Welcome back to the final part of the upgrade blogs for Modern Horizons 3, looking at Graveyard Overdrive. This deck isn’t a reanimation graveyard style deck, as the name might suggest. It is a Delirium style deck caring more about the types of cards in graveyards.
I'll try to be quick here, but skip to the next paragraph if you don't want a rules dive. A card's definition is broken down into types, supertypes and subtypes. These are found on a card type line, just under the artwork of a card (at least for normal bordered cards). Supertypes are Basic, Legendary, Snow, Ongoing, and World. The last two you might not have seen much, and World has some extra rules around there can only be one world type out at once. There are too many Subtypes to list, but these follow on from the - on the type line. But what we care about most in this deck are card Types. These are Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, Land, Planeswalker, Kindred (Tribal on older cards), Instant, Sorcery and the newer Battle. There are 4 more, but you won't encounter these unless you play some different magic variants, such as Planechase and Vanguard.
Deck Overview
Let's have a quick look at Disa the Restless, who is the commander for this deck. Disa has the Legendary Supertype (the type of creature) and the Subtypes of Human and Scout.
Why do we care about this? Well, Disa is all about the Lhurgoyf life and the most famous one is Tarmogoyf. Tarmogoyf gets bigger depending on the number of types in grayards. Wizards did Tarmogoyf dirty, though and didn't even reprint it properly, but instead made it into a Token. There is a cheeky combo with Disa and Hermit Druid if you build your deck right. First, you need to take out all the basics, so Hermit Druid can mill your entire deck. Then you get to return all your Lhurgoyf with Disa's trigger, make sure to pack some Changelings to get more free Creatures. Now if you have a Mountain and Forest with both Anger and Brawn in your graveyard you get Haste and Trample. Note this doesn't have to be basic lands so cards like Stomping Ground and Ziatora's Proving Ground work just fine. Alternatively, you can use the Flashback on Dread Return to bring something like Garna, the Bloodflame back to haste the team as well. Hopefully, you have enough power on the board to win the game, as you don't have a library at this point. Although a sneaky Endurance can save you, as it can be brought back to hand with Garna and another green creature to evoke it. That's enough of a sidequest, but it's time to get to the proper upgrades.
Table of Contents
Upgrade 1
The first card I am adding is Nyx Weaver. I did explain this in the intro, but all the cards I am adding are going to be more in line with a generic graveyard/self mill style strategy. With that said Nyx Weaver fits directly into this, having a self mill built in. Then, the secondary ability can bring back any key card you need. As per all the upgrades so far, I’m dropping a land. The explanation is the same, there are too many lands put into the precons so I think it's fine to cut one or two.
Upgrade 2
Accursed Marauder is also coming out. This is a spicy new addition to the Fleshbag Marauder line. This is the first one being 2 mana. Having the ‘non-token’ clause is very nice, as that usually stops these from being as effective. I am cutting it, though, as I don't think it’s where this deck is. If it were a more traditional grab and sac deck, i.e. reanimation/recursion and sacrifice deck, then I would be all over this card. But Graveyard Overdrive is more of a weird Kindred recursion deck instead.
Chainer, Nightmare Adept is the next card I'm adding. This lets you get extra value with your Lhurgoyf in your hand. Being able to discard them to recast a creature spell from your graveyard, and if you have Disa then that Lhurgoyf gets to come back for free. Just pure value. This can be any card, though, so in the late game, you can pitch extra land to rebuy your creatures. They also get haste as none of these have been cast from hand.
Upgrade 3
Bituminous Blast is the next being cut. This is just very expensive and not even guaranteed removal, only being able to deal 4 damage. The only saving grace is it has cascade, which means you get to exile cards from the top of your library until you get a non land card that costs less than the card with cascade. In this case, you will get a 4 mana cost card or less. While this is nice, I don't think it makes up for the initial cost to value. Which is why it's being cut.
Entomb is just a classic graveyard card. Instant speed: get anything. It allows for an instant speed Lhurgoyf. Not sure there is much else to talk about this card. Just a plain and simple way to tutor a Lhurgoyf and bring it back with Disa the Restless. Although it does come with my first honourable mention of Unmarked Grave.
This is Entomb's Modern cousin reflected in it being worse in almost every way. It’s sorcery speed, costs 1 more mana and can only get non legendary cards. But, having additional copies of effect just gives consistency, so even a strictly worse Entomb is still very good in Commander.
Upgrade 4/5
The bigger brother to those two is Buried Alive, with the reprint in MH3 bringing the price back down to reasonable levels. This gets any 3 cards and puts them into the Graveyard. With Disa this can put out 3 Lhurgoyfs. Alternatively, you can use the other card I've combined with this.
Timeless Witness - this will allow you to get 1 Lhurgoyf for free and then set you up to bring back any other card with the Externalize mechanic. If you want to bring back a non Lhurgoyf creature, you can use Graveshifter instead. I do feel like Wizards just dumps cards into the Commander precons just to get extra printings. While I don't hate this as it makes cards more accessible (or, in this case, a whole new card), it does affect the cohesion of the deck. Exterminator Magmarch is a prime example of this. The deck only has 4 cards that work with this, and I have already removed one. But even with 4 this isn’t enough to run 10+ effects to get the value. Which Exterminator Magmarch is. Just a straight 2 for 1 value and a pain to remove with the Regenerate ability. But you need more single target removal to make it work and be worth it.
