Gravedigger
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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
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Penny Dreadful Legal
Pioneer Legal
Premodern Legal
Vintage Legal

Gravedigger

Creature — Zombie

When Gravedigger enters the battlefield, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Boxfish on Sheoldred, Rising Dead v2

5 months ago

TheSnuggleLord Great weekend here! Hope yours was as well, always fun to finish up some decks and get to test them out. After reading through this latest comment, I immediately realized some changes cards I should swap for ones that I was wanting to try that I, quite frankly, just forgot had already gotten here in the deluge of other TCGPlayer orders (thank God for the cart optimization, but holy hell it keeps my mailbox full).

So UPDATE 3.1: Swapped out Phyrexian Broodlings and Drudge Skeletons with Bloodflow Connoisseur and Crypt Rats.

I gotta say, I do love the broodlings. But saving that one mana is absolutely worth it. I might end up sideboarding them for now, just to see if there is a situation, I might want both in the deck. Although with the last few games, I don't think that'll be likely. With Drudge Skeletons, it just really comes down to hardly ever finding it worth it to save that one mana to block with them and regen. Crypt Rats gives me a bit of a nuke option for token decks and is a nice addition to the abilities Necrotic Ooze can access if the rats are sacked or just milled and aren't worth pulling out of the grave.

At the moment, I'm also testing having Unmarked Grave in place of Cling to Dust (a card a found myself using more often for draws than anything else, and can't really justify an entire slot just for one card draw per game), Rune-Scarred Demon in place of Harvester of Souls, Viscera Seer in place of Okiba Reckoner Raid  Flip, Buried Alive in place of Gravedigger (With all the graveyard pulls I have, one to the hand for a 4 drop didn't seem to justify its place, even if it can be pulled itself from the grave), and Haunted Crossroads in place of Unhinge (a card that just never seems to have a good time to use for the cost).

Haha, yeah, I've been learning the hard way about the struggles of mono black against graveyard hate. The game's I've done the best against the deck with it really have come down to just trying to maintain board control. Something that has been hard against token heavy decks, but I'm hoping having another answer, in the form of Crypt Rats, will help with that side of things at least. I'm for sure going to keep my eye on the new cards next month. Excited to see if anything would fit in this deck, or any of the others I've started working on.

I honestly had no clue so many of the cards had art that directly tied into lore from the mtg universe. I spilled down a small Rabit hole after reading your comment on that, and holy heck it's so cool to see. Really does add an entire new layer to consider when deck building!

MagicMarc on More cards like Phyrexian Reclamation

9 months ago

Maybe the closest other ones are Malevolent Awakening and Soul of Innistrad. Malevolent Awakening is also conditional with a creature sacrifice instead of paying life or discarding a card but can be used at instant speed. Soul of Innistrad has a steep mana cost but you did not say if that was a limiting factor.

If creature sacrifice as part of the cost is okay and you have a sacrifice outlet then there are creatures which can do the same thing if you have 2 copies of them to create a cycle like with Relentless Dead, Dutiful Attendant, Entomber Exarch, and Gravedigger.

Finally, you can combo lifegain from ETB/LTB with these two cards; Veinwitch Coven and Courier Bat to do the same thing.

I don't think Red has any graveyard recovery. Red's tactic is more like Sneak Attack or similar.

Harbinger69 on Commander But You Never Play Your Commander

9 months ago

SipAndPlayGames

Yeah, so you can either cast your commander for 7 mana and watch it get countered or otherwise let it go to the bin, then pull off one of the shitty Gravedigger effects to set up a sneak attack, or tutor early game for something like Command Beacon and set up earlier. Another alternative to beacon is Netherborn Altar, which I actually like more (also why the tutor mages are in the list). It's clunky and I love it.

TheoryCrafter on Liesa or Ravos?

1 year ago

Ranking your choices:

At #3 Ravos: a reusable Gravedigger with flying. On the upside though, unlike Liesa, your opponents won't get back their creatures if you somehow get control of them. And with that boost and toughness yer better off playing Arvad the Cursed which would at least make your Commander harder to kill

At #2 Vona: While destroying nonland permanents feeds well into your strategy, I'm just not sure paying 7 life is justifiable when half the time firing a Vindicate at the same permanent would do better. Especially when you don't have Font of Agonies in your deck.

