MTG Salvation

So personally I find Wake the Dead to be one of the most powerful mass reanimation spells in the entire game. Nearly any time I am able to land it I generate so much value that I end up stealing the game way. Best case scenarios I end up with some kind of Eternal Witness effect to return it to my hand so I can utilize it every single round and just lock down the game. Worst case....I dunno a chump blocker with some etb/ltb tacked on?

The card does have some drawbacks of course, and I find that it is better utilized in control decks/combo decks, but even with that said I think it trumps SOOOOOO many mass reanimation spells just because of the fact it being instant speed and that it doesn't exile itself or any of the creatures it hits. Modern cards in its vein do one or the other or even both.

My question though is why don't I see more of it being played? I see other lists that utilize the graveyard heavily yet no mention of this absurdly powerful card. Why? I think the biggest reason is because many players don't understand that no matter what, a player must still go through their combat phase. So I guess a lot of people think that hey, if they don't want to attack, I don't get a chance to use this card. I can understand that I guess, but is there something else that I'm missing?

Athreos, God of Passage

Always use it.

Quote from williamdesad11 »

My question though is why don't I see more of it being played?

I can only speak for myself, but 1) i always forget about Wake the Dead.
2) While being a strong effect it certainly needs a deck that can both profit a lot from it and doesn't have a problem with the sac clause - or even consider it an upside.
3) Since you're only able to cast it on an opponents turn you won't be able to ditch the sac clause through Sundial of the Infinite, Teferi's Veil and the likes.

Among others i could see it as a strong card for Bladewing the Risen, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Scion of the Ur-Dragon.

Come to think of it, i should propably get two copies. One for Alesha, Who Smiles at Death and one for Gonti, Lord of Luxury...

Would never play it in my Ayli list. Having a reanimation spell I can't play outside of an opponent's Combat step is silly. There's far better reanimation spells, and if you want to mass reanimate, there's also better options. If you're paying X to be 7 or more, just play Rise of the Dark Realms. Heck in a 4-player pod, Sepulchral Primordial gets you 3 creatures from opponent's graveyards for keeps for 5BB. Worth the two additional mana to keep them. For the cost of one creature at 1BB you could just pay 1B or B and get a creature and keep it with Animate Dead or Reanimate. Or cast Victimize and sac some fodder to get two creatures and keep them. Or run Unburial Rites and keep a creature for one more mana, then cast it again later. If you're looking at ETB/LTB effects, it's more valuable to be able to keep those creatures until it's convenient to use them, or to threaten people with them. They don't gain Haste, so you can't any abilities that require tapping. You're also probably tying up any mana you'd want to use on any abilities with just throwing them on the battlefield for a moment. For this to be valuable you also have to have a lot of good targets in your graveyard. To me that's asking to be hit with graveyard hate.

Outside of Eternal Witness, looping this and it being useful seems pretty anecdotal. Unless you're playing Green it's a spell that just sits in your hand waiting for someone's Combat step when maybe there'll be an advantage to temporarily reanimating a bunch of creatures, at some point - it's a cute trick. You can't loop Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed with it because it's only limited to an opponent's Combat, or re-cast it with Yawgmoth's Will. You say you're locking the game down on your opponent's turns and I'm curious how you're supposedly doing that, or stealing games away with such a narrow card. How useful is it when you don't have that Eternal Witness? Also, the claim that most Modern mass reanimation spells make you exile creatures you reanimate isn't really true. There's no mass reanimation spell or effect that exiles the creatures. There's a small number of single target spells, but even then that's what sac outlets are for and any reanimation deck should be running them to avoid getting their creatures exiled, anyway.

I should consider this for my Prossh deck. I traditionally use Survival of the Fittest to fill my graveyard up with creatures getting Sidisi, Undead Vizier last to go nab Rise of the Dark Realms. I may replace it with Wake the Dead and add Seedborn Muse for maximum value.

It's a cool card in the right situation. Outside of being alpha struck, it doesn't seem that useful. I see it working best in, say, Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Savra, Queen of the Golgari attrition style builds.

The problem with it in terms of viability as a versatile card is that it's competing with some seriously good spells for a reanimation spot. If I'm running black and I'm interested in things dying, chances are I'm going for Living Death. There are far less situations in which LD is a dead card (pun intended) and even if it whiffs, it's such a cool card I barely ever regret playing it. If I really want to play it on an opponent's turn, there's ways to give it flash, I guess. Other than that, Rise of the Dark Realms, Reanimate, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Chainer, Dementia Master, Apprentice Necromancer, Doomed Necromancer, Yawgmoth's Will....it's up against some steep competition. Granted, it's instant, which not many of these are. But it also telegraphs as well. Unless you're generating stupid amounts of mana to the point I can't count it all, I'll know what you're holding all that mana up for.

I guess outside of mono black, there's just generally better options for nullifying a good swing from your opponents - the fog variants in green, judo cards in white, bounce cards in blue and chaos/threaten effects in red. It just doesn't have enough scenarios in which it's handy to see regular play. Most of them cost less mana, have less restrictions, or more scenarios in which they're useful.

It's not by any stretch a bad card, just not excellent outside of the precise scenario it's designed for.

I definitely think this card is more powerful than people will give it credit. I read it and was like, "oh once off reanimation for a turn, that sucks!"...however...

