Modern Horizons 3 Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck Guide - MTG

For most Magic: The Gathering decks, a card in the graveyard is as good as gone. Not so with Modern Horizon 3's Graveyard Overdrive Commander deck, which as the name implies, kicks your graveyard into overdrive. It's an aggressive deck that looks to its graveyard to provide it with resources other strategies can't access, surprising foes with unexpectedly explosive plays.

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But players will need to be careful digging into their own graveyard for cards, lest they wind up digging their own grave. That's why this guide is here to help you get the most out of Graveyard Overdrive.

Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck List

Here's the full Graveyard Overdrive deck list broken down by card type.

Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck List

Commander (1)

Disa the Restless

Creatures (31)

Ignoble Hierarch

Stitcher's Supplier

Accursed Marauder

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Barrowgoyf

Burnished Hart

Eternal Witness

Gluttonous Hellkite

Polygoyf

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Yavimaya Elder

Anger

Bloodbraid Elf

Brawn

Coram, the Undertaker

Exterminator Magmarch

Graveshifter

Lhurgoyf

Mortivore

Pyrogoyf

Sawhorn Nemesis

Siege-Gang Lieutenant

Bloodbraid Challenger

Infested Thrinax

Junji, the Midnight Sky

Necrogoyf

Syr Konrad, the Grim

Izoni, Thousand-Eyed

Ziatora, the Incinerator

Broodmate Tyrant

Archon of Cruelty

Planeswalkers (3)

Grist, the Hunger Tide

Liliana, Death's Majesty

Garruk, Apex Predator

Sorcery (7)

Faithless Looting

Rampant Growth

Maelstrom Pulse

Syphon Mind

Chandra's Ignition

Final Act

Find / Finality

Instants (7)

Grapple with the Past

Grisly Salvage

Terminate

Kolaghan's Command

Riveteers Charm

Tempt with Mayhem

Bituminous Blast

Artifacts (9)

Sol Ring

Arcane Signet

Lightning Greaves

Talisman of Impulse

Talisman of Indulgence

Talisman of Resilience

The Reaver Cleaver

Maskwood Nexus

Altar of the Goyf

Enchantments (3)

Tarmogoyf Nest

Deathreap Ritual

Deadbridge Chant

Lands (39)

Canyon Slough

Cinder Glade

Command Tower

Dakmor Salvage

Demolition Field

Evolving Wilds

Exotic Orchard

Forest (5)

Forgotten Cave

Kessig Wolf Run

Mossfire Valley

Mountain (3)

Myriad Landscape

Path of Ancestry

Raging Ravine

Riveteers Overlook

Savage Lands

Shadowblood Ridge

Sheltered Thicket

Smoldering Marsh

Swamp (4)

Tainted Peak

Tainted Wood

Temple of Abandon

Temple of Malady

Temple of Malice

Terramorphic Expanse

Tranquil Thicket

Twisted Landscape

Viridescent Bog

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Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck Themes

The main theme to Graveyard Overdrive is graveyard recursion mechanics, with creatures, sorceries, and enchantments all digging into your graveyard to bring back what might have been lost. There are cards to quickly fill your graveyard, such as Stitcher's Supplier and Faithless Looting, and then plenty of cards that bring milled cards back to either your hand (Graveshifter, Eternal Witness) or even directly into play (Deadbridge Chant, Liliana, Death's Majesty).

On top of that, Graveyard Overdrive is full of aggressive cards that look to leap ahead of your opponents. Bloodbraid Elf's cascade ability gives you a second spell for free, while Sawhorn Nemesis will double the damage taken by a selected opponent. Graveyard Overdrive comes out swinging and then uses cards in its graveyard to keep the pressure on until it achieves victory.

Graveyard Overdrive also has a secondary Lhurgoyf-typal theme, with Disa the Restless making free Tarmogoyfs whenever anyone on the team manages to deal damage to a player. She can also resurrect any Lhurgoyf that manages to find its way into the graveyard from anywhere other than the battlefield.

It should be noted that there are very few Lhurgoyfs in Graveyard Overdrive, so this secondary theme plays a fairly minor role.

Besides Disa, there are two other potential commanders in Graveyard Overdrive. The first is Coram, the Undertaker, who might be better suited as the deck's commander. Coram gets larger as bigger creatures wind up in everyone's graveyards, he mills decks for more recursion targets, and he provides access to a milled spell or land every turn--all things that synergize well with Graveyard Overdrive's plans.

The third potential commander is Ziatora, the Incinerator. This Demon Dragon isn't bad, but Ziatora ideally wants either a token generator or a high-power creature that further benefits from being sacrificed. Graveyard Overdrive has a few cards that like to be sacrificed, but they typically do it themselves for a beneficial effect.

We're going to stick with Disa as the commander for Graveyard Overdrive, but Coram really is a great fit, so feel free to relegate Disa if you prefer Coram.

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Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck Analysis

Graveyard Overdrive is a solid offering out of the box. You've got good mana fixing with Ignoble Hierarch, Rampant Growth, and the full set of Talismans, you have a decent suite of answer cards like Maelstrom Pulse and Terminate, card draw from things like Syphon Mind and Deathreap Ritual, and significant threats in the form of Broodmate Tyrant and Archon of Cruelty.