At #1 Liesa: A stronger flyer than Ravos but unless you have Leyline of Anticipation you're still in the same boat as you do with Ravos in terms of getting creatures back on the battlefield.

My Suggestions: While Athreos, God of Passage isn't a flyer, its indestructibility makes it a better mainstay and hits at your opponents' life if they refuse to allow you to put your creatures back in your hand.

Another to consider is Circu, Dimir Lobotomist if you can keep him on the battlefield the mill into exile will eventually pay for itself. Granted, his 2nd ability is useless in Commander unless the card says multiple copies are allowed including, but not limited to, Shadowborn Apostle. However of the five listed here this is the closest to what you are doing with your deck.

Thank you for reading me out. I hope this helps. Happy Hunting!

trippy_mcfly on Mono Black Death Plague

1 year ago

Cool deck. I'm here to offer some suggestions after you pointed me here from your other deck.

Tergrid, God of Fright  Flip is a powerful commander and generates insane advantage in 4-player games. Let's take a look at this deck and see what it is doing, and then streamline it. I see three main objectives of this deck:

1 - RAMPING.

This is pretty much a primary objective of any commander deck, since if your only source of mana is playing one land per turn, you're going to fall way behind. Your main ramping plan for this deck is to double lands, using Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, Caged Sun, Crypt Ghast, Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Nirkana Revenant. This is super cool and probably a pretty strong plan. We want to try to maximize this plan. How can we do that?

All of these cards want you to load up on basic swamps, which you did. We want to make sure we are playing a basic swamp every turn. Solemn Simulacrum is definitely a worthwhile add. Liliana of the Dark Realms is very helpful and I'm happy to see her in this deck. Often times Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is a worthwhile add for decks with Cabal Coffers. I think it is worth it here. Although you yourself don't have many non-swamps that will benefit from Urborg, you are likely going to be stealing people's lands with Tergrid, and counting those as swamps will be helpful for you.

How else can we keep getting swamps onto the battlefield to power up this strategy? Card draw. The more cards in your hand the higher the chance you will have a swamp to play every turn. Night's Whisper and Sign in Blood are great for this. Disciple of Bolas is solid too. Dread Presence loves swamps and is a must-add. I would add Phyrexian Arena, which is great card draw for you. Necropotence, one of the craziest cards in the game, is also a worthwhile addition. Not as good but worth consideration are Yawgmoth's Bargain and Null Profusion. Two other well-known card draw machines in black are Dark Confidant and Bolas's Citadel. You have some costly spells in your deck, so they might be a bit of a liability. If you want to include them, Sensei's Divining Top pairs very well with them.

Just because you are mainly ramping with land doubling doesn't mean there isn't room for other ramping as well. You have Black Market, which I have never personally tested, but is probably decent. Black has some explosive, single-turn ramp with Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Culling the Weak. These cards would do well in letting you get out expensive plays ahead of schedule, mainly Tergrid. Artifact ramp is also great in any deck. I would add Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Jeweled Lotus, and Jet Medallion. I would consider adding even more artifact ramp as well. Getting down Tergrid as early as turn 1 or 2 is just so good.

2 - SACRIFICE AND DISCARD.

Once you have Tergrid out, sacrifice and discard become powerful effects that let you take control of your opponent's permanents. This is insane advantage and if left unchecked for very long will win you the game. Syphon Mind while Tergrid is in play not only puts you up 4 cards in comparison to each opponent (since they each went down 1 and you went up 3), but also could net you 3 more cards if they discard permanents that then go onto your field. That's insane. Let's take a look at all the cards you have that enable Tergrid:

SACRIFICE:

Archfiend of Depravity - A one-sided, almost board wipe that repeats every turn? Pretty solid. Getting the creatures onto your field with Tergrid? That is nuts. The one issue is that some commander decks won't have that many more than 2 creatures on the field when this comes down, and if they do, then this card and/or Tergrid become a big target, but if you survive the turn, this and your commander will put you ahead so far.

