Dark Ascension in Legacy

[(nameless one)]

Alright, a lot of cards are spoiled today from the mothership.

There's already theorycrafting involved with Faithless Looting. Possibly the card Goblin Welder and Gamble is waiting for to break out?

What caught my eye in today's spoiler was Gravecrawler. Maybe Zombies will be the new Merfolk? I have a feeling it's going to be an addition to Almost-Manaless Dredge decks.

Any hidden gems you guys see?

[Cire]

Strangleroot Geist gg
Creature - Spirit Uncommon
Haste
Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.)
2/1

Not great not bad. Undying is an interesting reverse of Persist.

[Lemnear]

Gravecrawler has a spot in eternal dredge decks, that's pretty obvious. Netter than bloodghast? Doubt.

I wished for a Long time that a mechanic awards low life to turn games or award suicide strategies; and here it is! Hopefully WotC forgot that Dark Confidant, Necropotence, Y. Bargain, Ad Nauseam and Death Wish exists and print some goodies for eternal combo decks.

Cabal Ritual with fateful Hour mechanic? Anyone?

[boneclub24]

Gravecrawler makes me want to try Suicide Black again.

[Greenpoe]

Chalice of Life//Chalice of Death may be good in Ascension. It's like The Rack but for lifegain.dec. Might be too slow for the lifegain part, but the lifeloss part gets around Humility/Moat/Jace bounce/creature removal/Ensnaring Bridge shenanigans.

[Climax]

I guess with four 2-power-one-drops it is quite possible to make a Zombie based Suicide Black.

[pcccp]

Gravecrawler got my attention. A quick look at other zombie creatures that work well revealed:

- Carrion Feeder
- Nantuko Husk / Phyrexian Ghoul
- Fleshbag Marauder

Cabal Therapy loves Gravecrawler as well as Strangleroot Geist.

T1 Cabal Therapy,
T2 play Geist, sac for Therapy, attack for 3

[Skeggi]

Sarcomancy?

[trivial_matters]

Wizards needs to print a Bitterblossom that puts flying 1/1 Zombie tokens into play instead of Faeries.

Flying Zombie tokens.

[rufus]

Not great not bad. Undying is an interesting reverse of Persist.

You want to field Sage of Fables and Ashnod's Altar with it?

Cabal Ritual with fateful Hour mechanic? Anyone?

Alas, they shuffled the color pie, and nerfed fast mana: It would have to be redder, and weaker.

A quick look at other zombie creatures that work well revealed:

More possibilities: Zombie Infestation,Bridge from Below, Putrid Raptor ,Shambling Shell

[Aggro_zombies]

Gravecrawler has a spot in eternal dredge decks, that's pretty obvious. Netter than bloodghast? Doubt.

I wished for a Long time that a mechanic awards low life to turn games or award suicide strategies; and here it is! Hopefully WotC forgot that Dark Confidant, Necropotence, Y. Bargain, Ad Nauseam and Death Wish exists and print some goodies for eternal combo decks.

Cabal Ritual with fateful Hour mechanic? Anyone?

The flavor of Fateful Hour makes me think it's the human mechanic, so it's likely concentrated in white and green. I doubt we'll see anything Legacy-playable from it.

[boneclub24]

Cabal Therapy loves Gravecrawler

I'm imagining a situation that goes like this:

Turn 1: Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Grave Crawler, Cabal Therapy, Flashback Cabal.

Turn 2: Zombie, recast Grave Crawler

A man can dream.

[ReAnimator]

I'm totally going to build a Gravecrawler / Goblin Bombardment deck. I don't care if it's going to be awful and fragile to GY hate, it will be all sorts of fun.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Undying could be pretty exciting. Too bad it's not likely to come with a useful ability in addition to a palatable cost (e.g. Kitchen Finks).

[Barook]

Gravecrawler also looks pretty neat with Phyrexian Altar to create an infinite loop.

Question is how to abuse it best, considering the combo would most likely suck very much.

[Kich867]

Gravecrawler also looks pretty neat with Phyrexian Altar to create an infinite loop.

Question is how to abuse it best, considering the combo would most likely suck very much.

Easy peasy. In fact, thank you for pointing that out, I've been wanting to make a deck based around this card forever and I just might because it's an interesting concept.

Bitter Ordeal Unlike other milling strategies, Phyrexian Alter + Gravecrawler + Bitter Ordeal exiles their library in one turn given you have 3 mana available.

It's not a particularly amazing combo, but it works.

[majikal]

Gravecrawler makes me want to play this:

4x Gravecrawler
4x Carrion Feeder
4x Stromgald Crusader
4x Fleshbag Marauder
4x Lord of the Undead
2x Cemetery Reaper
2x Death Baron

4x Sarcomancy

4x Dark Ritual
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Thoughtseize

4x Wasteland
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
14x Swamp

[TsumiBand]

Any Gravecrawler combo you might be considering is going to require another Zombie to be in play, so it's basically already a 3-card combo.

Fateful Hour looks flavorful but ultimately bad, if it doesn't offer a way to subsist on 5 life and genuinely turn the game around. Undying however looks bloody great, a real one-up to Persist.

[Lemnear]

The flavor of Fateful Hour makes me think it's the human mechanic, so it's likely concentrated in white and green. I doubt we'll see anything Legacy-playable from it.

You are right. I overlooked that the keywords are pretty focused on their tribe. If that's the case it would be a complete waste for a universal keyword to Be only GW because the other tribes have pretty creature exclusive keywords.

@rufus:
I know that they stripped black from LD, tutors, mana acceleration and the "Life for profit"-Philosophy leaving the whole color only filled with creature removal and expensive drawback demons which is the reason for being the worst color in magic since years.

I just wanted to mention that "fateful hour" could fill some gaps in attrition battles and give Players a Comeback in One mechanic which is exciting because it feels like treshhold but more Natural to achieve. Due to the Nature of black this mechanic feels very synergetic with a lot of black strategies which desperately need a boost through all formats.

As mentioned above this personal words this seems to Be Part of the GW human tribe which is complete bullshit imo to print such a mechanic in the colors of Protection and lifegain. It's like printing a "green-only" mechanic that awards not having creatures.

[rufus]

It's not a particularly amazing combo, but it works.

It requires 4 cards: the altar, a zombie in play, the gravecrawler, and the wincard.
It's got similar issues, but Glimpse of Nature would also be a fun effect there...

Gravecrawler makes me want to play this:

I want discard zombie...something like:

4x Gravecrawler
4x BloodGhast
4x Rotting Rats
4x Sarcomancy
4x Diregraf Ghoul

4x Zombie Infestation

4x Smallpox
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Blackmail
4x Mind Swords