people on Ravnica contributed to Bolas's downfall, so I chose to focus on the most directly important :P

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

3 months ago

Hello, everyone!

I thought I would try my hand at creating an article series centering around the beauty of different card designs, as each card truly is unique in its own way, and I wanted to make my appreciation of that into a tangible form so that everyone could experience it.

A general outline of how this article series will go is this: a basic introduction (similar to what you’re reading now), cost versus effect, the flavor of the card, how the card interacts with its limited environment, cards that are similar to it and a short little blurb on what makes them different, a custom card inspired by the analyzed card and a short explanation of the process used to create it, the legacy of the card, and finally, a conclusion to round it all out.

That being said, let’s begin!

The card of today’s analysis is Dreadhorde Invasion, a card I chose to kick off the series with not only because War of the Spark is my favorite set, but also because it will give us a good platform to walk through the steps of this article series.

Dreadhorde Invasion is an oft-overlooked card that provides its user with a Zombie Army (a mechanic introduced and incredibly localized to War of the Spark, excluding a few exceptions such as Lazotep Chancellor) at the cost of a single life each turn. Obviously this adds up quickly, and the Army that is produced is rather clunky, as it is easier to remove (a la Fading Hope), non-evasive, and rather small even in its beginning stages. For it gives you a 1/1 creature on turn 3. That’s not a great payoff, especially for more advanced formats.

This is where the second clause comes in. If your Army can make it to six power, then Dreadhorde Invasion rewards you handsomely with an added lifelink, allowing you to gain back all that lost life and quickly breaking symmetry with your life versus your opponents. It’s not incredibly cost-effective (heck, a Forced Adaptation is more cost-effective in general), but it’s very fun to play with and can provide a lot more when juxtaposed with the rest of the game. But we’ll get into that later.

The flavor of Dreadhorde Invasion is perhaps my favorite part of the card. The Eternals are probably one of the most unique MTG villains (I mean, come on, they’re blue metal zombies that can cross between worlds and steal planeswalker sparks), and definitely one of my personal favorites. The idea of Dreadhorde Invasion is that Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is executing his plan to become Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, invading the plane of Ravnica with his army of Eternals empowered by The Elderspell in order to steal the sparks of the planeswalkers, trapped there by The Immortal Sun and invited there by the Interplanar Beacon. The invasion is eventually quelled by a joint effort by Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Gideon Blackblade, Ugin, the Ineffable, God-Eternal Oketra, and God-Eternal Bontu, with the defeat of Bolas wrapped up in the brilliant card Despark. Dreadhorde Invasion more than anything flavor-wise represents the whole of War of the Spark, perhaps better than any other individual card in the set (except maybe Enter the God-Eternals). And that is why I love it so much; it is a testament to my favorite set of all time.

As far as Dreadhorde Invasion’s performance in Limited goes, I must say that it has quite an unitive feel to how it operates in multiple deck strategies, similar to how it unites the flavor of the set. It has the keyword amass on it, which is the new ability introduced in the set, and which synergizes well with proliferate. Zombie Armies themselves receive gracious tribal support in the form of Gleaming Overseer, Eternal Skylord, Widespread Brutality, and the like. Beyond this fairly obvious synergy, however, there are many more options for how Dreadhorde Invasion can function in this set. For example, the creation of a creature every turn lends itself very well to sacrifice strategies revolving around Spark Reaper, Ahn-Crop Invader, and Spark Harvest, or even Liliana, Dreadhorde General and God-Eternal Bontu. In addition, the lifelink that can be attained on later turns goes well with Ajani's Pridemate and fits into a subtheme of life gain that the set has.

Dreadhorde Invasion-style effects are somewhat rare, but there is precedence for their existence. The most obvious example is Bitterblossom, an enchantment well-known for its splashes in Modern and which creates small flying threats every turn at the cost of some life. However, there is also Ophiomancer and Endless Ranks of the Dead, or more recently Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia. The thing that sets Dreadhorde Invasion apart from these other cards is its unique combination of losing life and gaining life alongside its ability to make a token larger versus just creating a new token.

Here is a custom card that I made that was inspired by Dreadhorde Invasion.

enter image description here

The process I went through to design this card went something like this.

1) Look at Dreadhorde Invasion and think about what the card is wanting you to do. What's the general theme of the card?

2) Build a general shell around the idea of losing life to gain life, pulling in inspiration from cards like Bloodghast.

3) Adding a tribal element to make it feel like a Dreadhorde card.

4) Adding a fitting name. "Vowmage" gives a feel of some kind of sacrifice to fufill an obligation, especially to a being like Bolas.

5) Adding flavor text that is both quippy and fits the situation. In this case, I chose to show who the Vowmage's vow is to.

6) Finding some art from DeviantArt that fit the theme. This art is from user Ryushadow, and is the only Eternal art I could find.

Dreadhorde Invasion, like most of its amass kin, is largely forgotten especially in competitive play where it is not a contending strategy. Zombie Armies are incredibly weak to removal and usually aren’t very cost-effective, so their weakness of being a single lone creature that just gets bigger and can be chump-blocked can’t really be ignored. War of the Spark as a whole is a largely forgotten story arc, and despite its misgivings it’s still a shame. Dreadhorde Invasion does not truly have a legacy, though it was reprinted in the Midnight Hunt commander set as a part of Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver’s commander deck. Hopefully, one day, we will see Amass return in a future set with greater support so that Dreadhorde Invasion may one day be viable.

Alright, everyone! That is the end of my article for today. Please let me know what worked for you and what didn’t so that I can sculpt this new article series to your feedback!

Speaking of user feedback, I would like to have every tenth card be voted upon by the community. If you want to submit an idea for what card we will go over, just let me know in your comment. The comment with the highest number of upvotes will have their card in the tenth article of the series.

Thank you all for the wonderful community we’ve made together! See you soon.

DreadKhan on Zur The Enchanter - casual stax

3 months ago

Have you thought about Dance of Many? In a more casual Zur list, duplicating the best creature on the table with Zur seems pretty good. The Restoration of Eiganjo  Flip can be ramp or recursion, both of which can be worth fetching up. I think you've got enough useful bodies to look at Mother of Runes, she can make stuff hard to block or protect stuff, both are useful I find. Out of Time and Vanishing feels pretty good if there are lots of creatures in the decks you play against. Dreadhorde Invasion is a nice cheap source of bodies, and it can get big if you've slowed the game down, great to find if you've found your Ertai. I also love Luminarch Ascension to generate 4/4 flyers if I can lock the board down.

It's not very casual I suppose, but Stasis is really good in Zur Stax, especially with Smothering Tithe or Black Market Connections. You'd probably want either Reconnaissance or Brave the Sands if you use Stasis.

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