Ebondeath, Dracolich – D&D: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Date Reviewed: August 25, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.50
Casual: 4.13
Limited: 4.50
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Technically, you could argue that Ebondeath is not actually Magic’s first dracolich – M19 had Bone Dragon, which is obviously inspired by the same concept. I don’t know if that really matters as such, because he’s pretty cool anyway. It’s good that there are some creatures resistant to removal, and good that we’re getting some variations on how to be resistant rather than just having comes-into-play abilities; Ebondeath’s variation obviously plays well with black’s self-sacrifice cards, but he also encourages combat (both attacking and blocking), and subtle molding of a deck’s strategy is interesting to consider, too. I could even imagine withholding a combat trick and letting something of yours die under certain circumstances, so you can “upgrade” to a 5/2 flying zombie dragon.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 4/5
Recursive creatures are always fun, and while Ebondeath has some balancing levers to keep it from being a massive issue, a 5-power flying creature that keeps coming back is pretty nice. Flash lets you bring it in right before you start your turn, and it makes it a lot easier for our undead dragon friend to keep coming back, turn after turn, as the sole criteria to recast it from a graveyard is that a differently-named creature died. Yours, an opponent’s, the entire board…if something is dead, Ebondeath can return to play all the same. While it’s not flashy, being a threat that keeps coming back for gratuitous swooping is always nice, and I suspect Ebondeath will be the dragon out of the five mythics from the set to see the most proper constructed play, thanks to reasonable stats paired with evasion and flash.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.25
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 4,000 more MTG Cards of the Day! Daily Since 2001.
