Pointed Discussion

Way fun in zombies! Reusable to! Yeah, maybe a bunch of zombies in your hand should be on the board already but with graveborn muse filling your hand up again, not too bad after that eh?

Not really a fan of this card because the chances of being able to reveal enough cards to make it a 3/3 is fairly slim, let alone make it better than that. I prefer phylactery lich, for the same cost.

I want to like it, but... it sucks. The first time you play it it's alright. Will be most likely 3/3 or something like that in a zombie deck, which is alright. However, returning it to your hand once it dies, and replaying it, costs a total of BBBBBB. That is quite a lot... especially since it will be rather small the more the game progresses. If returning it would cost 2 life or something like that, then it would be nice. But not for that much mana...

In the deck I use it in, this is usually a 6/6, you just have to put it in a deck that puts zombies in your hand for it to be good. I dump zombies in the graveyard and then use Infernal Caretaker to return to hand, this means when Ghastly Remains is being played I usually have a full hand of zombies.

Well, you can ignore everything about this card except the last ability and you see it can be another fine cog in a machine. Monoblack EDH deck could make use of it just to discard it repeatedly. To an Undead Gladiator, for example although you don't have to get fancy; can just be fodder for a Stronghold rats or whatever. Not much, but every bit of card advantage can help and it's not so pricey if you are using Cabal Coffers/crypt of agadeem, type cards.

@ tommy, there are much better things to discard...

This is one of my least favorite cards in Magic. The reason I hate it so much is that it looks like it should be a fun card to play with, right up until you try to use it. It always disappoints when you try to cast it. If you try to make it less disappointing, you only end up hurting your board position by withholding cards. Sure, you could use it as a bad Squee. Or, you could just use Squee and save yourself the headache.

This card looks like it should be fun, but is always disappointing in the CMC to casting cost ratio. It also forces you to do unfun things in order to get even marginal utility out of it. If Wizards' goal was to make this card a "skill tester" they don't need to make skill testers as punishing or unfun as this. A badly implemented card on every level.

Ideally you want (on the draw), Swamp -> Dark Ritual -> Ghastly Remains, reveal 5 zombies, have fun with your 5/5 while it lasts.

i LOVE this guy! whats all this 'at best a 3/3' talk i frequently have a 5/5, 6/6 or better, you just need extra card drawing. Phyrexian arena is good, graveborn muse can get pretty nuts, OR pair him with yawgmoth's bargain for REALY good times! Just pitch all those extra cards to zombie infestation, then pitch a Gemplam Polluter just to be kind of a jerk *shrug*
anyhow, in decks that can keep their hands full, or more than full, this guys is a great beat stick

This reminds me of Ghastly from Pokemon :P oh... the childhood ^^

Honestly? He can be interesting with just Death Baron. A 1/1 with deathtouch is pretty poor for , but it can scare off even the largest attacker. Meanwhile, the Remains can bring itself back forever (as long as you have wads of black mana sitting around) and can pick up a handful of +1/+1 counters from other, bigger guys in your hand. Say, who's a zombie that is useful in your hand and can also let you ramp up the swamps? Korlash!

So, yes. The Remains aren't great, but they definitely have some interesting applications.