Butcher of Malakir - Similar to Archfiend. If this guy sticks around for a bit, you're going to be at such an advantage. It costs 7 which is a bit high and very vulnerable to something like Mana Drain, so I wouldn't be super upset if you cut it, but it is great with Tergrid.

Gatekeeper of Malakir - This guy only costs three and steals a creature if Tergrid is on the field. Love it.

Phyrexian Obliterator - If someone is dumb enough to deal damage to this guy, then you're getting a lot of their permanents! I don't love this card for you. People will just leave it alone and then you just hit someone for 5 each turn or leave up a blocker, which is a bit slow.

Sheoldred, Whispering One - Similar to Archfiend. If this guy sticks around for a bit, you're going to be at such an advantage. It costs 7 which is a bit high and very vulnerable to something like Mana Drain, so I wouldn't be super upset if you cut it, but it is great with Tergrid.

Torment of Hailfire - Expensive and liable to be countered but if it resolves then you will get a ton of value!

Dictate of Erebos - I like it. Let's say you have 10 mana. Cast Tergrid, then somebody goes to kill him. Flash this card in. Now, you at least get 3 of your opponents creatures on the way out!

Grave Pact - I like this as well. You can't flash it in, but if you put this card on the field, then people will have to kill this before Tergrid comes down or else end up giving you their creatures.

The Eldest Reborn - Immediate impact with Tergrid on the field, pretty good value on its own. Definitely a keep.

DISCARD:

Liliana, Defiant Necromancer - You need to flip her first, but once flipped she is great.

Syphon Mind - Great.

Torment of Hailfire - Expensive and liable to be countered but if it resolves then you will get a ton of value!

The Eldest Reborn - Immediate impact with Tergrid on the field, pretty good value on its own. Definitely a keep.

... and that's it. We need more cards that are busted with Tergrid! The following would be great adds to your deck: Smallpox, Dark Deal, Liliana's Triumph, Plaguecrafter, Soul Shatter, Mire in Misery, Innocent Blood, Vona's Hunger, Death Cloud, Burglar Rat, Demon's Disciple, Fleshbag Marauder, Elderfang Disciple, Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Bottomless Pit, Fraying Omnipotence, Rotting Rats, Cunning Lethemancer, Merciless Executioner, and a personal favorite: Smokestack.

Notice that all of these cards are typically even trades (ex: I play Elderfang Disciple, going down 1 card, everyone else goes down 1 card.) These aren't great on their own since it costs you mana to do so, and, in the case of discard and sacrifice, the opponent gets to choose an asset that they are least upset to get rid of, making them actually below-even trades. However, they become insanely busted with Tergrid. (ex: I play Elderfang Disciple, going down 1 card in hand for a measly 1/1. But, I get a Carpet of Flowers, basic plains, and Birds of Paradise on my field? Now that's an amazing play). Therefore, the ones that are recurring are better, since they give you more chances to make sure they resolve while Tergrid is on the field. (ex: I play Cunning Lethemancer and my opponent kills Tergrid. Later in the turn I play Tergrid again, albeit for 7 mana now due to commander tax. Next turn, with the Lethemancer trigger, I get some great value!)

Here are some other cards that work well with Tergrid, although they only target one opponent: Sudden Edict, Hellish Rebuke, Pharika's Libation, Diabolic Edict, Duress, Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, Chain of Smog, Despise, and Divest.

Notice that in the absence of Tergrid, these cards are negative trades. They set you and an opponent back by putting you both down one card. The other two opponents are left untouched. Seeing them early in the game is not particularly helpful since you'd rather spend the early game ramping. They are great and slowing down whoever is winning, but at the expense of your own board. There is a trade-off here, since these can be leveraged politically. "Each opponent discards a card"" can give you tons of value with Tergrid on the field but makes you 3 enemies. "Target opponent discards a card"" gives you not as much value in general but you can leverage this to make someone else the common enemy or make a deal with a player ("if you don't attack me next turn I won't target you with my Duress"). Things like Duress can also target specific cards, which is an added benefit for you and an added detriment to the opponent.

