This will work very well in a Dredge-heavy deck, blurring the line between hand and graveyard.
MasterOfEtherium
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(10 votes)
My Favorite of Tha Legends, So Dope
lorendorky
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Works with a ton of different grave based strategies but the most exciting possibility I see is allowing a soulshift EDH deck.
qwert426
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(5 votes)
@metalevolence
If you actually play with the kind of people who would main deck cards like that *just* so they could screw up your deck, then I hope you can find better friends to play with someday. =/
GracefulInferno
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(5 votes)
If you ever have to cast this guy for 8 mana, you're doing it wrong.
Karador is one of the new generals that (gasp!) doesn't have a blatant target painted on his chest when he hits the field. As has been stated before, most players will go after Karador's graveyard rather than deal with him directly. But let's be honest, people - unless someone in your playgroup already packs tech against reanimator-style EDH decks, this guy is going to steamroll before too long.
Atali
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(7 votes)
@qwert426 I run Tormod's Crypt in all my EDH decks just in case, you never know when an effect like that will save your ass, especially when you go into a game not knowing your opponents' generals.
metalevolence
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Sadly, any even halfway-decent EDH group will have nihil spellbomb, bojuka bog, and relic of progenitus appearing in abundance, rendering our noble ghost chieftain little more than excercise in futility.
hm..the thing is, grave-axeing effects are not generally useful. what i mean is, unlike lightning bolt, they are not something that you can expect to help you in virtual any game you draw them in. when you want them, you NEED them. but....i probably own maybe 20-30 graveyard killers, but hell if i know how far down in my commons box i have to dig to get em. once I finally DO face a dredger for the first time, he'll probably rip me to pieces. then I i'll have to look for my stuff...only the dredger has been dreging for years, and almost certainly knows what to do about it. they'll be playing a level 2 meta strategy, and I'll be at level 1.
Grave stuff is so uncommon a deck type, since its had scant few goodies to support it since Ravnica, that its somewhat inoccuous. except when its lethally real.
whereas any playgroup, any format will have 'the Goblin guy', 'the Green Beasties guy', 'the White Army guy', and 'the Blue CA hacker'. Black's good cards seem to be concentrated more around formats. Does Black even HAVE a 'Super Archetype' that defines the color? or does it just have cards that fill important roles where they are legal? I mean something that's always going to be Standard, and touches at least Extended as well if not Eternal.
Shiizu
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Great general. Even with heavy graveyard hate he's still pretty awesome. As long as the hate isn't leyline of the void and other pure hosers this guy will bury your opponents in card advantage. Not to mention how awesome recurring dark hatchling and shriekmaw is...or even utility creatures.
Kitty_the_Kat
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
The thing I really like about this guy for Reanimation style decks is his color combination. Black is definately the bulk of the work here, allowing a lot of revival cards and things that drop creatures back to your hand. White allows you to search your black enchantments, everything from Necropotence to Necromancy, whereas Green gives you a lot of destructive revival options like Eternal Witness and Acidic Slime.
Anyone else wanna see a turn 2 Terastodon? Just wreck everyone else's Sol Ring or Lightning Greaves.
I think I'll be making a deck around this guy. I already have the vast majority of cards for this type of deck. I would just need to temporarily reallocate them.
Feralsymphony
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(16 votes)
Character Bio: Once a high warchief of the Nessian centaurs, Karador was slain in a great battle. Now Karador haunts the valleys of his birth, an embittered king of a realm of wraiths and shades. He gathers ghostly minions for an assault on the rival warchief who deposed him.
Studoku
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Very nice EDH general.
He's in the best colours for graveyard- black/green gives you access to all the dredge, several shuffle effects and a lot of graveyard recursion. White gives you more graveyard recursion and, more importantly, leyline of sanctity effects. This stops most mass graveyard removal- only individually removing the cards or relic of progenitus gets past it.
The best part is his cost remains practical throughout the game. Unless you lose your entire graveyard, he can stay at 3-5 mana even after summoning him 8 or 9 times.
He's a CMC 8 creature for potentially 3 mana too (not unlike a certain egotist). Birthing pod into an Iona for example. Don't get me started on the food chain shenanigans.
wrinklykiller
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
can you play stuff for its evoke or morph costs as well? is it "you may play it as though it were from your hand"?
I think this guy is probably the best of the commanders. Helps punish any kind of mill/creature destruction, lets you use creatures with sac effects over and over again, helps restore the field little by little, and has the perfect color combination for LOTS of recursion. In terms of sheer power, it's also part green for pump and part white/black for some other form of evasion (either by gaining flying/protection or fear/swampwalk), so it's not like it's completely useless on the field of battle.
