Dawn of the Dead

I remember back in the day when the kids I used to play with in middle school thought that this card was terrible. I was still kind of new at that point, but I didn’t think it was that bad. So, a kid I knew named Frazer (real name Maximillan, seriously) gave me all 3 of his copies because he hated them. I threw them into my really slow black deck and tried it out. Before, the deck used to run on Exhume and to get a Hypnox or Chainer, Dementia Master out and just start smashing people in the face, but it usually didn’t work because my opponent knew my deck and would always throw something big into their yard in first couple turns (usually by missing their first land drop). So, I decided to take the Exhumes out and replace them with this card. On the first day I tried it, I got a turn 4 Hypnox (thanks Dark Ritual) with a sack outlet (I can’t remember what it was, but I think it was an Altar of Dementia). After I punched my opponent, I sacked my Hypnox to my sack outlet and I did that for 4 more turns until he died. No one hated this card after that.

Losing one life a turn isn’t that bad really, especially when you can do what I did back when it came out. Now, with crazier cards like Shadowborn Demon and Dread Cacodemon, you can do a lot more damage than my little combo. It does cost triple-black, which basically relegates it to mono-black or two-colour decks, but that doesn’t really hinder it. What kind of hinders its greatness is the exile trigger, but if you layer it correctly, you can ignore it. Imagine having a Ball Lightning every turn for free!

Pros: Returns a creature to the field with haste every turn

Cons: Exiles the creature, 1 life per turn, triple-black

Rating: 4/5