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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Call to the Grave
Image from Wizards.com

Call to the Grave
M12

Reviewed July 13, 2011

Constructed: 4.00
Casual: 4.12
Limited: 3.50
Multiplayer: 4.40

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Call to the Grave

This can be a very frightening tool for a Zombie deck. If you control Zombies but no creatures that aren't Zombies, you don't have to sacrifice a creature to it. You knew that and stocked your deck with Zombies, but your opponents are quite unlikely to have nothing but Zombies in play, which means they'll be losing creatures every turn. And what's worse, once they run out of creatures on the board, as long as you can keep at least one Zombie around, the Call of the Grave will sit and wait for them to play another one, meaning unless they have a creature with haste, they don't get to attack again without removing the Call. Which means their half of the field is empty, and your half has Zombies with which to attack them! Between this and Syphon Flesh, Zombies are going to be quite the attractive tribe soon-- especially in multiplayer formats.

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 4
Limited- 3
Multiplayer- 4.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Call to the Grave

I remember when this card was first released in Scourge. Back then, it was considered a cool concept, and it remains a powerhouse in casual Magic; but competitive Standard was ruled by Goblins and Wild Mongrel, so it never really got a chance in that scene. It's been a long time since then. Has the success of Caw-Blade opened people's eyes to the potential power of control decks with lots of creatures? Will Innistrad's Castlevania-style setting catapult zombies back to the forefront of tournament Magic? Will this generation of casual players embrace a version of The Abyss you can build around and people probably won't punch you in the face? I wouldn't be surprised at all if the answer to all three of these questions is yes.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Call to the Grave which is a five mana Black spell which has each player sacrifice a non-zombie creature during their upkeep and if no creature is in play Call of the Grave is sacrificed. 
This works well in a zombie deck, supported by other removal, and can keep an opponent from putting much pressure on you outside of using a creature with Haste.  The casting cost is a little high and swarm decks may overwhelm the effect, but in a dedicated zombie deck against anyone not playing zombies the advantage adds up the longer the game goes, especially in multiplayer.
 
In Limited you may not have any zombies to really make the most of this, so it will more than likely impact you as much as the opponent.  Even if your pool has a zombie or two they may not be available when Call to the Grave is which makes it a fairly poor choice to play in Sealed and a weak first pick in Booster despite being both a rare and removal.  The opponent having control over the target is an issue as well when they have two or more in play which restricts the value of this as a topdeck in a bad situation.  In the format a targeted removal or reliable creature is less likely to work against you as only three zombies are common and the other three are rare.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

     Welcome to another card of the day review here at Pojo.com. Today we are looking at Call to the Grave from M12. Call to the Grave is an enchantment that costs four generic and one black mana. Call to the Grave says that at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, they sacrifice a non-zombie creature. Then, at the beginning of the end step, if there are no creatures in play, sacrifice Call to the Grave.

     Zombie decks are always around, and always mean. M12 brings with it some of the best tools to make zombie decks make a major reappearance in Standard. And Call to the Grave is a staple for such decks. The forced sacrifice can mean the difference in a game, since it doesn’t target, and indestructible creatures will also be sacrificed. And if you are running it in a zombie deck, than the likelihood that there will never be a creature in play is more likely to happen after a Day of Judgment. And the fact that even in multiplayer it is hitting everybody at the beginning of they’re turn.

     An amazing card, which like I said should aide in the rise of zombie decks in Standard play.
 
Limited: 5/5
Casual: 5/5
Constructed: 5/5
Multiplayer: 5/5


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