Upgrading Commander Precon - Graveyard Overdrive (Disa the Restless)

Modern Horizons 3 surprised us with four new precon Commander decks, which is unusual for a Modern-focused set. Nonetheless, we as Commander players will happily take these four decks and upgrade them.

Today, out of the four new decks, we'll upgrade Lhurgoyf, Graveyard Overdrive's typal deck, with Disa, the Restless as our commander! This deck focuses on creating Tarmogoyf tokens by dealing combat damage to our opponents. It also often interacts with the graveyard.

This is a Jund deck, which is perfect, as this was also the color combination players used with Tarmogoyf in Modern in the past. We can even say that this deck, Graveyard Overdrive, actually pays tribute to this Modern era.

There are two commanders we can use - Disa the Restless and Coram, the Undertaker. As we said before, we'll use Disa the Restless as our commander and build another list for Coram, the Undertaker that focuses on great cards and an incredible amount of graveyard recursion.

As for Disa the Restless, we'll build a list with almost all the Lhurgoyfs we can, to really focus on her abilities, which reanimate Lhurgoyfs and create Tarmogoyf tokens. We'll also bring various cards that give more power and toughness to these Lhurgoyfs, and even play some battle cards.

So, without further ado, let's see our upgrade!

Cards We Removed

We removed 16 cards in all to open some space to add new cards. Then, we removed 4 basic lands and made our land total 35.

A few other cards felt too out of place to keep as well, so we removed them, like Bloodbraid Elf, Bloodbraid Challenger, Tempt with Mayhem, Siege-Gang Lieutenant, and others. We removed Bituminous Blast because it's simply inefficient as a removal.

This deck also didn't have much ramp, so we added a few more and removed a few suboptimal ones, like Burnished Hart. The original list had many cards that, even though they made sense with the Lhurgoyf and graveyard theme, were only there as fillers.

Let's see which cards we added to improve this list!

Ramp and Removal

As we mentioned before, this deck only has a little bit of ramp. It has the 3 Talismans, Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Ignoble Hierarch.

So, to play even more ramp early on, we added Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, and Farseek. These last two cards can also get you cards like Cinder Glade and Canyon Slough, respectively.

This list also had just a few removals, and the ones that were included were quite awful, so we added a few removals that hit many targets, are cheap, and thus, more efficient.

They are Assassin's Trophy, Beast Within, and Tear Asunder. These three cards fit our build really well, particularly because they hit any type of permanent. Only Tear Asunder can't target lands; Assassin's Trophy and Beast Within remove literally any type of permanent there is.

These three cards target a wide array of cards, so we won't be limited to removing only creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, for instance.

New Lhurgoyfs and Other Interactions

As Disa the Restless ability triggers with Lhurgoyfs, it makes sense to bring a few more of them into our build. This deck already had a few new, interesting Lhurgoyfs: Barrowgoyf, Polygoyf, and Pyrogoyf, for instance.

So, to keep them company, we added the classic, unmissable, Tarmogoyf, the new Nethergoyf, and the old Terravore, which has its own evasion thanks to its trample.

We also added Taurean Mauler, as it is, after all, a Lhurgoyf, besides many other creatures!

However, we needed more than just Lhurgoyfs: we needed more interaction with our commander.

Maskwood Nexus gives us great discard plays, so, to make the most out of it, we added Buried Alive. If you put three Lhurgoyfs in your graveyard with this card, they'll go onto your board directly through your commander. However, if Maskwood Nexus is in play, then any creature that goes to your graveyard will instead go to your board. There are some incredible options in the original list to do this, like Ziatora, the Incinerator, Archon of Cruelty, and Junji, the Midnight Sky.

To give evasion to our Lhurgoyfs, we added Garruk's Uprising. After all, what's the point of a 7/8 or 8/9 creature if you can't deal combat damage with it to create more Tarmogoyfs? That's what this enchantment will do for us, besides the fact it will draw you lots of cards if you play it with your many big Lhurgoyfs in play.

By the way, to grow these Lhurgoyfs, we added another type of permanent to our build: battles. We use Invasion of Zendikar to ramp with its battle side, and its Awakened Skyclave side too.

Invasion of Shandalar will get us our permanents back with its battle side, and, later on, will let us put permanents from our hand into play directly with its Leyline Surge side.

Finally, we added Invasion of Ikoria to tutor some useful non-human creature directly onto our battlefield, like Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Sawhorn Nemesis, or even the recently released Six. Six mills cards when we attack and lets us put a Lhurgoyf directly on the board if we're a bit lucky, but it also casts permanents from our graveyard with its retrace. It's a great reanimate source, and just asks you to discard a land.

This is our upgraded Graveyard Overdrive list! Our changes make the most out of the deck's mechanic and game plan. Nonetheless, the original list had some great cards for graveyard recursion, like Anger, Brawn, Graveshifter, and Eternal Witness, besides alternative ways to deal damage to our opponents, like Ziatora, the Incinerator and Syr Konrad, the Grim.

A few cards that interact quite a lot with our opponent, like Maskwood Nexus, surprised me considerably, as well as The Reaver Cleaver, which ramps and gives us evasion. In general, the original list is quite interesting, and we only had to change 16 cards in all. Piloting Graveyard Overdrive seems quite fun, even more with these upgrades!

Alternative List with Coram, the Undertaker

This Coram, the Undertaker list is quite different from the one above, considering it doesn't focus on Lhurgoyfs.

There are many creatures in this list with a lot of power to buff Coram, the Undertaker, such as Malignus, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Lord of Extinction, and Yargle and Multani, for instance. We also added many cards to make the most out of Coram's effect, which lets us cast spells that were put in graveyards that turn, like Buried Alive, Entomb, Vile Entomber, and Gravebreaker Lamia.

This is a very recursive deck with many answers. It also has the potential to kill your opponents fast with commander damage, thanks to its giant creatures and also Rogue's Passage.

Out of the four precon Commander decks in Modern Horizons 3, this is the one I'd definitely pick out on a precon table. Even without any upgrades, it's a really cool deck with a lot of recursion, and should be even cooler after you upgrade it.

Did you like this list? Do you prefer Coram, the Undertaker? Did you miss any cards? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!