Sawhorn Nemesis is a fun new card. One that I was on the fence about cutting. Dealing double damage to a select opponent reminds me of Saskia, the Unyielding. The main difference with Sawhorn is it can double the damage from any source, including your opponents. It also does it for permanents as well. I'm cutting it because it can make you an enemy if you target them with the ability in the early game. Especially if they weren't an obvious threat. Although, it can swing a game back if there is an archenemy that you need to take down. That’s why it's such a hard cut for me. I'm sad it's not a Lhurgoyf, as that would have made it easy to keep. I wouldn't fault you for keeping this card in, however.
Upgrade 6
Tortured Existence can let you do a bit of the graveyard shuffle. If you have 1 Lhurgoyf in hand and 1 in the graveyard, then for 1 black mana, you can discard the one from hand and return the one in the graveyard back to hand. With Disa out, you get the one you discarded onto the battlefield instead. You can turn this into a full combo if you combine it with Phyrexian Altar for the black mana and something like Blood Artist to drain your opponents. Ziatora, the Incinerator, is another card I would play if the deck ran more recursion. As it stands, I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing your boardstate. What made it harder to cut is that the ability is a ‘may’, and it's a 6/6 flying body. If you build the deck differently from what I suggested, it might be worth keeping Ziatora.
Upgrade 7/8
There are several Lhurgoyfs that haven't been included in the deck, but most of them aren't very good. Terravore is one of the better ones as it can scale past the limits of just types and get its power and toughness from the lands in all graveyards. Something that synergies and is also a nonbo (anti combo) is Life From the Loam. It synergies by having dredge. Dredge lets you replace any draw you would have by returning the card and then milling a certain amount in place. In this case, 3. So it's a nice way to self mill and works from the graveyard, so if you happen to have already milled, then you can start the self mill train. The nonbo comes from when you cast it. You return up to 3 lands to your hand, which in turn would reduce Terravore's power and toughness.
However, Life From the Loam is great with Fetchlands or sacrifice utility lands like Wasteland. Being able to bring them back for more utility over and over again. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a risky card. While an excellent mana dork, this can give your opponents card draw, as this deck isn’t guaranteed to have the biggest creatures. When it starts to get into the late game, and the graveyards are getting full, then you probably will. But, in the early and mid game, this can be a liability to just giving over the advantage. Also, this deck isn’t using big mana spells so you can't use all the mana. I would much rather see this in the Eldrazi deck, as it can use the mana and keep the biggest creature around. The Reaver Cleaver is another one I think should have been in the bigger Eldrazi deck. I get why, as this one is a money card as it has been popular since release with it only being in the Commander decks and The List if you are lucky. Wizards do like to spread out the reprint value through the decks, though.
Upgrade 9
Siege-Gang Lieutenant is a very weird card to see in the deck. I’m not sure why there is a ‘Goblins matter’ card in a deck that cares about Lhurgoyfs. While it is self sufficient with the Lieutenant's ability, providing you have your commander out, it just doesn't seem to provide the value. This should have been in a Kindred Goblins deck rather than this one. Speaking of Lhurgoyfs, I'm treating Nighthowler as an honorary one. This is because it is similar to Mortivore. It trades the regeneration for the Bestow ability, allowing you to turn Nighthowler into an enchantment. The nice thing about Bestow is you can't be two-for-one’d. If the creature you are trying to enchant is removed, then Nighthowler just enters the battlefield as a creature instead. You can turn any creature into a real threat. If you enchant Disa, you can start to swing for serious commander damage.
Upgrade 10
The last card I am adding is a real tech card. Being old enough to drink now (a whole 20 years), it might even be older than some of you. Ashes of the Fallen from Saviours of Kamigawa. The original intention for this card was to name Spirit and use it with the set mechanic of Soulshift. It allows you to bring back your non-spirit creatures. We are going to do something similar, but instead, we will name Lhurgoyf. This will allow Disa the Restless to bring back any creature with the first ability. If this card gets known and If Disa gets popular, then I expect this card to spike. As I already stated, it's an old card, without any reprints and from an unpopular set. There aren't too many copies floating around, compared to modern releases.
Ashes of the Fallen comes with an honourable mention of Conspiracy.
This gives the chosen creature type to every creature card you own, irrelevant of the zone. But as we only really care about the graveyard, Ashes does it for less mana and colourless. Archon of Cruelty is the final card to go. This one was hard as it is such a valuable card. Having a repeatable way to draw cards, being able to force a sacrifice on your opponents and discard. There is a reason why this is a great reanimation target in Legacy. That isn't even counting the drain. But there is a reason why it's in reanimation - paying the full cost for this card could be better. It makes it a fair-ish card when paying that much for the effects.
Final Thoughts
Graveyard Overdrive isn't exactly what I expected when the names were released. I expected someone closer to Plunder the Graves with Meren of Clan Toth. I'm not disappointed with the change, as it puts the limelight on a very underrepresented tribe and gives hope for more in the future. Wizards could have changed the name to something else.
The changes I made tried to align it more with standard graveyard decks. If you want to lean more into that, there are plenty of other Lhurgoyfs to add.
As I was talking to a friend, we found a new way to try Disa, which I like to call Chaos mode. Full Wheel effect. As we have red and black available to us, we get all the wheel effects that you want with the discard. Disa will let you bring back the Lhurgoyfs you discard, and with black available, you can add punishment for the draw with cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Megrim and value cards for the discard in Bone Miser and Waste Not. Just another way to build if you fancy it.
I want to thank you for staying with me and reading through my thoughts and ranting. Until the next time, good luck and have fun.
PS. All the card prices were accurate at the time of writing.
Extra Upgrades
If you’re still looking for upgrades, check out the higher priced suggestions below:
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