But, it's not without room for improvement. One of the biggest flaws of Graveyard Overdrive is its lack of Lhurgoyfs, limiting your commander's potential. Disa the Restless can make plenty of Tarmogoyfs, but the odds of Grisly Salvage finding any Lhurgoyfs to bring into play with Disa's help are very low indeed.

Disa could also use a bit of help making those Tarmogoyfs. While Graveyard Overdrive has quite a few hasty creatures, they generally lack any sort of evasion to ensure their ability to connect, which means Disa can have a hard time raising her Tarmogoyf army.

A final issue with Graveyard Overdrive is a somewhat curious mana base. It has a lot of cycling lands, although not much to do with them in the absence of Life from the Loam. It also has quite a lot of mana in general with 39 plus five mana rocks accounting for nearly half the deck, and that's not counting mana-fetching spells like Sakura-Tribe Elder and Rampant Growth.

It's never bad to have a lot of mana, but that sort is usually best paired with a slower control deck, and Graveyard Overdrive looks a little more aggressive. Graveyard Overdrive also has a few cards that don't seem to fit the deck, or could otherwise improve the deck by being replaced by something better. We'll talk about how to improve things a bit in the next section.

Underperforming Cards

Underperforming Cards

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds

Exterminator Magmarch

Sawhorn Nemesis

Siege-Gang Lieutenant

Infested Thrinax

Tempt with Mayhem

Bituminous Blast

The Reaver Cleaver

Stitcher’s Supplier

Terramorphic Expanse

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is great, but you're not always going to have the most powerful creatures, and she doesn't really provide much for the deck other than a bunch of mana. Exterminator Magmarch needs more kill/burn spells to be effective. Sawhorn Nemesis is a great card, but one that'll put a target on your head more than anything else.

I love Siege-Gang Lieutenant, but every planeswalker in this deck already produces tokens, and this officer can only sacrifice his own Goblins, so he gets the axe. Infested Thrinax also produces tokens, but in a very specific and situational way that doesn't seem worth the five-mana price tag.

Tempt with Mayhem is great fun, but doesn't fit Graveyard Overdrive's strategy at all. Bituminous Blast's cascade keyword tries to attach removal to a tempo boost, but as with Infested Thrinax, five mana is a lot for something that's not guaranteed to hit.

Stitcher's Supplier is a one-time mill that can easily be replaced by something that provides an ongoing source of mill, and The Reaver Cleaver could be replaced by something that gives Disa evasion rather than treasure tokens. The deck could also stand to lose land, and we'll pick Terramorphic Expanse since the deck already has Evolving Wilds as well as several other crack lands.

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Graveyard Overdrive Commander Deck Budget Upgrades

What are we going to replace those lands with? More mill, more Lhurgoyfs, and more ways to make Disa a more effective commander.

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Name

Reason

Aftermath Analyst

Finally, a good reason for Graveyard Overdrive to have all those cycling lands. Playing this card gives you a three-card mill, and then sacrificing it brings all those lands from your graveyard into play. And with the deck's various graveyard recursion mechanics, you might be able to do this more than once per game.

Buried Alive

Thankfully reprinted in Modern Horizons 3, Buried Alive allows you to search your deck for three Lhurgoyfs and then bring them into play so long as Disa is on the board. Which is a good thing since there are still not all that many Lhurgoyfs in the deck even after these tweaks.

Combustible Gearhulk

Either you get to mill three cards and deal damage, or you draw three cards. Either way, this card is doing work.

Golgari Grave-Troll

Life from the Loam is a little too expensive to consider a budget upgrade, but Golgari Grave-Troll provides an easy Dredge source with great longevity attached.

Terravore

It's not the best Lhurgoyf, but it's a Lhurgoyf, and you'll likely have a lot of land in the graveyard thanks to all your mill effects.

Lively Dirge

You'll only be able to search for one Lhurgoyf with this card, but you can also pay the spree cost to resurrect other things too. A great fit for Graveyard Overdrive.

Oversold Cemetery

With so much mill, there's a high likelihood that you'll eventually wind up with a graveyard that contains more than four creatures. Once you do, you get a freebie back to your hand every turn.

Skull Prophet

Either you get mana or you get mill, but either way, this card helps way more and way longer than Stitcher's Supplier.

Taurean Mauler

Look! A Lhurgoyf! Okay, it's not a Lhurgoyf, but it is a Changeling, which means it still counts as a Lhurgoyf for Disa. And it's also a cheap escalating threat.

Whispersilk Cloak

Keep Disa alive and make her unblockable. A great way to win games with an army of Tarmogoyfs.

Other Budget Upgrades To Consider

• It's not a budget card, but Life from the Loam would be a great addition to Graveyard Overdrive if you can snag it.
• You might like some additional removal than comes standard in Graveyard Overdrive. Putrefy, Beast Within, Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy, Chaos Warp, and Deathsprout are all good options.
• Want better board sweepers than Find/Finality and Chandra's Ignition? Blasphemous Act, Gaze of Granite, and Pernicious Deed are all great options.
• Rogue's Passage provides even more evasion for Disa to produce Tarmagoyfs.
• Fellwar Stone is an oft-overlooked mana rock that usually provides every color of mana with no downside in multiplayer Commander games. Consider instead of a Talisman.
• A lot of Graveyard Overdrive's lands are fairly cheap and could stand some improvement. Try subbing in Copperline Gorge, Blooming Marsh, Blackcleave Cliffs, Rockfall Vale, Deathcap Glade, and Haunted Ridge.

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