Griselbrand

Legendary Creature — Demon

Flying, lifelink

Pay 7 life: Draw seven cards.

Legality

Format	Legality
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (42)

StopShot on In your opinion: what was …

23 hours ago

What came before the first Commander product.

The first Commander product, Commander 2011, came out after New Phyrexia, with the Scars of Mirrodin block being infamous for creating the keyword Infect which is an incredibly powerful keyword in the Commander format, but can be argued was not designed with Commander in mind because of how it was obviously meant for 20 life formats and has never shown up as a keyword in any base commander product since its debut.

What came after the first Commander product.

Just like how powerful infect could be, after Scars of Mirrodin came the Innistrad block which would create Commander staples still used today like Blasphemous Act, Craterhoof Behemoth and Laboratory Maniac, but could you argue WoTC pushed these cards for Commander players? I don't think what Commander staples printed in a set is an apt indicator of what influence Commander has on any given Standard set, after all Avacyn Restored released Griselbrand, a card WoTC would never have created in today's Standard sets given how much the Commander format plays a role in their current set design.

How the Griselbrand standard may answer this question.

I think a more appropriate metric is to apply what I would dub the Griselbrand standard when assessing Standard sets. The Griselbrand standard is cards or mechanics that would be fine in a 20 life 1v1 block constructed format but would obviously have no business ever being in a marketed product for a 40 life multiplayer format, with other examples of the Griselbrand standard being infect, Serra Ascendant, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, etc. Not every Standard set needs a Griselbrand-like card or mechanic to determine if the Commander format played a role in its set design. Instead, it should be asked, at what point did the Griselbrand standard die in MTG Standard set design to make way for the Commander format? I feel this is a more appropriate question to ask to determine when Commander started to take effect on Standard set design, and I'm curious to hear what set you think would best mark this transition into the Standard sets we see today.

Bookrook on Pattern Recognition #352 - Momir …

4 months ago

berryjon thanks! I swear I’m not a WOTC employee and had no clue that this event was going to start. I played a game where I got pretty much the best stuff possible. I got Dinrova Horror into Toxril, The Corrosive into Griselbrand into Blazing Archon. My opponent just conceded at that point. I was looking for more of the Momir strategy than raw gameplay. Don’t get me wrong, I love that you made an entire article with over a half hour of gameplay just on my request, thank you. Do you know any strategy that helps you win more matches? “I’ll take the murderous rider because I’m a bastard.” That quote will inspire me forever.

DarkKiridon on monoblack commander building help!

10 months ago

Personally I don't think I can help you with the mono black space which is a shame because I've always wanted to make a K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth deck ( because my last name is Kirk), but not sure how I would start going about it. Don't think I'm "intelligent" enough to pilot one.

If you haven't yet, you can try Massacre Girl's EDHrec page.

Also came here to tell you that Griselbrand isn't legal in EDH/Commander (Unless you playgroup doesn't care about banned cards).

RockIV on monoblack commander building help!

10 months ago

hi everyone im building a monoblack commander deck, and im a little lost on how to make it functional.

Rocks monoblack commander

this is my deck, i tried to get the best monoblack cards that i have. but i feel the deck is not well builded.

i have some good cards that i didnt add. I have some reanimator deck posibilities , but i dont know if adding them would be a good move. Animate Dead, Buried Alive, Entomb, Exhume, Griselbrand, Reanimate, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Entomb

i have other options that i dindt choose i have some zombie lord type cards, but i feel i dont have that many zombies to make them functional.

what do you guys think? should i add the reanimator type cards?, or maybe take out some removal for other cards, what changes would you guys do to this commander?

ty for reading

Icbrgr on Hilarious whiff and miss

10 months ago

I was playing a casual game with my brother yesterday essentially playtesting our modern decks with some new cards we got before going to our LGS next week... he is playtesting jeskai control and im playing my Hollow One brew.

here is the story.... we were in the end game (passed turn 5) and i successfully resolve Goryo's Vengeance bringing back Griselbrand.... after attacking my brother is in bolt range and all 4 copies of my Lightning Bolt are still in my library... i activated Gris twice bringing myself down to 1 life... drew 14 cards and not a single lightning bolt.... lost next turn on the crack back to Kaheera, the Orphanguard.

