Dreadhorde Invasion1B
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and amass 1. (Put a +1/+1 counter on an Army you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first.)
Whenever a Zombie creature token you control with power 6 or greater attacks, it gains lifelink until end of turn.
Bitterblossom, this is not. Nevertheless, as a lite bitterblossom with a bit of an Ophiomancer style, and a random upside that gets down with Grave Titan, I think it's worth looking at. I always thought Bitterblossom was overpowered an poorly balanced, so I'd play this over it any day (but I know others aren't like that).
This card is bad. You lose evasion, you can't go wide, and it doesn't have (as much) Skullclamp synergy since once you add the first +1/+1 counter the combo won't work. I would cube a slightly nerfed bitterblossom, but this is not slightly, not at all.
This is comparable to Fretwork Colony, trading an immediate 1/1 for the ability to block, the ability to make a new dude if it dies, and some trinket text. Comparing favorably to a bad card doesn't say much though. I think this card is only good if you're consistently able to sacrifice the creature for some effect every turn. It does produce a chump blocker per turn at the cost of 1 life, which probably isn't were you want to be either. One of the best things about Bitterblossom is blanking removal, and X 1/1s is much better than 1 X/X, especially when they have evasion. I don't think this becomes a serious consideration until past 720 at least.
They left out the part where Yawgmoth is resurrected,but has been cleansed as Yawgmoth the Redeemed,and now must awaken Chromium so that Karn can fuse with him and create what can only be known as : the ultimate taco.
By itself, I don’t think this cuts it in a high powered environment. Not being able to go wide / have evasion means this holds no candle to Bitterblossom. I think this has some potential for those specifically looking for aristocrats / zombie synergy though.
I wrote this off on first read, but I run a couple cards with incidental Zombie tribal payoffs, and a lot of black dedicated to a grindy attritional gameplan. 1B is a weak spot on those curves.
I’m not excited to run it, but I’ve tried Relentless Dead and Spiteful Returned as roleplayers before, and this seems a little more on-plan. Won’t bother if it costs more than $2 though.
Card would be good in a creature removal heavy environment without too many ways to go way over the top. Basically, any environment bitterblossm is broken, this card is good.
That's not the cube environment my cube is
As is , think this is too slow for an agressive deck and too painful for a non-agressive deck.
I think the other deal breaker with this card is that it won't generate the card till your next upkeep which is really slow. if it came down and created the token, and then on your next upkeep you had a 2/2 in play it would be worth considering a little more, but a 1/1 on turn 3 is really bad
Not being able to go wide really kills this for me, definitely a pass for me. It doesn't even make a zombie on ETB so it is always going to be behind curve is terms of power if its played on T2 and it is an awful top deck when you are behind.
The more I think about this card, the better I think it's more of a combo enabler type card for an archetype like aristocrats than a generic good stuff card like bitterblossm.
In a deck with a bunch of sac outlets and a skullclamp, having a sticky threat that comes back every turn for no mana is nice. Also can recur gravecrawler and has random zombie synergies.
Not sure I'll include it, but I like it more when I think of it as a synergy card
The more I think about this card, the better I think it's more of a combo enabler type card for an archetype like aristocrats than a generic good stuff card like bitterblossm.
In a deck with a bunch of sac outlets and a skullclamp, having a sticky threat that comes back every turn for no mana is nice. Also can recur gravecrawler and has random zombie synergies.
Not sure I'll include it, but I like it more when I think of it as a synergy card
^^^
100% agree with this, but I'm pretty much certain I won't include it. I think it could fill all the same synergy/archetype support roles as Bitterblossom, BUT it's so much worse in so many situations (Gravecrawler shenanigans excluded). With cards like Ophiomancer and Bitterblossom that are legitimately great I don't think we need a subpar version of this type of effect.
Had this card in my pre-release deck today, it was great, but it definitely isn't a cube card. It wasn't terrible to play it a little later as it gave a stream of chump blockers or a growing threat but its definitely far too slow for most cubes (it really needed to amass on ETB)and I think it needs at least a few amass cards to really ever reach a 6 power. The life payment was an issue once or twice but usually things had to go very wrong for me to feel like it wasn't worth it, I was probably losing those games even if I didn't have it out.
It was really helped by the fact I didn't really encounter enchantment removal all day, cubes tend to have cheaper or more main-deckable answers. Cool card though, won me a bunch of games.
If you are deep on aristocrats or pox/stax it could be a fringe card, but you really need to have ways to make use of the bodies.
I completely see where people are coming from with this card but I think its worth a second look. I does not go wide but it does make a creature larger each upkeep. Also it makes a token of a relevant creature type to at least compliment Gravecrawler and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
I'd be way more interested in this if it didn't ping the user for 1 each upkeep. That's a big deal, especially because you want this to come down early. Bitterblossom gets out of hand pretty quick because it makes multiple bodies that are evasive so the damage you can deal with the tokens scales quickly. The army token Dreadhorde Invasion creates is an infinitely chumpable single creature that hurts you every upkeep. Blegh.
FWIW, I am slamming a copy of this in my zombie aristocrats EDH deck. I like the card, just not for cube.
Dreadhorde Invasion 1B
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and amass 1. (Put a +1/+1 counter on an Army you control. If you don't control one, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first.)
Whenever a Zombie creature token you control with power 6 or greater attacks, it gains lifelink until end of turn.
Bitterblossom, this is not. Nevertheless, as a lite bitterblossom with a bit of an Ophiomancer style, and a random upside that gets down with Grave Titan, I think it's worth looking at. I always thought Bitterblossom was overpowered an poorly balanced, so I'd play this over it any day (but I know others aren't like that).
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I’m not excited to run it, but I’ve tried Relentless Dead and Spiteful Returned as roleplayers before, and this seems a little more on-plan. Won’t bother if it costs more than $2 though.
That's not the cube environment my cube is
As is , think this is too slow for an agressive deck and too painful for a non-agressive deck.
Cool design tho
Last Updated 02/07/24
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In a deck with a bunch of sac outlets and a skullclamp, having a sticky threat that comes back every turn for no mana is nice. Also can recur gravecrawler and has random zombie synergies.
Not sure I'll include it, but I like it more when I think of it as a synergy card
Last Updated 02/07/24
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^^^
100% agree with this, but I'm pretty much certain I won't include it. I think it could fill all the same synergy/archetype support roles as Bitterblossom, BUT it's so much worse in so many situations (Gravecrawler shenanigans excluded). With cards like Ophiomancer and Bitterblossom that are legitimately great I don't think we need a subpar version of this type of effect.
It was really helped by the fact I didn't really encounter enchantment removal all day, cubes tend to have cheaper or more main-deckable answers. Cool card though, won me a bunch of games.
If you are deep on aristocrats or pox/stax it could be a fringe card, but you really need to have ways to make use of the bodies.
FWIW, I am slamming a copy of this in my zombie aristocrats EDH deck. I like the card, just not for cube.