by Richard Rowell, Gaming Successfully Staff
Relentless Dead from Shadows Over Innistrad may be one of the best Zombie creatures ever printed. This Mythic Rare creature with Menace (can only be blocked by two or more creatures) can be returned to your hand when it dies for a single Black mana. But that’s not what makes it so good and worthy of Mythic Rare status. It’s the second ability. When Relentless Dead dies, you also have the option of paying X, where X is the converted mana cost of another Zombie in your graveyard.
Cards that replace themselves are usually pretty good. But the best part about Relentless Dead is that you can actually get back another Relentless Dead from your graveyard with this second ability. Best of all, since both of those "when it dies" abilities trigger at the same time, you can actually use both. Returning it to your hand and getting a Zombie onto the field from the grave is extremely powerful. This seems like an easy four-of in a competitive Zombie deck. Zombies were good during the first Innistrad block, and perhaps they will be good once again.
It’s also cool that Relentless Dead’s art references that of a very popular enchantment called Endless Ranks of the Dead. Endless Ranks is extremely popular in Zombie decks in both the casual environment and in Commander. Relentless Dead seems like an auto-include in any Zombie Commander deck. But this is one that could definitely shine in Standard, and given the proper support, may even make Zombie Tribal in Modern a reality.
Cards that replace themselves are usually pretty good. But the best part about Relentless Dead is that you can actually get back another Relentless Dead from your graveyard with this second ability. Best of all, since both of those "when it dies" abilities trigger at the same time, you can actually use both. Returning it to your hand and getting a Zombie onto the field from the grave is extremely powerful. This seems like an easy four-of in a competitive Zombie deck. Zombies were good during the first Innistrad block, and perhaps they will be good once again.
It’s also cool that Relentless Dead’s art references that of a very popular enchantment called Endless Ranks of the Dead. Endless Ranks is extremely popular in Zombie decks in both the casual environment and in Commander. Relentless Dead seems like an auto-include in any Zombie Commander deck. But this is one that could definitely shine in Standard, and given the proper support, may even make Zombie Tribal in Modern a reality.
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