Im not sure if im salty or impressed.

SteelSentry on How is Black Market Connections …

1 year ago

On the topic of Black wanting you to play more black, that's definitely something Rosewater has mentioned. Not just a lot of pip-intensive cards on both the cheap and expensive ends from Black Knight to Griselbrand, but black has a lot of cards that want you to play more swamps; a lot more swamps. Dread Presence, Crypt Ghast, Hecatomb, Cabal Coffers. From the Black episode of his podcast:

---

And the idea is that black kind of likes to encourage you to play more black. That black is the color that kind of says, “Hey,” you know, that tempts you. Like, you know, the way I always joke about it is, imagine black is trying to, like, you know, pitch itself to the—to the Magic users. “Hey, Magic user, come here. Oh look, we can kill creatures easily, and oh look, we can do discard, and…” Kind of lures you with things that it can do.

And then when you’re there, it’s like “Oh, well, for just a little more black you can have a Black Knight, or you can…” You know. Like, it just sort of—it does the soft sell, and at some point you’re like, “Oh, well my swamps produce more black mana? I should just play mono-black.”

And I like to think that black has the—has the best salesmanship. That like, it slowly lures you in, and maybe makes you want to play more black. And I always consider that kind of a fun—like, that’s kind of black’s nature, that black will like lure you in with some splash, and then before you know it you’re just playing mono-black, like “How’d I get here?”

legendofa on Why Do Some Players Keep …

1 year ago

wallisface I'm not sure comparing the overall best nonlegendary creatures to all creatures is quite the right comparison. Legendary creatures in general tend to be more powerful than non legendary creatures in general. By comparing the average strength of legendaries to the average strength of all creatures (which may actually be impossible to standardize and express numerically), I think it's reasonable to say that legendary creatures as a whole are better than nonlegendary creatures as a whole. Atraxa, Grand Unifier, Griselbrand, Omnath, Locus of Creation, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Muxus, Goblin Grandee, and Leovold, Emissary of Trest are a small sampling of legendary creatures that have influence (or bans) in multiple formats.

Some individual nonlegendary creatures might break the ceiling of most legendary creatures, but the general floor for legendaries is much higher, and the ceiling is comparable if not also higher. Competitive formats are built around "the best" cards, but there are a lot more nonlegendary creatures by number and proportion that aren't "the best".

ViscountVonSausageRoll on Temporary Graveyard

1 year ago

I can tell when you played xD

And hey, don't sell yourself short, casual 60 card is the epitome of magic.

Budget Suggestions (≤ $10): Griselbrand because he's awesome, Dark Ritual because speed, Go for the Throat or alternatively: I see you're running Bone Shredder. Perhaps considering replacing with Shriekmaw? He's less hardcastable, but he does throw himself into your graveyard in a hurry. Consider Buried Alive to fill the GY? Vampire Nighthawk has been replaced with Nighthawk Scavenger I know, the powercreeper has been powercrept.

Non-Budget Suggestions ($10+): Archon of Cruelty. I mean, read what it does. Right? That's ridiculous.
Recurring Nightmare It's pricey, but it's absolutely busted. (It sacs a dude and bounces to your hand as an additional cost) It never goes away.
Atraxa, Grand Unifier Honestly not my cup of tea, but she's very powerful. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Only because: It's just good in this deck. You're already running Liliana of the Dark Realms x2 and Coffers. Maybe find some heavily played ones?

Make Room: The most unfun part of coming back to any old deck. Well, Liliana Vess is just too expensive now days (even back then she was kinda pricey), but most of the time she ends up being a 5 CMC vampiric tutor at sorcery speed anyways. She never lives long.

Sorin Markov kind of falls under the same boat, at least in this deck imo. Usually by the time you can cast him, opponents aren't at 20 life anymore, so the appeal of "10 dmg" can be somewhat deceptive.

Anyways, welcome back, and I hope you enjoy yourself