Liliana, Dreadhorde General
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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
Pioneer Legal
Vintage Legal

Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Legendary Planeswalker — Liliana

Whenever a creature you control dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), draw a card.

+1: Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

-4: Each player sacrifices two creatures.

-9: Each opponent chooses a permanent they control of each permanent type and sacrifices the rest.

StivoxiusPrime on Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest - Insect tribal

3 days ago

no One with the Kami wouldn't work no, only insects and insect tokens on my board :D

i just use a lot of cards to get my creatures back from the graveyard, i have like 6 cards for it but also 3 to get any card back so i hope i draw cards fast enough with Liliana, Dreadhorde General and some others i have to make sure i draw the good ones and then sac a bunch to get tokens and counters to then sac the tokens, to get mroe tokens to get mroe triggers and hopefully end the game before i run out of cards. :D

thank you for the info i hope it worked with the card link thingy :p

TheOfficialCreator on Card Analysis #1 - Dreadhorde …

2 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.

Massacar on Sheoldred's Drawn Out Apocalypse (Primer)

3 months ago

kalabocas3 Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots are already present in the deck to act as protection for her.

I've definitely considered adding Underworld Dreams, and will keep it in mind along with the Unraveler.

Currently there are ~18 ramp pieces in the deck already, 6 rocks, 2 lands, and a variety of other types of cost modifiers and mana sources that aren't as cleanly identified (such as Extraplanar Lens, Jet Medallion, and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth for some examples on the variety). So I agree that she's going to catch a lot of hate and probably face removal against most pods, but we should be able to pay that tax at least a few times.

The zombies themselves can actually synergize rather well with the draw theme (Undead Augur Cryptbreaker), in addition to providing meat shields to help with aggro decks and combo token fodder. While I agree that on the face of it, 7 zombies (and Liliana, Dreadhorde General as a producer) isn't much to look at, but considering the drawing power of the deck with tutors included there's a strong statistical odds of pulling several over the game. Plus 4 of those 7 primarily exist to help us make more zombie tokens.

After giving this deck a bit of time I will consider dropping the zombies (decks are always subject to change, and this list originally included even more zombies which I cut in favor of other optimal pieces) but for now I'm going to keep them since they can actually support her rather well.

Thanks for the input as always!

TheOfficialCreator on Carpe Noctem [Mono-Black Vampires]

3 months ago

You could take out Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief and put in something like Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, or Liliana, Dreadhorde General. Would be pretty good :)

77hi77 on Land Hate as a Defensive …

5 months ago

Thanks everyone! This is really valuable. Like I said earlier, this idea did come as a reaction (maybe an overreaction...) to control decks 1v1 and wanting to make them suffer like they've made me suffer. I see that it's difficult to pull off in a multiplayer format, but then, with only a handful of games in the format under my belt, EDH seems to be less about control and more about getting off to the races to get your wincon out as quickly as possible. I'll have me a rethink.

Squee_Spirit_Guide Dingus Egg is interesting! Down the line I'd like to add a few sources of Proliferate to the deck and see if I can bust out Liliana, Dreadhorde General's -9 consistently. Right now she's there as a draw engine and a token generator, but I think she'd be a fun wincon!

Epicurus I definitely see what you mean. In both those decks, at least a quarter of your cards are about destroying lands, and many of them destroy multiple lands. Then you have 10 cards dedicated to bringing lands back. I just have 10 cards that remove a single land at a time, and that's not going to do anything quickly enough to be of impact. Unless I pick on one player and decide to bully them, but that only sounds fun if that one player is playing blue control and I need to make it personal.

SO, my decision now is either to go all in on mana removal (including rocks, dorks, and lands) or to save that for another deck since this one is already so specific.

Idoneity on Tresserhorn’s Awesome Squad of Cool People

6 months ago

betomindslav - Thank you for the upvote and adulation! I toil much for uniquity amongst my strategies. As for this deck's draw, 'twould ideally be either a heinously quick Torpor Orb and Embercleave start to efface one of my foes, or a Caverns of Despair and any threatening walker. A board at parity is one in my favour.

The rest of the deck is either planeswalkers I enjoy, creature obliteration, or token production.

Thanks again and have a great day!

x12721 on Budget Death Doubling

8 months ago

You mentioned having issues with your mana - is that not having enough lands, or not having the right color lands? With the curve as high as it is, I would recommend adding more ramp in the form of either mana rocks or cards like Land Tax or Archaeomancer's Map. I would also focus on some more high impact and efficient cards to put you in a better position. While Krav and Regna are both powerful cards, you would be in a better position with something like Viscera Seer and Liliana, Dreadhorde General/Lolth, Spider Queen. Skullclamp is one of the most powerful cards you can play in a deck like this. I would also look at removing some cards like Sengir, the Dark Baron in favor of more versatile cards. While Sengir can quickly become big, it doesn't really do much else for your deck in conjunction with your commander.

Profet93 on The Black Machine

8 months ago

hootsnag

Let me know what you think of each suggestion...

Bitterblossom/Reassembling Skeleton + Contamination = Fun times

You really need more token production such as...

Grave Titan - ETB and attack token production

Liliana, Heretical Healer  Flip - Easy to trigger, creates a token to defend itself

Liliana, Dreadhorde General > Lili Ves - Static ability/draw, token production, removal and wincon

More Artifact ramp would help such as....

Mana Crypt, Mana Vault and Jeweled Lotus all put in work.

Additional Draw would really help like....

Syphon Mind - Cheap $, each opponent discard 1, you draw 3. Good value all around

Necropotence - When you need cards, you get cards.

Phyrexian Arena - Simple and easy

Read the Bones - Least impactful but the scry is really clutch

Various.....

Yawgmoth's Will - Best card black can buy. Don't sleep on this

Dismember - I've found it useful, I like the ability to kill most creatures with 1 mana

The Meathook Massacre - While unsure if this is the best fit, it seems to go well with your tokens. Plus, the lifegain helps offset some of black's lifeloss cards

Damnation - When things need to die

I have several ideas of cuts if you would like to hear them. Looking forward to your response

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