Open the Graves
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Tokens

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena 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
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Open the Graves

Enchantment

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

A_Strangled_Catfish on Empty Husks of a Blackened Throne

5 months ago

clayperce

Hello there. Thank you so much for your long list of suggestions, and no this is not spam. I deckcycled it for this exact purpose. Your knowledge of 5 being Ayara's second casting never even occurred to me which is crazy. Now that two people have suggested a Pitiless Plunderer, I'll probably put it on the next order. When I made the deck, this card was upwards of 20, and not all reprints I can keep up with.

Regarding 5-drops. Right now I'm thinking of cutting Banshee of the Dread Choir, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, Sauron, the Necromancer, Rescue from the Underworld, Syr Konrad, the Grim, and Open the Graves. Gray Merchant of Asphodel has won me too many games and I love him too much. Girder Goons is not 5 mana, because of blitz, and the double draw double ping has been really nice. Great Unclean One has also won me games (and for some reason is now the most expensive card in the deck tied with Lord Skitter, Sewer King?) Ogre Slumlord has been pretty good, especially since I can start pinging on opponent turns if any of their nontokens die. And I haven't seen Witch of the Moors in action enough to think about cutting it.

Open the Graves is the one I am most hesitant about but Ghoulish Procession looks like a good, cheaper alternative. Same with Syr Konrad, the Grim to Marionette Apprentice.

Decree of Pain is my only board wipe in this deck right now and I want at least one.

I like the addition of Ophiomancer especially since the price has plummeted, which i did not know.

Whenever I update decks, I always look at the cards I own, so I'm thinking a Xathrid Necromancer could fit in here pretty well, as well as Victimize as an alternative to Rescue from the Underworld. I also was thinking about cards like Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Grima Wormtongue, Beamsaw Prospector, Reassembling Skeleton, and maybe something like Starving Revenant or First-Sphere Gargantua as a replacement for Phyrexian Gargantua. Was also looking at Haunt of the Dead Marshes and Curse of Disturbance, though I'm not sure about the curse in a ping deck lol.

These are just my original thoughts. I'd love to hear what you think clayperce. I really enjoy this deck and want to keep working within it until I'm super happy with it.

P.S. Mortuary Mire has been really good but im down to switch out some other tap lands. I know I didn't touch on that much in this response.

wallisface on Modern Zombies

3 years ago

Some thoughts:

  • Cabal Stronghold is not a good card, and i’d suggest ditching it. As its not a swamp itself, you need it and 4 swamps in play (5 lands total) just to break even. You don’t even get positive returns until you have 6 lands in play, and at that point you’re already at the top of your curve. Meanwhile, all the time before then it can’t offer black mana (only colourless), so is just going to mess with your early game tempo.

  • Modern is a fast format, and has no real place for very high mana cards like Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Open the Graves - they cost too much mana, and are far too weak for the investment. I’d put Undead Warchief in this same bucket.

  • You’re missing some key zombies like Carrion Feeder, Gravecrawler, and Undead Augur

  • Ghoulish Procession feels very weak imo.

  • Fatal Push > Feed the Swarm. Feed is a sideboard card at best.

thefiresoflurve on Grimgrin - Needs your Help

3 years ago

Yylon Thanks for the info, graveyard dimir zombies sounds fun.

A few potential cuts, subject to your playtesting experience:

Dread Summons - sorcery speed, and the zombies come in tapped, so right away I'm not horribly impressed. I'd cut this unless your table runs incredibly heavy creature decks and you get upwards of 6 zombies from it consistently.

Similarly, Dark Salvation seems a bit too mana intensive for what it does, although I will admit I am biased because I like board wipes more than targeted removal (Esper gang).

All of your enchantments look really amazing. Open the Graves may be able to be cut, since it's a strictly worse version of Headless Rider in this deck.

Endless Ranks of the Dead is another maybe-cut, crazy as it sounds. I think this card is a bit win-more. It is really fun, though...

Similarly, Empty the Laboratory. If you have enough zombies on the field to make it impactful, you're probably already winning. It's also sorcery speed in a deck that sucks at giving haste.

Champion of the Perished can be cut. It isn't bad, but a vanilla 110/110 is just as easy to block as a 2/2.

All of this is, of course, barring any idiosyncrasies of your playgroups - maybe Champion of the Perished singlehandedly wins games for you. I think you have a really solid deck here, and just need to play some more and figure out what works in practice and what doesn't.

Happy building!

sdtech58 on I'm gonna cleave you

4 years ago

Need to get that overall CMC down and add more low-cost permanents. Gravecrawler, Relentless Dead, Cryptbreaker, Graveborn Muse, Headless Rider would be a few i'd recommend. I'd use Wonder instead of Eternal Skylord, as it will be easy to get Wonder to your graveyard. Ditch the high CMC Sorceries. If you're spending 5 or 6 mana on something, it needs to have the potential to significantly change the game. The only 2 cards you have at 5 CMC that I'd keep are Open the Graves and the Liliana walker. I'd try to get to 28 - 30 creatures. Consider Dimir Signet and Coldsteel Heart as additions for more ramp. Sorin doesn't fit the theme at all and he's high CMC.

Rivel on

4 years ago

mrweaselman on Walking Dead

4 years ago

Headless Rider is better here than Open the Graves and Lord of the Accursed is better than Graf Harvest, I would recommend running 3-4 of each. You can cut the enchantments, Risen Executioner because it's basically Lord of the Accursed, and Foulmire Knight. Go up one Death Baron for the deathtouch you're taking out, then you'll still have 8 sources with Diregraf Captain.

magicbike on blood for the blood god

4 years ago

Ayara, First of Locthwain ------ Bone Shredder Blood Artist---Dutiful Attendant

Ashnod's Altar -----Desecrated Tomb Skullclamp ---- Undying Malice Spawning Pit-----Commander's Sphere Open the Graves Vampiric Rites

Priest of Forgotten Gods Grim Haruspex

Strangelove on Shirei token

4 years ago

Hey Lucas_honorio_ !

Shirei was also my first commander deck. Its a really fun commander. Although she's a glass cannon, looping 1/1s is still my favorite. Here's my last budget build: Shirei/ Budget; and another that has a bunch of cards: Shirei/ Soft Stax [EDH].

You already have a lot of fun interactions, but you're gonna want consistency. I would play more draw and ramp, try to play almost exclusively low cmc, and only keep the best effects that are focused on your strategy. So -1 Open the Graves, -1 Genesis Chamber, etc... (you don't need tokens as much as you need sacrifice outlets and draw).

You want all your draw and ramp BEFORE Shirei hits the board. It'll help smooth the early game. Look for cards like Village Rites, Deadly Dispute, Plumb the Forbidden... pure gas to set up your wincon (Shirei).

My top includes are Sultai Emissary, Skullport Merchant, Fume Spitter, Mindless Automaton, Thoughtpicker Witch, Dusk Legion Zealot, and Carrion Feeder.

Pro tip: Expect to play some archenemy. This is a deck that's "taking turns" on everyone's end step and is very easy to disrupt by forcing out Shirei.

btw you can list shirei as your commander like so:

1x Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker *CMDR*
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