I would run some from each category, probably with an emphasis on maximizing Tergrid value.

3 - DRAIN AND GAIN.

Blood Artist and other cards gain you one life and drain your opponent one life. This is cool and certainly an interesting archetype of a deck. It doesn't synergize with Tergrid particularly well. I personally would not use this strategy at all in this deck and maximize the Tergrid plan. However, Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond is an awesome combo and an unexpected way to finish the game for you while people are busy dealing with Tergrid. If you want to keep this, I would trim some of the other cards, such as Exsanguinate and maybe Underworld Dreams.

So, now that we know what the 3 objectives are, and have maybe cut the third, we have a bit more of a plan. I've suggested adding some card draw and mana rocks for ramp, and tons more Tergrid synergy. What are the cuts? I would say anything that doesn't fit in with the objectives, so basically any card I haven't mentioned already, unless it gives great value on its own. I'll go through some:

Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are incredible cards and provide great value. Diabolic Tutor, Scheming Symmetry, and Shrouded Lore are worse tutor effects and should probably be moved to the maybe board. Sudden Spoiling is interesting and stops somebody from comboing off on their turn so is probably worth it. Reanimate is good value and should probably stay, same with Animate Dead. Demonic Vigor protects creatures but not Tergrid, unless you want him going to your hand. This is risky but probably fine. I could see him getting countered and then removed from your graveyard which puts you back majorly, but I could also see you avoiding commander tax. Worth looking into. Undying Evil is strictly better since it has instant speed and keeps him on the field. We might also want to protect him with Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots

Coffin Queen is too expensive and vulnerable. Drana, Liberator of Malakir is cool for aggressive strategies and can help you close out the game but is out of place in this deck. Falkenrath Noble is an overcosted Blood Artist. Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a value creature that if you can get his ETB many times, which your deck can't really do. Grave Titan isn't worth it in this deck. Gravedigger is fine but might be a bit slow. Helldozer is probably not worth it unless you want to pick on somebody lol. Korlash, Heir to Blackblade is not worth it. Massacre Wurm might not be worth it. Nighthowler isn't worth it. Opposition Agent is always a good add. Phage the Untouchable is too slow and vulnerable. Sepulchral Primordial might not be worth it. Skirsdag High Priest is probably not worth it. Syr Konrad, the Grim is not worth it. Wight of Precinct Six is not worth it. Tainted Strike is not worth it. Lashwrithe is not worth it. That's about 15 cuts right there.

Props to you for building Tergrid and having an interesting ramp strategy. I think if you go more in on the Tergrid plan by cutting unrelated cards for cards that ramp or are good with Tergrid then your deck will be a lot more reliable. After all, the most fun part of this deck is going off with Tergrid!

Hope this helps.

privatepook on Processing Throat Pain with Yuriko

1 year ago

Nice, multimedia! That has me off to a good start.

UPDATED ADDITIONS:

Brainstorm

Sol Ring

Command Tower

Triton Shorestalker

Treasure Cruise

Consign / Oblivion

Triton Shorestalker

Krydle of Baldur's Gate

Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar

Bolas's Citadel - I just like playing this card when I have the mana to pull it off.

Overwhelmed Apprentice - A placeholder until I can get a few more powerful scry cards.

UPDATED CUTS:

Temple of the Dragon Queen - I honestly don't know how this even got in here, but "Bye, Dragonicia!" along with 2 basic swamps and 1 island.

Hoard Robber

Gravedigger

Bone to Ash -- Wasn't suggested, but I honestly never use it when it's in my hand anyway...

Zombie Ogre

Scion of the Swarm

Still on the lookout for some others, especially Fallen Shinobi cause I want a set for my Modern Ninja deck as well!

multimedia on Processing Throat Pain with Yuriko

1 year ago

Hey, you're welcome.

