When Modern Horizons 3 was first announced, players didn’t expect Commander precons. The two formats are extremely different. However, one of the four decks, Graveyard Overdrive precon is the perfect blend of the both formats. While it still uses the rule set of Commander, its flavor is very reminiscent of Modern Jund decks.
So, in this article, you’ll discover everything we know about this deck so far. What’s the main Commander? Which cards will appear in the deck? All of that and more questions will be answered below.
But first, let’s see what the deck is trying to do, and why it reminds us of the Jund decks from Modern.
UPDATE: The new cards are currently (May 30th) being updated. Thanks for your patience.
Junding in the Graveyard
If you’re unfamiliar with the term Jund, it refers to a 3-color combination, containing black, red, and green. It typically has powerful creatures, and plenty of value plays, and often cares about the graveyard.
This time around, the deck also wants you to fill your graveyard. The other line of text talks about avenging your dead. Most likely, this means that there will be rewards for your creatures dying, and going to the graveyard. All of this is a somewhat common theme for this color combination, but there’s something more to it.
That’s the secondary theme, which are Lhurgoyfs. The most iconic one is certainly Tarmogoyf, which was a staple in many Modern Jund decks. Although its popularity has fallen, it still sees some play nowadays, 17 years after it was released.
It’s unclear to know how present this theme will be, but it is featured on the face commander. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at…
Disa the Restless
A 5/6 for five mana is quite beefy. Even if stats aren’t usually that important, when it comes to commanders, it’s still nice to have a relevant creature in play. But what about its text box, how relevant is it?
The first ability cares about Lhurgoyf permanents you control. Whenever such card goes into your graveyard from anywhere other than your library, you put it directly onto the battlefield. Now this ability is extremely powerful. It doesn’t cost any mana, and works nicely with discard and self-mill effects.
The biggest problem is probably getting enough Lhurgoyfs into your deck. Currently, there are just 8 of them in these colors. Most likely, there will be many new ones included in this deck, as well as some in the main set. We’ve already found one among the Modern Horizons 3 spoilers.
But there’s another ability on Disa. It triggers whenever one or more of your creatures deal combat damage to a player. What’s your reward? You get a Tarmogoyf token. Now that can be a really massive creature. Plus, you can trigger this effect multiple times in a turn by attacking multiple opponents or by giving your creatures first / double strike.
As you can see, Disa the Restless features two very strong abilities. Either one would be worth building around, but if you can unlock both, you’re really in for some cool and fun games.
Coram, the Undertaker
The Undertaker is here, and he comes with a lot of text. The first thing you notice about the secondary commander for Graveyard Overdrive precon is probably the weird stat line. 0/5 for four mana is not something you see everyday.
The first ability takes care of that by buffing Coram’s power by X, that being the greatest power among creatures in all graveyards.
When Coram attacks, each player mills a card, whihc further fuels the first ability. Now that’s neat, but nothing too exciting.
That changes with its final ability, which allows you to play a land and cast a spell on your turn. (If that card was put into the graveyard that turn.) Now that’s an interesting form of card advantage.
While Coran probably isn’t the strongest commander out there, it’s still pretty awesome to build around. It offers you a sort of a deckbuilding challenge of sorts. Will you take it on?
Graveyard Overdrive Decklist
Here’s the full Graveyard Overdrive decklist.
*Since the cards aren’t added on Gather yet, their hover images aren’t showing. Instead, you can find them in the next section. The cards that also appear in the main set, can be found here.
Graveyard Overdrive Spoilers
Besides these two cards, some other ones were leaked. These have since been confirmed, but since the official preview was in German, we’re leaving the English leaks on.
That leaves us with 3 new cards missing, which can be found in German (and with translation) below.
Barrowgoyf – 2B
Creature – Lhurgoyf (rare)
Deathtouch, lifelink
Barrowgoyf’s power is equal to the number of card types among cards in all graveyards and its toughness is equal to that number plus 1.
