Stock the graveyard with creatures and artifacts while maintaining blockers, then use discounted threats and targeted recursion to turn trades into more material.
Stock the graveyard with creatures and artifacts while maintaining blockers, then use discounted threats and targeted recursion to turn trades into more material.
Commit when repeated useful cards and enough support make a complete deck in these colors.
Four checks while you draft
Can I affect the board before the payoff?
The body mills three and can recover any land already in your graveyard. It helps hit land drops without adding a land directly to the battlefield, so it is support rather than true ramp.
Do my actual cards enable this plan?
Use Pothole Mole or Dredger's Insight to fill the graveyard and preserve land drops. Cast Chitin Gravestalker at its reduced cost, or return a milled threat with Carrion Cruiser or Broodheart Engine.
Can I stop their strongest play and finish a stalled game?
Stock the graveyard with creatures and artifacts while maintaining blockers, then use discounted threats and targeted recursion to turn trades into more material.
Choose the missing job before another reward that needs it.
The key card is present but its support is thin.
Prioritize useful support such as Pothole Mole or Dredger's Insight.
Use Pothole Mole or Dredger's Insight to fill the graveyard and preserve land drops. Cast Chitin Gravestalker at its reduced cost, or return a milled threat with Carrion Cruiser or Broodheart Engine.
Your deck enables the plan but is losing the early turns.
Take a castable early creature or efficient answer before another expensive payoff.
An artifact creature card reduces Gravestalker's cost once, not twice. Do not exile every graveyard card for another benefit when your discounts and recursion depend on keeping them.
The support is missing
Favor independently useful creatures and interaction if the narrow support does not arrive.
Repeated useful cards are clues, not proof that the colors are open.
An artifact creature card reduces Gravestalker's cost once, not twice. Do not exile every graveyard card for another benefit when your discounts and recursion depend on keeping them.
Target the graveyard card a recursion ability names, or reduce the graveyard before a discounted threat is cast. Once a spell's cost is paid, later graveyard removal does not increase that paid cost.
Thundering Broodwagon62.7% GIH · 23,030 instances
Back on Track61.2% GIH · 13,721 instances
Autarch Mammoth60.1% GIH · 10,554 instances
Fang-Druid Summoner59.6% GIH · 9,206 instances
Pothole Mole59.6% GIH · 31,773 instances
Molt Tender59.6% GIH · 10,784 instances17Lands ↗ · Feb 11–Mar 18, 2025 · at least 100 card-in-hand instances in this pair’s no-splash decks. Choose the job your deck needs first.
Agonasaur Rex 3GGFive mana supplies an 8/8 trampler, while cycling for three can protect an existing creature or Vehicle, add two counters and grant trample before drawing. Choose the mode for the board: the cycling trigger can save a threat without committing the Rex as a creature.
Lumbering Worldwagon 2GEntry finds a tapped basic even before you can crew it, and later attacks repeat the search while increasing its land-based power. Crew 4 is a real deck-building requirement; keep a crew source available rather than counting this as a self-starting three-mana attacker.
March of the World Ooze 3GGGDevelop several creatures before turning all their base sizes into 6/6; counters and other modifiers still apply afterward. Opposing spells cast outside their controller's turn give you Elephants, but you still need creatures and enough green sources for the six-mana investment.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship 5Its entry deals three to an opposing creature or planeswalker even without crew. Keep three crew power for later flying attacks and repeated damage; the attack trigger can clear a blocker, but it cannot target the opposing player.17Lands Premier Draft ↗ · Feb 11–Mar 18, 2025 · 100-instance minimum
Pothole MoleThe body mills three and can recover any land already in your graveyard. It helps hit land drops without adding a land directly to the battlefield, so it is support rather than true ramp.
Dredger's InsightThe entry mills four and may recover a qualifying card from those four. Later graveyard departures gain life, but one event moving several artifact or creature cards still gives one life.
Examples apply the printed rules; judge the board, costs and timing.
| One-pick | Sealed |
|---|---|
| With one pick at a time, fill the missing early play, answer or support card before adding another narrow payoff. The plan must work without drawing its key card. | Compare complete builds from the cards you opened. Keep the castable curve and interaction even if the draft theme is only partly supported. |
Chitin Gravestalker
Carrion Cruiser