Okuu-chan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
When you play this guy, you don't ever need to send your General to the Command Zone. "No, I'm not paying the c-u-mulative 2 mana. Welcome back, Ghave!"
For a Dredge-heavy deck, you can't have much more fun than this guy with Heartless Summoning and Eternal Witness. Witness dies to the -1/-1 from Summoning when it hits, but not before it regrowths anything else from your graveyard to your hand. All for , every turn.
dlgn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why doesn't it just say "Affinity for creature cards in your graveyard"?
PastProphet
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
4wolf359 - except that Eternal Witness will still cost {G}{G} to recast - the colored mana symbols in the creature cost won't be reduced by Heartless Summoning
Rikiaz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Karador has a ton of extremely potent spells to go in his deck. There are obvious inclusions such as Shriekmaw and Bone Shredder, and there are some not so obvious combinations, such as Zombie Infestation, Worm Harvest, and Praetor's Counsel. Basically every card with Dredge is an auto-include in his deck. Also reusable, and abuse-able, cards to go with Birthing Pod, with a Grave Pact on the field of course. Karador's deck can become one of the most terrifying to hit the table if you build it right, since it has White and Green in it you should never have to worry about pesky graveyard hate, Krosan Grip deals with anything that has an activated ability, such as Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus, also if you must, there is also Bind to counter those abilities, while you have reusable anti-hate in the form of Ray of Revelation.
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think he's the one card that can viably command a spirit tribal deck. Iname, Death Aspect to fill your graveyard (getting around 5 random creatures + utility stuff like Bloodghast and Nether Traitor + all the Eidolons available) or use some of the better channel abilities (namely Arashi, the Sky Asunder and cast him for cheap. Then start casting goodstuff spirits (Yosei, Karmic Gude, Souls of the Faultless, the Myojin, Kodama of the (...) Tree, Divinity of Pride, Deity of Scars, Oversoul of Dusk, Seedborn Muse, Windborn Muse). In case something goes wrong with Karador, keep Iname, Life Aspect around to backup all your creatures. Celestial Kirin and Infernal Kirik, with him and the right creature pool in your graveyard, could completely dominate the board and your opponents' hands. You could even build an aura sub-theme in there with Tallowisp, Evershrike, Will-o'-the-Wisp (good enchantment receptacle)...
N3wtn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Dude pals around with a spirit bear. Why? Because he's just that cool.
If you're running a Karador EDH deck, Ursine Fylgja is mandatory. You know, because 'Spirit Bear'. Spectral Bears works too.
Dragasm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I was blown away by this card, so I went to order him off of strikezone. Saw it was 99 cents for a foil. "WOW! Sign me up!" I thought. Strikezone package arrived. The look of disappointment on my face when I pulled that oversized card out of that envelope...I have since learned my lesson.
That aside, an awesome card in any format.
BongRipper420
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This makes me want to build an EDH deck, because is my favorite color combo, and this is one of the few available generals for that particular deck type. I like.
ndrew68
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Karador the chiefin ghost as he is affectionatly known in my play group. Such a fun general!
Ferlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Even if you aren't playing a deck with too much graveyard love (Entomb, Buried Alive, etc.), he is quite an effective "Non-issue" general.
A "non-issue" general is one that has a decent effect, but doesn't provide a massive threat on its own. An "issue" general would be someone like Krenko, Mob Boss or Sheoldred, Whispering One; Once they hit the field, your opponents, no matter how many you're playing against, will target you. Sure, you could TRY to convince your playmates to target your next door neighbour who's playing Sharuum and has a Phyrexian Metamorph in their grave and a Disciple of the Vault (infinite combo there), but they're going to think you're trying to fool them or trying to avoid their wrath (which you are).
But when he's there, he just allows you to choose from more spells to play, some of which your opponents can predict.
Lastly, I think Necra/Junk () are the best colours for EDH. Green has ramp, White has boardwipes, and Black has tutors, and that's just scratching the surface. Not that Red and/or Blue are weak, though.
There are kind of no good 9 CMC creatures in the game so if it is his current cost counting the reduction and does the number or increases due to command zone entry play any roll?
Comments (30)
If you actually play with the kind of people who would main deck cards like that *just* so they could screw up your deck, then I hope you can find better friends to play with someday. =/
Karador is one of the new generals that (gasp!) doesn't have a blatant target painted on his chest when he hits the field. As has been stated before, most players will go after Karador's graveyard rather than deal with him directly. But let's be honest, people - unless someone in your playgroup already packs tech against reanimator-style EDH decks, this guy is going to steamroll before too long.
