This can be crazy good in Multiplayer. Altar of Dementia is a great enabler here.
Alongside Deathbringer Thoctar or Vengeful Dead, you don't even need the combat step...
tezcat
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
This was one of my favorite cards from the Mirage block, but only after the Tempest block had been released. Combining this card with Goblin Bombardment, I made what I called a "Tombstone Bombardment" deck featuring a ton of creatures and a few ways to get them into my graveyard (e.g. Song of Blood, Morgue Thrull, Rats of Rath). The fact that the effect triggers during each player's upkeep is what makes the combo so devastating and quick. With at least ten creatures in your graveyard, you will defeat a single opponent at full life after paying the upkeep cost only once.
Screw it, I'm getting a tattoo on my forehead that says "TOKENS GO TO THE GRAVEYARD."
scumbling1
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This is such a fun multiplayer card -- there are mutlitudes of ways to capitalize on it.
Tombstone Stairwell definitely demands you build around it. So you have to find it first; you can tutor it up with a Dimir House Guard, and you already have at least one zombie for each of your turns.
Then you need to take advantage of what the card does. For one thing, it puts a lot of bodies onto the battlefield. Essence Warden, and her whole family of similar cards likes that. Your opponents are going to be getting the creatures, too. Why not take advantage of those 'freebies' with Blood Seeker or Noxious Ghoul? (the tokens are zombies, afterall) The new Suture Priest gives you a little of both worlds.
The Stairwell also puts a lot of creatures into the graveyard as well; unlike many other token generators, this card has each player sacrifice his or her tokens rather than exile them. If you want to gain life off of this rare feature, add Deathgreeter, Grim Feast, or Dross Harvester. To turn the tokens into artillery as they die, there are Vicious Shadows, Hissing Iguanar, Stalking Vengeance, and Vengeful Dead. Or, as creatures die, you could just level everything with Grave Pact and Last Laugh.
Afraid of the opponents’ tokens? You shouldn’t be, as any of the life gain effects already mentioned should mitigate any zombies’ damage that comes your way. But if you’re still a little hesitant, black has plenty of graveyard removal available to it. Leyline of the Void will prevent the opponents from ever amassing an army (and if you’re already using Dimir House Guard you can make the two cards appear next to each other). You could also use black’s newer Propaganda, Norn’s Annex, which would make the cost of attacking you mostly pointless.
Oh, and you can use Tombstone Stairwell to blow up your opponent's Forsaken Wastes without losing five life!
rulesinquisitor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
FFXIK: I guess it's already been said here a few times, but TOKENS DO GO TO THE GRAVEYARD. They simply cease to exist shortly thereafter. Meaning: a token that "dies" (to use the new M12 terminology) will trigger abilities that care about when a creature dies. So, when your Tombstone Stairwell-produced zombie tokens die every end step, they will trigger Vengeful Dead, Dross Harvester, Deathgreeter, Vicious Shadows, Grim Feast, Fecundity, Hissing Iguanar, Stalking Vengeance, Last Laugh, Grave Pact, and any other permanent that cares about creatures dying. However, the tokens do cease to exist, which is probably the source of confusion for you. This just means they won't count toward things that care about the number of creatures in your graveyard, like Mortivore's P/T, and they can't be returned to play or to your hand with things like Raise Dead or Living Death.
applecorn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Vengeful Dead and Gempalm Polluter have been mentioned. If you are going with the "zombie deck" route, why not toss in a few Noxious Ghouls? this will give -1/-1 all around and 0 toughness goes to graveyard. ergo, more options for more zombies to return to play. thus killing more and more creatures. each time the tokens die, Vengeful Dead.
I like the idea of playing a Massacre Wurm with this in play... even meaner if you play both before their turn, so they get to see it coming! - only problem is all the Bojuka Bog etc effects in EDH - too often my opponents have no creatures in the graveyard to make it lethal. but then I just feed my tokens to Ashnod's Altar + Exsanguinate and... run
Comments (15)
Alongside Deathbringer Thoctar or Vengeful Dead, you don't even need the combat step...
Tombstone Stairwell definitely demands you build around it. So you have to find it first; you can tutor it up with a Dimir House Guard, and you already have at least one zombie for each of your turns.
Then you need to take advantage of what the card does. For one thing, it puts a lot of bodies onto the battlefield. Essence Warden, and her whole family of similar cards likes that. Your opponents are going to be getting the creatures, too. Why not take advantage of those 'freebies' with Blood Seeker or Noxious Ghoul? (the tokens are zombies, afterall) The new Suture Priest gives you a little of both worlds.
The Stairwell also puts a lot of creatures into the graveyard as well; unlike many other token generators, this card has each player sacrifice his or her tokens rather than exile them. If you want to gain life off of this rare feature, add Deathgreeter, Grim Feast, or Dross Harvester. To turn the tokens into artillery as they die, there are Vicious Shadows, Hissing Iguanar, Stalking Vengeance, and Vengeful Dead. Or, as creatures die, you could just level everything with Grave Pact and Last Laugh.
Afraid of the opponents’ tokens? You shouldn’t be, as any of the life gain effects already mentioned should mitigate any zombies’ damage that comes your way. But if you’re still a little hesitant, black has plenty of graveyard removal available to it. Leyline of the Void will prevent the opponents from ever amassing an army (and if you’re already using Dimir House Guard you can make the two cards appear next to each other). You could also use black’s newer Propaganda, Norn’s Annex, which would make the cost of attacking you mostly pointless.
Oh, and you can use Tombstone Stairwell to blow up your opponent's Forsaken Wastes without losing five life!
even meaner if you play both before their turn, so they get to see it coming!
-
only problem is all the Bojuka Bog etc effects in EDH -
too often my opponents have no creatures in the graveyard to make it lethal.
but then I just feed my tokens to Ashnod's Altar + Exsanguinate and...
run