Open the Graves

Enchantment

Whenever a nontoken creature you control is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

Discussion (51)

MrKillStar on Abandon All Hope | Ayara, First of Locthwain

2 months ago

I see a lot of shiny cards! Love the deck "intro" :D

Instead of typing all the cards I would suggest, I got a similar deck, just with Syr Konrad, the Grim: For the Void, the idea of the deck, just like with Ayara, is to get creatures, kills them, ping opponents to death.. with few bonuses. Maybe you'll like some cards, I would definitely suggest Tortured Existence (even if it doesnt like working with Necropotence, because of the discarding into exile), with Desecrated Tomb to make a 1/1 black bat token with flying for at instant speed and since Ayara loves black creatures, its would be really good :D Black itself offers a lot of card draw to replace Necropotence.
I also wrote an explanation why I use every single card in the deck, if you would wonder why some stuff are even in there. :D Also if you would decide to give some feedback aswell, I would appreaciate it :P

Anyway, about some cards I would probably replace here:

1) Ugin, the Ineffable - making colorless cards cheaper is definitely nice, but most cards here are already cheap enough with a decent mono-black ramp, which just make it less effective 6 drop. Making tokens into card draw when they die is alright, but again, black has tons of way to generate tokens and card draw (also less synergy with Ayara, since those tokens arent black). His permanent removal is a little bit better for mono-black decks, but since it takes 2 turns to use that ability again (and killing Ugin in process) is slow, cards like Meteor Golem would be probably much more effective as a permanent removal, since it just targets any permanent no matter the color AND is a creature, so sac Meteor Golem and reanimate later. Also, Feed the Swarm.
2) Cemetery Reaper - there is only 5 other Zombie creatures (if I dont count tokens from Grave Titan,Army of the Damned and Open the Graves). Even with some zombies on board, +1/+1 is pretty small buff and Cemetery Reaper is just slow token generator.
3) Beseech the Queen - even for , you are forced to reveal the tutored card, which makes it pretty bad tutor and in my personal opinion, one of the worst tutors in mono-black. As much as I love BtQ art, its a big no from me. Just for , there is budget Diabolic Tutor that wont make you reveal the card you tutored for. Or, a bit more expensive, but mana cheaper and great in token decks: Diabolic Intent. BsQ also limits you by the number of lands you control, so its less effective in the early game.
4) Caged Sun - I know how the mana doubling is nice, but since it costs to get out, then wait a turn to get value out of it might be slow. I think tutoring for Cabal Coffers/Cabal Stronghold might be just faster and more effective. Similar problem with Gauntlet of Power, even if it costs less, it affects lands of the chosen color your opponents control too, which just might lead to some ugly moments :D Probably something like Mirage Mirror would be a good replacement, so you can make an additional copy of Cabal Coffers. Another one could be Pawn of Ulamog, since you have plenty of creatures and those 0/1 Eldrazi tokens could help you with ramp.

Some more cards that could be nice:

1) Piper of the Swarm - cheap creature that buffs some of your other rats and can make rat tokens for cheap aswell, with mind control effect too. There are some really cool Ayara decks with rat tribal aswell.
2) Clackbridge Troll - I pretty like this card since I first saw it... its big ugly troll that does a lot of stuff, forcing your opponent to sac a creature to give you 3 life and 1 card, ooorrrr you the troll hits them! :D
3) Songs of the Damned/Bubbling Muck - both are pretty good to give you a lot of mana to cast a some big stuff during a single turn.
4) Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - this is definitely a cool card from the last set, giving either Ayara or any other creature important at the moment "protection" or just use it as a land if needed. With Vilis on board, it also draws you 2 cards for at instant speed.

elyria on Teysa's Rebirth

2 months ago

Open the Graves would be pretty amazing in this. Sheoldred, Whispering One would help with recursion.

Epicurus on Dude's Tribute

2 months ago

MichaelGfast, like the description says, this is just a tribute. The main focus is just to make sure to keep it stylistically the same (i.e. aggro zombie lord style). Open the Graves is certainly within that style, but I find that Endless Ranks of the Dead accomplishes the same goal faster, cheaper and more efficiently.

MichaelGfast on Dude's Tribute

2 months ago

Also I read the Description of the deck so you probably will not take suggestion but a great card would be Open the Graves

steeplejack on Vito, drainer of balls ($50)

4 months ago

Nice deck. Maybe Open the Graves, you never know if you may need more fuel. Also, I saw that Strands of Night was in your maybeboard. You might want to put that card in your main deck as it is a great defense card for getting a Minion of Wastes or some other big critter in your graveyard out to block a Blightsteel Colossus or some other threat.

steeplejack on Athreos Apostlypse!

4 months ago

I like the deck. Maybe Open the Graves for powering your Westvale Abbey when you kill all creatures. Maybe another card to consider Elbrus, the Binding Blade  ^Flipfor a hidden demon effect.

BRG24 on Pioneer Pingers/Sac/Grave interaction

5 months ago

Cool deck. You might want to consider either Zulaport Cutthroat or Bastion of Remembrance as more aggressive payoffs for all your sacrificing, at the moment you seem to be relying almost entirely on Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Open the Graves as win cons. I would recommend that you remove some of the cards that don’t directly help your sacrificing game plan like Cultivate and Stab Wound, and replace them with either more cards that will help your main plan or some removal/interaction. Hope that this is helpful for you.

Phostration on Zombie

5 months ago

Call to the Grave to cause opponents to remove creatures continually (plus it gets rid of hexproof and indestructible creatures). Open the Graves would let you gain zombies if any of your own(non token) zombies happen to die. You could also add some normal removal such as Hero's Downfall. Liliana, Dreadhorde General could provide creature gen as well as card draw. Instead of having 4 Rooftop Storm, you could go down to 1 or 2 and add some tutor spells, since if you draw more than one it becomes a redundant card. Rhystic Tutor is cheaper, but Diabolic Intent and Beseech the Queen are slightly better but cost more. God-Eternal Bontu is nice to have especially if you have tokens to sacrifice for card draw.

Sorry I only suggested black cards!