Grave Pact
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Big Apple Highlander Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
PreDH Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Grave Pact

Enchantment

Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature. (Dying is being put into the graveyard from the battlefield. Tokens enter the graveyard before they cease to exist.)

DreadKhan on PrEDH - Lyzolda so

1 month ago

I'm not sure how evil your group gets, but Grave Pact is really good. Elemental Mastery is a handy source of Red creatures every turn. I can't help but wonder if Ashnod's Altar could be helpful, you sac one creature to pay for a Lyzolda sacrifice. A bit out there, but if Lyzolda is being fed she might benefit from something like Sadistic Glee.

SaberTech on favorite pet card(s)

1 month ago

I like games where the power balance of the board shifts a lot between players from one turn to the next, keeping people guessing how it will ultimately turn out. I enjoy catching people off guard. I also tend to gravitate to sacrifice and graveyard recursion strategies so there are a few cards that tend to show up in my deck lists, at least until I start refining.

Whenever I build a deck with blue I like to see if Domineering Will fits in the list. I like how flexible it is and how it can really mess up an opponent's plans. You can be political and save an opponent if they agree to block how you want them too, often getting rid of a bunch of annoying creatures at once. You can give yourself surprise blockers. You can play it before combat to basically fog an opponent's three strongest creatures for a turn. If you have a way to give haste then you can snag three additional attackers. And if you have a free sacrifice outlet then it basically lets you kill three creatures at instant speed for just 4 mana.

Shriekmaw ends up in a lot of my black decks. The sacrifice trigger off of the evoke cost lets it nab extra value off of cards like Grave Pact and Morbid Opportunist. It's a creature that you can blink or recursion loop to kill multiple creatures over the course of a game. It's an evasive creature that might be able to help push through some last few points of damage. You can tutor for it off of Birthing Pod to kill something and then sac it the next turn to tutor up something else. You can also evoke it and then sacrifice it in response to its sacrifice trigger to Soldevi Adnate to give yourself a quick burst of mana ramp.

Necromancy is fun for its ability to grab a sudden blocker or utility creature out of any graveyard at instant speed to catch opponents off guard. The built-in sac effect when you cast it at instant speed can be relevant to get death triggers, like off of Protean Hulk. Since it's an enchantment form of reanimation you can also run it as backup for Animate Dead in Leonin Relic-Warder combos.

Balaam__ on Ahhh It's Halloween

2 months ago

Any room for Puddenhead’s exquisitely spooky 10th edition version of Grave Pact? The art is super halloween-y, although it would probably fare better if this were a recursive zombie shell.

Edit-a more typical recursive zombie shell. This one may be a bit too focused on All Hallow's Eve for Grave Pact to pull its weight.

SaberTech on How can you pack enough …

3 months ago

legendofa's comment about assessing that you and your group are playing with the same game expectations and power level is a good point to start with. As for some suggestions about deck and play style:

You are right, you probably won't be able to pack enough removal into a deck to deal with all the potent threats that three opponents can potentially play against you. There's the option of running decks with cards like Grave Pact that give you repeatable ways to remove creatures throughout a game or engines that let you repeatedly reuse your removal like running Plaguecrafter or Foundation Breaker in a Muldrotha, the Gravetide deck. Those can help. However, if you are trying to run a control deck in commander like you would in a 1v1 game then you are probably going to have a tough time. 1-for-1 removal in commander is meant more for saving your skin or shutting down an opponent's key piece/play at an advantageous time, not a long-term plan of preventing an opponent access to any resources at all.

Something to remember is that even if each opponent has 20+ bombs in their deck, they aren't guaranteed to see all of them in a game. It also isn't on your shoulders to keep all threats under control. There are other players at the table who will have to be concerned about threats that get played. You can try to play in a way that puts pressure on opponents to deal with threats while you conserve your own removal for when you really need it. There is also the option of making deals with opponents.

In casual commander games, part of controlling opponents comes from just being able to match their boards with your own. An opponent shouldn't try trading off threats with you if all it does is weaken the two of you while your other two opponents are unaffected. Make attacking you look like a bad deal. A threat that is never aimed at you is one you don't have to think about how to remove, and hopefully it gets aimed at another opponent instead.

For a more dedicated control strategy, cards that deny actions may be more worthwhile over some pieces of single-target removal. Effects that tax opponents' mana to do things can slow down the game and give you time to get your own win-cons online. With both denial and removal, being able to hit/affect cards that each of your opponents control with only a single card is the sort of value you would prefer if you can manage.

Cards that let you permanently steal an opponent's card on board let you you spend one card to build up your board state while removing a resource from an opponent. That's better than just trading cards 1-for-1 and potentially giving your other two opponents an edge. The cards that do that on their own tend to be 4+ mana though, so not always the most cost efficient. Setting up synergies between cards that let you do that sort of thing repeatedly is one way to go. As an example, I run Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip in my Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire deck to get more value out of Vaevictis's ability.

At the end of the day though, the most effective way of taking a bunch of threats out of the game equation at once is player removal. You can't just focus on keeping opponents' boards clear of threats, you need to be building towards your own win-con as well. Defeating an opponent means no longer needing to deal with their threats. There can be advantages to sometimes being slower to play out your threats than your opponents but if you know you aren't running enough ways to deal with all of their threats in time then being able to take out an opponent may be your best option for controlling the flow of the game.

DreadKhan on Rachel's Liesa Commander Deck

4 months ago

It's about as fun as having a 'kick each other in the nuts' competition for game night, but I feel like this Commander would benefit from some stuff like Merciless Executioner, Plaguecrafter, and Accursed Marauder. The idea is you just play one of the many variants on the theme (there are many more), sacrificing itself each time, and then get it back to play again next turn. I had to limit myself in my Meren list to only 3 of them (and no Grave Pact enchantments), but depending on your play group it could be a significant inclusion.

