"Underworld Cerberus:Not Today"

"Underworld Cerberus:Not Today"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

Persons traversing the road to the Underworld would find the familiar three headed dog guarding the way, fierce and unyielding. He guards the dead from the living and the dead from coming back. Of course in the world of magic we all know how porous this world from beyond the grave really is.

Reanimators abound in the EDH format that abuse all of the creatures in their graveyards. This card proves to stop each of them in their tracks.

The Black/Red , 5 mana costing Underworld Cerberus is a show stopper for all sorts of reanimating shenanigans. Af if there was not enough Reanimation hate they even decided to put on one a 6/6 body that is sure to deal damage when your opponent is running short on creatures with its first ability. Only 3 or more creatures could block it. One for each of its deadly heads!

The ability that hoses reanimation dreams is the 2nd one where Underworld Cerberus makes cards in Graveyards unaccessible. Spells and Abilities could not touch them. Your Obzedat's Aid could make any permanent come back from the grave but the Underworld Cerberus would say no to it. Comes into play abilities of creatures like Eternal Witness becomes void because there would no legal target. So instead of recycling a card you just get a 2/1 blocker on your side of the board. I would say that that is quite unfair. Many players who hate all these Graveyard tricks would surely rejoice. Necromancers on the other hand would still be able to deal with the 6/6 hound but when they do there is still a price to pay.

The Underworld Cerberus's triggered ability when it dies is that all players would return all creatures from his or her graveyard to his or her hand!!! The Underworld Cerberus is exiled so this ability could only be used once but reanimators would still be at a distinct disadvantage because their whole game plan is to put monsters where they could summon them for the cheap price of their reanimation spells. No such luck. I could see Underworld Cerberus as a really great addition to Rakdos , Lord of Riots EDH decks. In concert with a Sire of Insanity it offers a really crippling blow to all your opponents. While the Sire of Insanity is pretty great on its own , you never know when someone would draw a Reanimate Dead and control the board with a series of Reanimation. 

I must add that the last ability of Underworld Cerberus is quite a double edged sword.When all the creatures are returned to their hands some players would have access to Mana ramping , creature killers and card drawers. Not to mention big creatures that they could actually cast if it is in the later part of games. To counter act this it is always best to have the Sire of Insanity already in play so that this slight disadvantage is avoided. Black/ Red control has a new 6/6 body with way too many good abilities to pass up.

So what does Underworld Cerberus say to those who abuse the grave? Not today.