I don't think people should be comparing it to Living Death or the likes, as it wouldn't be taking those slots, it would be additional. Certainly different to Rise of the Dark Realms and Sepulchral Primordial, as these cards cost 9 and 7 mana, and Wake the Dead can get value at just 3 mana.

In decks that don't have a lot of ways to interact during opponents turns, this presents a tool that can really get value in the right deck. I think Meren of Clan Nel Toth probably best setup to use it, as the sacrifice at end of turn can become a bonus as you get the experience counters, as well as probably getting some ETB or going to GY value and potentially blocking attackers and killing them.

I will agree, I think that its probably an over looked card for a lot of builds.

Its a crazy strong card but generally its a strong card that is used with ETB / Death based decks which while I totally agree its crazy strong for, I don't find myself making that style of deck that often. When the card is right for a deck its amazing and breaks the game when its cast. But when its not you definitely know its not right for the deck when you try to cast it.

I use it in my deck with Zulaport Cutthroat and Falkenrath Noble... under the right circumstances, it can truly devastate my opponent out of nowhere.

I run this in Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper alongside Living Death and Victimize. Paired with Flayer of the Hatebound and Purphoros, God of the Forge it closes out games nicely. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed makes it pretty nasty as well.

This isn't a reanimation card, it's free EtB and sacrifice triggers.

I could see this in any deck that benefits from ETB triggers, blocking, damage, or death triggers. Or just likes to sac creatures.

Possibilities:

Teysa, Orzhov Scion: Sac your white creatures to exile creatures. Get spirit tokens to sac more creatures.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari: Obvious.
Kresh the Bloodbraided: Lots of +1/+1 counters for Kresh.
Ghave, Guru of Spores: Trigger Aura Shards, Dictate of Erebos, Blood Artist, and Cathars' Crusade all at once. Of course, Ghave decks tend to be relatively creature-light, so you won't get that much use out of it.
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord: Sac your best creatures to make opponents lose life. Not the best option here, but there you go.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth: How many experience counters do you need?
Saskia the Unyielding: Triggering Grave Pact, Pandemonium, and Purphoros, God of the Forge all at once.

My friend runs it in Sidisi, Brood Tyrant and to be honest I'm getting quite tired of running my face into it. Pretty much every time he leaves mana up, its for Wake the Dead, and I never remember to check.

He frequently abuses the Eternal Witness trick, going so far as to include Skullwinder and tutors like Woodland Bellower explicitly to enable it. `

It definitely needs set up though. It can get you value, but with its cost its most likely the only value you'll get for that round of turns. So your graveyard needs some good targets to make spamming it worthwhile. Its not as versatile as cheaper reanimation spells that need one target and can be cast as an aside. And arguably if you have enough targets to make it worthwhile, you'll likely get more value out of Living Death or twilight's call, which are symmetrical effects but also don't eat up nearly as much mana. Though the spammable death triggers can be uniquely powerful in some decks.

I've played it on and off. It's pretty exciting if you have a lot of strong ETB effects, especially related to devotion (looking at you, Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Abhorrent Overlord). It's less exciting when you have a couple of beaters, or even just a Rune-scarred Demon and a few others.

In the right deck and right situation, it's amazing. The rest of the time, it's pretty boring.

Seconding what some others here have said, it's a good card in those decks which are heavily based around ETB effects. Paying 5 mana to destroy a creature, tutor for any card and draw 4 cards and gain 4 life is very strong. Likewise, sacrifice heavy decks can get a good bit of value to get extra Blood Artist or Grave Pact type triggers. And while the timing is restrictive, it still works well in a deck generally wanting to keep mana up for whatever reason - instead of EOT on the last opponents turn, you do it on their combat step. Decks which are using reanimation to cheat on mana costs of fatties on the other hand, will not consider this much of a card.

It's one of those cards that’s stuck between options on either side of it on the cheap/expensive scale. If a deck wants to get 1-2 creatures in the bin to start its game plan or to combo off, then Reanimate, Animate Dead, or Victimize are better. And if a deck is trying to go for value, then there are Rise of the Dark Realms and Living Death.

Now, Living Death is a card so powerful that you can build your entire deck around it and be happy with the result. An all-star in Sidisi, Undead Vizier. When that is your competition at 5+ mana, you are playing second fiddle. And while we’re on it, Eternal Witness, Archaeomancer, etc, synergize with every reanimation spell that hits 2 or more targets. I am not sure why Wake the Dead would be considered particularly synergistic with that.

It also suffers from a bit of a perception problem. It’s worded as a combat trick, but then also advertised in the community as being good in a setup where it can be cast repeatedly and the surprise factor is gone. So people looking for perpetual combat trick will try it and be disappointed, and people looking for mass reanimate will try it and be disappointed with the timing restriction. It’s a rare deck that wants both.

Don’t get me wrong, when you are compared to Living Death you are in pretty good company. But, it’s not irreplaceable. It’s a rare deck where it’s the absolute best card out of all options. The issue is that you are basically forcing opponents to play grave-hate with any card in that tier, and Wake the Dead doesn’t reward you proportionally with becoming the prime target in the game. Other options will win on the spot if not handled.

Being as its predominantly a combat trick, I see it shining best in decks like Meren of Clan Nel Toth or Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, maybe Kaalia of the Vast? I just don't see it being a shoe in outside of combat/judo decks, or decks that need a good defensive option.

Kresh the Bloodbraided could use it to boost him real fast. And any black/red deck could use it with Warstorm Surge, Pandemonium, and Flayer of the Hatebound, now that I think about it.