I run Tormod's Crypt in all my EDH decks just in case, you never know when an effect like that will save your ass, especially when you go into a game not knowing your opponents' generals.
Don't get me wrong, I would love to run Karador Dregde EDH, but short of assembling leyline of sanctity + privileged position + greater auramancy + titania's song + ground seal, it can only end in an empty graveyard and a lot of tears.
Grave stuff is so uncommon a deck type, since its had scant few goodies to support it since Ravnica, that its somewhat inoccuous. except when its lethally real.
whereas any playgroup, any format will have 'the Goblin guy', 'the Green Beasties guy', 'the White Army guy', and 'the Blue CA hacker'. Black's good cards seem to be concentrated more around formats. Does Black even HAVE a 'Super Archetype' that defines the color? or does it just have cards that fill important roles where they are legal? I mean something that's always going to be Standard, and touches at least Extended as well if not Eternal.
Anyone else wanna see a turn 2 Terastodon? Just wreck everyone else's Sol Ring or Lightning Greaves.
I think I'll be making a deck around this guy. I already have the vast majority of cards for this type of deck. I would just need to temporarily reallocate them.
Once a high warchief of the Nessian centaurs, Karador was slain in a great battle. Now Karador haunts the valleys of his birth, an embittered king of a realm of wraiths and shades. He gathers ghostly minions for an assault on the rival warchief who deposed him.
He's in the best colours for graveyard- black/green gives you access to all the dredge, several shuffle effects and a lot of graveyard recursion. White gives you more graveyard recursion and, more importantly, leyline of sanctity effects. This stops most mass graveyard removal- only individually removing the cards or relic of progenitus gets past it.
The best part is his cost remains practical throughout the game. Unless you lose your entire graveyard, he can stay at 3-5 mana even after summoning him 8 or 9 times.
He's a CMC 8 creature for potentially 3 mana too (not unlike a certain egotist). Birthing pod into an Iona for example. Don't get me started on the food chain shenanigans.
Boneyard Wurm
Creeping Renaissance
Garruk Relentless
Ghoulcaller's Bell
Gnaw to the Bone
Grimoire of the Dead
Isolated Chapel
Kessig Cagebreakers
Moldgraf Monstrosity
Mulch (OK, a reprint, but still)
Spider Spawning
Splinterfright
Unburial Rites
Woodland Cemetery
Wreath of Geists
except that Eternal Witness will still cost {G}{G} to recast -
the colored mana symbols in the creature cost won't be reduced by Heartless Summoning
Iname, Death Aspect to fill your graveyard (getting around 5 random creatures + utility stuff like Bloodghast and Nether Traitor + all the Eidolons available) or use some of the better channel abilities (namely Arashi, the Sky Asunder and cast him for cheap. Then start casting goodstuff spirits (Yosei, Karmic Gude, Souls of the Faultless, the Myojin, Kodama of the (...) Tree, Divinity of Pride, Deity of Scars, Oversoul of Dusk, Seedborn Muse, Windborn Muse). In case something goes wrong with Karador, keep Iname, Life Aspect around to backup all your creatures.
Celestial Kirin and Infernal Kirik, with him and the right creature pool in your graveyard, could completely dominate the board and your opponents' hands.
You could even build an aura sub-theme in there with Tallowisp, Evershrike, Will-o'-the-Wisp (good enchantment receptacle)...
If you're running a Karador EDH deck, Ursine Fylgja is mandatory. You know, because 'Spirit Bear'.
Spectral Bears works too.
That aside, an awesome card in any format.
A "non-issue" general is one that has a decent effect, but doesn't provide a massive threat on its own. An "issue" general would be someone like Krenko, Mob Boss or Sheoldred, Whispering One; Once they hit the field, your opponents, no matter how many you're playing against, will target you.
Sure, you could TRY to convince your playmates to target your next door neighbour who's playing Sharuum and has a Phyrexian Metamorph in their grave and a Disciple of the Vault (infinite combo there), but they're going to think you're trying to fool them or trying to avoid their wrath (which you are).
But when he's there, he just allows you to choose from more spells to play, some of which your opponents can predict.
Lastly, I think Necra/Junk (
Nessian Courser
There are kind of no good 9 CMC creatures in the game so if it is his current cost counting the reduction and does the number or increases due to command zone entry play any roll?