The first cuts to consider are Temple of the Dragon Queen and 3 other lands since 40 lands is too much. In place of some lands add some lower CMC scry/draw such as Brainstorm, Augury Owl, Preordain, Telling Time. The idea is these cards can replace lands because they're one or two mana, easy to cast, that can help to find lands if you need a land, find/draw other cards or most important help to setup the top card of your library for Yuriko. The scry 3 of Augury Owl is nice since it's a flying creature to return to your hand to cast again.

The more lower CMC creatures who have evasion or can give itself or another creature evasion you add the better the creature base will be for Yuriko. There's a large amount of budget creatures to choose from therefore there's really no reason to play many nonNinja creatures who don't have evasion.

Some other cards to consider cutting:

A more complex budget interaction is Cunning Evasion or Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar with Yuriko and other Ninjutsu. You keep bouncing Ninjas who are blocked and then Ninjutsu them while still in combat. This is helpful with Yuriko and other Ninjas because they will not always have evasion. Any Ninja who has a trigger when it does combat damage to a player such as Ingenious Infiltrator benefits from being able to be blocked then bounced and then Ninjutsu while still in combat, before combat damage step.

Some other cards to consider adding later on that are a little more expensive price, but still budget:

  • Arcane Adaptation: this makes all creatures you control a Ninja as well as a Rogue. This is a powerful effect because then each creature who does combat damage to an opponent triggers Yuriko.
  • Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire: it's a Rogue who's boast ability can tutor for any card and put that card on top of your library. You can activate boast at any time after Varragoth is declared as an attacker thus you can set up the top card of your library in combat before Varragoth dies if that is what is going to happen and before you do combat damage to a player.
  • Fallen Shinobi: Ninja with a potentially busted trigger when you do combat damage to an opponent, but the power of it depends on what cards you exile from the top of your opponent's library.

R492 on Zombies in your mocha star

1 year ago

Hey, I'm here from my warrior deck as you've requested. Since I'm unsure of the format I'll presume this to be a casual build, if this is more of a competitive modern or other format of deck then my knowledge is definitely too limited to be of assistance here. As it is I used to have a lot of fun with casual zombies when I first got into MTG and Diregraf Captain was one of my favourite cards. I think zombies have always been at their best in either mono B or Dimir so my first suggestion would be to remove white from the build. Wayward Servant is a neat idea but I just don't see enough recursion here to fully utilize it unless the plan is getting 2 relentless dead and using them to recur each other on death but that seems a bit risky without some tutors. I really liked Gravedigger myself, he's a simple creature but that's kinda what zombies are, and getting a chain of gravediggers fishing each other out of the yard continuously while offering protection to anything else on your board that might be targeted is surprisingly powerful.

Likewise Time to Reflect is thematically cool but slightly narrow in scope for removal, and Mortify has been upgraded even in standard. Murderous Rider is not only great removal but also a zombie after, which means it also absorbs the bonuses you have littered throughout this deck to become a massive healing machine, and if you specifically want removal that can target enchantments Feed the Swarm does it for cheaper while even having a name that loosely matches the deck!

Next I'm noticing an Evolving Wilds in the mana base when Fabled Passage exists as a direct upgrade to it. Then again leaving white behind would mean you probably don't need either of them, which means there may be better options to streamline your mana base. I also notice a lot of colourless mana, which is perfectly good so long as you aren't hurting for your black and blue sources. I would tend to run a couple more swamps and islands myself just to make sure a T1 Choked Estuary has a target and perhaps replacing the white sources and Rogue's Passage with some more basics could work. Rogue's passage is nice moreso if you have large creatures that can get through for significant damage, generally as a zombie player you'll want to just have enough board advantage to simply swing in and spending 4 mana to sneak a single one of them through winds up being too expensive.

Here are a few other cards for your consideration:
- Endless Ranks of the Dead
- Field of the Dead
- Open the Graves
- From Under the Floorboards to synergise with Cryptbreaker
- Dreadhorde Invasion

Hopefully this gives you some ideas, make sure to mark down what format you're playing in and give your deck tags to help people find it easier! Good luck, I'll be around if you need and if you're on the Discord server feel free to @ me with anything else that comes to mind

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