Czarnian90 on Hellegion, Shadows and Flames (Raphael)

5 months ago

Commander Update: Shadows Rise, Flames Burn

After several games against tough opponents, I’ve made a few changes to the deck and, more importantly, swapped the commander of the Hellegion. The Balrog, Durin's Bane is still very much part of the deck—playing him as a commander was fun and flavorful, but I wanted a leader who can impact my board more directly and help set the pace of the game. The Balrog remains a force of nature, and having him lurking in the deck, ready to be unleashed, still feels great. I believe he’ll continue to be a major threat even when he's not always leading the charge.

Raphael, Fiendish Savior steps in as the new commander, supporting the game plan more consistently. He helps stabilize the board, buffs my army, and sets the stage for the Balrog’s arrival. I run several cards that can fetch him straight from the deck—Blood Speaker, Demonlord Belzenlok, Rune-Scarred Demon, Icon of Ancestry, Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted, and others—so even as a lurking horror, he’s never too far away.

I also added more damage-dealing spells for better control and direct pressure on opponents. Beyond classics like Devil's Play, Terminate, and Dreadbore, I’ve added Hell to Pay and Rakdos's Return to punish hands and boards alike. On top of that, I doubled down on devil token synergy and death-triggered burn effects. These little fiends now serve not just as blockers or sac fodder, but as a win condition on their own—especially when paired with Raphael’s lifelink boost. Every dying devil becomes pain for the enemy and healing for me.

I’ve now included four versions of Ob Nixilis — yes, it’s a bit much, but each fills a unique role. This one Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted punishes card draw and bolsters removal. Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is still here too, classic devil support: fueling tokens and preventing opponents from healing the damage my demons and devils dish out. They don’t live long, but if timed right, their impact is massive.

I’ve also added some recursion (Oversold Cemetery) and a spicy alternate wincon in Liliana's Contract.

Some bigger demons were swapped out for stronger synergy or pure flavor—welcome Asmodeus the Archfiend, Balor, Kardur, Doomscourge, and others to the Hellegion.

Sadly, a few cards had to go — Imskir Iron-Eater, Archfiend of Sorrows, some regenerating skeletons, and a handful of artifacts are no longer marching with the legion.

I still have a few cards waiting on the bench—Burn Down the House, Rakdos Keyrune, Doom Whisperer, Overseer of the Damned, Skirsdag High Priest, Spawn of Mayhem, Breath of Malfegor — and I’ll be testing space for them soon.

In the long run, I’d love to add some heavier hitters and staples like Kindred Dominance, Altar of Shadows, Bontu's Monument, Krav, the Unredeemed, Rite of Belzenlok, Demonic Tutor, Sudden Spoiling, Grave Pact, Dark Prophecy, Attrition, Vilis, Broker of Blood, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Pestilence Demon, Lord of the Void, Archfiend of Depravity, and especially Karlach, Fury of Avernus.

We’ll see where the Hellegion marches next—and who joins, or falls, along the way.

Coward_Token on The Reunion At Last - Sephiroth V1

6 months ago

You've probably already thought of Grave Pact. Cut No Mercy?

Conjurer's Closet and stuff like Malakir Rebirth  Flip if you want multiple emblems, but probably too gimmicky. There's even Sword of Hearth and Home since OWA flies

Kaervek, the Punisher janky recursion/advantage

hyalopterouslemur on Beta Brackets Update Today

6 months ago

DemonDragonJ: Yeah, my loathing of five-color goodstuff mostly comes from how this is supposed to be the color-restricted format: I have a Ghave, Guru of Spores deck, but if I want to make a Rith, the Awakener or Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch* deck, I have to lose the black cards (and probably the entire Aristocrats theme). So, no more Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. No more Pitiless Plunderer. No more Diabolic Intent. No more Blood Artist or Bastion of Remembrance. I do gain red, though, so say hello to Purphoros, God of the Forge. Rhys the Redeemed or Nemata, Primeval Warden would be even more restricted, as token decks go.

My removal also suffers, since red removal is surprisingly bad in this format. (Seriously, I'd argue white has the best removal, followed closely by black. Green's a distant third, and red and blue are tied for fourth: Red has more removal, blue has better removal.)

And it happens between Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Betor, Ancestor's Voice, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Beledros Witherbloom, and Licia, Sanguine Tribunefoil too. All are lifegain, but only Oloro can use Absorb and Drogskol Reaver. Only Licia can use Lightning Helix and Searing Meditation. Only Betor can use Beledros Witherbloom. Ayli and Witherbloom are even more restricted, especially since Witherbloom can't use the color that's best at lifegain.

But that's the whole point. When I choose a Commander, I make a lot of choices regarding deck construction. I can't say "Cathars' Crusade would be good in my Animar, Soul of Elements deck." because, well, it wouldn't; it would be illegal. That forces me to pick, I don't know, Ivy Lane Denizen or Forgotten Ancient instead. Corpsejack Menace? You mean Branching Evolution? (Aside from the name, why is Corpsejack Menace anyway? I actually wouldn't mind if it were just because that's Simic's thing.) And so on down the line.

Five-color goodstuff opts to ignore all of this. And right now, there are more five-color decks in EDH than in Legacy.

Eh, I can always just hate them out with Primal Order.

That's my rant about how too much five-color goodstuff is bad for the game.

Anyway, I play Aura Shards and Seedborn Muse in a lot of decks too. Aura Shards is really oppressive in a token build, or even a reanimator build. Seedborn Muse is interesting because she's either overpowered (anything , token builds, Yeva, Nature's Herald) or just a fancy Village Bell-Ringer without the Splinter Twin combo. I have to go through my decks now and see which ones have four or more game changers.

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