Whenever Barrowgoyf deals combat damage to a player, you may mill that many cards. If you do, you may put a creature card from among them back into your hand.
*/1+*
Sawhorn Nemesis – 3R
Creature – Dinosaur (rare)
As Sawhorn Nemesis enters the battlefield, choose a player.
If a source would deal damage to the chosen player or a permanent they control, it deals double that damage instead.
2/4
Tempt With Mayhem – 1RR
Instant (rare)
As Sawhorn Nemesis enters the battlefield, choose a player.
Tempting offer – Choose target instant or sorcery spell. Each opponent may copy that spell and may chooses new targets for the copy they control. You copy that spell once plus an additional time for each opponent who copied the spell this way. You may choose new targets for the copies you control.
Graveyard Overdrive Upgrade Ideas
Before the full upgrade releases next week, I wanted to highlight some cards that could work great with Disa and this deck’s theme. They enable some pretty interesting combos. If you like them, you can order them, so you’ll be able to upgrade your new precon right away.
With that said, let’s take a look at the cards.
Ashes of the Fallen
We’ve talked about how there are not that many Lhurgoyf creatures in MTG. Even with the addition of some new ones, you’ll still be playing non-Lhurgoyf creatures in your deck. (Be it for the synergies or their overall power level.)
However, this cheap artifact is here to help you with that. It turns all of your creatures in your graveyard into Lhurgoyfs. And if you’re wondering whether or not this works with Disa, it absolutely does.
This means that if you have both Disa and Ashes of the Fallen in play, whenever your discard, or mill any creature, it goes on the battlefield. That’s an extremely powerful combination in this deck.
Hermit Druid
While Hermit Druid can be played fairly, most of the time it just simply mills your whole deck for a single mana. (If you don’t include any basic lands in your deck.)
Why would you want to do that, though? Because with Disa in play, you’ll essentially get to put all of your Lhurgoyfs from your deck onto the battlefield. If you can give them haste you don’t need to worry about drawing from an empty deck, just attack your opponents for the win.
Oh and if you’re worried about drawing cards from an empty library, just use Loaming Shaman to put the good stuff back in.
Of course, Hermit also plays well with the aforementioned Ashes of the Fallen, as well as with this next card.
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
Chainer is already one of my favorite cards, but I’m not including here because of that. The reason is that, it’s just such a great fit here. It just plays with Disa so amazingly.
Its first ability allows you to discard a card in order to cast a creature from your graveyard. Since you want to fill your graveyard, this really plays nicely with this theme. However, if you have Disa in play, you can simply discard a Lhurgoyf, and you get it directly into play. Plus, you can still play a creature spell from your grave.
The second ability grants haste to your nontoken creatures, provided you didn’t cast them from your hand. That takes into account any creatures you got back with Disa, or cast from your graveyard. All of these effects combine for one really great card, that should work great in the Graveyard Overload precon.
So, all three cards recommended here work well pair with your commander, but also with one another. They should make your games more fun by enabling some crazy combos.
Conclusion
Oh and one more thing about the deck. It also comes in a Collector’s Edition versions, which will, as the name suggest make collectors quite happy.
What’s so special about this product, apart from its higher price? Well, for starters each card in the deck is foil. And that’s not your regular foil. It’s something called Ripple foil, and that’s something that wasn’t done in Magic yet. it’s a special pattern that imitates the ripple effect in water. This will probably look amazing.
Furthermore, the main and secondary commander use alternate art, the so-called Profile version. (Like the Profile cards from Commander Masters.) You already so those above, next to their regular versions, when we were talking about commanders. So, you’re getting special foil cards, and some alt-art variants. If you enjoy these, you might want to pick up the premium version of the deck. If not, the regular one will do just fine.
Finally, if you want to learn more about other decks, don’t forget to check our article about the Modern Hoirzons 3 Commander precons.
With that, we’re wrapping up. Until next time, have fun, and may the graveyards always be full to power up your Lurgoyfs.