I don't think I actually own any copies of this
card, but it looks like a fun one to experiment
with. Sometimes cards with this sort of
templating end up being used simply as ways to
put cards into the graveyard; that probably
won't happen in this case, because I suspect
people will be concerned about having to boost
one of their opponent's creatures if they don't
have any themselves. But in a "Sultai deck"
(using delve) it can sometimes turn their
high-toughness low-power creatures into more
significant threats, and in larger casual
settings it can combine with Innistrad's
self-mill and graveyard-use strategies.
Today's card of the day is Grave Strength which
is a two mana Black sorcery that puts the top
three cards of your library into the grave then
puts a +1/+1 counter on target creature for each
creature in your grave. This is a
fantastic power up for an evasive, Lifelink, or
Trample threat in a self-mill theme and with the
right timing can very easily win a game.
At worst this should add at least two +1/+1
tokens for two mana which is a bargain and is
easily supported with many existing and
regularly played Black cards. This should
see a great deal of play across most formats and
is a serious threat that adds quite a bit to an
already popular design.
In Limited this may not be easily supported and
is actively opposed by Dredge, but even two or
three creatures in the grave makes it worth
playing. A solid second or third pick in
Booster after a Black rare and a card that
should always be included when using even a
splash of Black in Sealed.
I’ll admit, I didn’t even give this card a
second glance until recently when I played
someone who built a mono-black deck with a bunch
of cheap creatures and this. Turn 1, play a
creature, turn 2, play this and mill a couple
creatures, attack for 3. Also, this helped build
up the graveyard for delve.
This is better than an aura because it puts
counters on the creature instead of an aura that
could be destroyed. It also gets more powerful
as the game goes on.
It’s not a powerhouse, but it can be a valuable
pump in some cases.
