Graveborn

Over Halloween, they spoiled 5 cards from the upcoming Graveborn collector deck. Didn't find out about it until I finally got around to listening to Monday Night Magic…but here are the cards:

1) Crosis, the Purger

 Graveborn is supposed to be a reanimation deck. First turn you get something like Crosis into your graveyard. Second turn you reanimate him to the battlefield. Third turn you attack and hopefully have enough mana to activate him and make your opponent discard a large portion of his or her cards. There are quite a few better cards for reanimation. But on the other hand I really like Crosis's style. He's obviously a Highlander staple. And I don't have one yet. So this card gets a big thumbs up times three.

2) Buried Alive

I was really happy when this card was reprinted in one of the recent pre-constructed Highlander decks. Then I was sad when I ended up buying a different deck. Than I was happy again when I got a Weatherlight version of Buried Alive in the mail. Buried Alive is certainly not as powerful as 1-mana Entomb. But putting 3 creatures into your graveyard sets up a lot more shenanigans, especially in Highlander. Combined with Living Death, Buried Alive can take over the entire table in a single turn.


3) Animate Dead

Chewie on Monday Night Magic brought this to my attention. Animate Dead is going to be reprinted, and Wizards must have figured out a way to smoosh the current oracle wording onto a physical card. Making me very happy, because this is the classic reanimator tool. I remember using this to reanimate Lord of the Pit. 

Now about the oracle wording. This used to be an "enchant dead creature" card. Then it used to be a straight enchantment that changed to an enchant creature once it entered the battlefield. It's gone through lots of revisions. Here's a quick parlor trick: If you take a drink every time you read the word "enchant" "creature" and "battlefield," you never actually finish reading the card.

"When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it."

4) Entomb

This is a huge money card, since one mana is about as efficient as you can get. Also an instant, so you can search during your opponent's turn. And…I just noticed this…you can bury any card, not just creatures. Making this a one mana tutor for spells with flashback.


5) Avatar of Woe

I am familiar with this card for one reason. It's a pillar of my friend Greg's hellish Emperor deck. Combining counterspells, bounce, damnation, pestilence and this to create an unstoppable terror machine until you give up in frustration. The amazing and degenerate thing about multiplayer is it ensures cards like Avatar of Woe will basically always be cast for 2 lousy black mana. Really. But hey, if you cant beat 'em, join 'em. I'm sure Avatar will be just as good in Highlander.