Pointed Discussion

Yeah Gravedigger is way better. I'd rather have a 2/2 and a creature then a 4/4 and my opponent have one too.

Not that terrible. It's not that likely that by turn 4 your opponent would have much in his graveyard, definitely not anything better than this guy. Still, with this kind of drawback it should've been a 5/5.

It is that terrible, 4 4/4 for 4 CMC (4444CMC ;)) with a horrible drawback? Who would have this in their deck? Can you make some kind of combo with this? I don't get it.

Advantage of this card : it does not target a creature => as such it can return a discarded Emrakul (protection from colored spells) directly into play.

Meh, black is a gamble.
I'd run this guy for the hell of it,
But Gravedigger is a better bet for most games,
Simply because it gives only you the creature,
And it's a Zombie.

One of a cycle of cards that happen to work really well in Emperor magic.

Nice art, Mr. Ploog!

Polzini - That would be true if protection worked in zones other than the graveyard, and also if Emrakul was able to be in the graveyard at any point. His graveyard ability is a replacement effect, stating if he would be, then not when he is.

@Polzini: What Kruggles said, but Emmy's abilitiy is, in fact, triggered and not a replacement effect. Plus this guy's ability is a triggered ability, not a spell. And, finally, you'd need to give this guy flash to return Emrakul, and giving your opponent a free Eldrazi seems kinda... poor.

Underrated? Yes. Still a poor choice for basically any deck? Yes. Nothing to see here, folks, except some nostalgia for those of us who got our start in Mercadian Masques. <3

Dark Ritual made this potentially playable on second turn; a swamp, Dark Rit+Lotus Petal in your opening draw could get you a 4/4 on first turn before the drawback is relevant.

If you cannot control what is in your opponents graveyard then don't play with this. If you on the other hand can then this is a great beater.

for a moment i missed the "other" player and thought huh, interesting, then i read it again and was like....ahh back in the days when creatures

Is black group hug EDH a thing?

Curves nicely out of Hidden Horror.

Ok, random card gatherer, I will take this challenge.

Gather Specimens makes the drawback a bonus but it might be hard to pay ten mana in one turn. So, we need some way to cast one of those spells for free or cheap. I'd suggest Elvish Piper, or Omniscience, or Jhoira of the Ghitu but all those cards have better things to be doing. So, I will go with Delay.

Delay has the benefit of also protecting your combo if you get it in multiples. This still effectively makes this a turn 9 play, which does one better than turn ten if you hit every land drop. We can still do better than that. Dimir Signet accelerates us as well as fixing our mana, and Jhoira's Timebug quickens our Delay. Clockspinning also works.

We'll also want things to actually be in our opponent's graveyard, so we can throw in Tome Scour. Going on the suspend theme, Nihilith and Mindstab also work here. Vapor Snag can help make Mindstab more effective and delay an opponent's attack plan.

Final list:

Enslaved Horror x3
Gather Specimens x3
Delay x4
Dimir Signet x3
Jhoira's Timebug x4
Clockspinning x3
Tome Scour x4
Nihilith x4
Mindstab x4
Vapor Snag x4
Island x14
Swamp x10

Despite being the main combo of the deck, I've left Enslaved Horror and Gather Specimens at three each. This is because neither is particularly good on its own. Three is a good number to see the both of them over the course of a game without drawing too many multiples. As for the land base, you probably want a bunch of dual lands, but I'm not about to go recommend you drop 40 bucks for playsets of Watery Grave and Drowned Catacomb just so your Enslaved Horror deck plays better.

It's like Exhume, but balanced. Which is to say crappy.

Too bad Endrek Sahr didn't do his work near this thing. Then the Ebon Hand might have better appreciated his Derelor...