"Kheru Lichlord:Arise...Randomly"

"Kheru Lichlord:Arise...Randomly"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

From many angles Kheru Lichlord looks like it would suck. I mean 6 mana for a chance to get something back every upkeep from your graveyard for the amount of 3 mana...Randomly. I mean as a nercomancer you are actually trying to target a particular creature or particular spell for your advantage. Kheru Lichlord seems like a bit drunk while casting reanimation spells so you might end up with something great or something really mediocre. It really depends on what you have put in your graveyard.

Though the 3 mana cost to reanimate every upkeep is actually cheap. We just need to deal with the Random part. I mean you don't want to choose a sucky creature to reanimate. Yes it would gain Haste , Trample and Flying but that would be it , you would need to exile it at the beginning of your end step. And to prevent any more Necromantic shenanigans if that reanimated card would leave the battlefield , like let us say Sacrificed to an artifact or bounced back to your hand , that card is exiled instead. So any great targets from the grave can only be used once. So It has to be a very awesome game changing card otherwise the effort and mana to cast it is wasted.

So how do we deal with that annoying Random part getting in the way of you reanimating a potential game winner? You Delve. The Sultai mechanic works well around all these rare and mythical creatures. All you need to do is to leave your best reanimation targets in the graveyard while using an Empty the pits or even spot remove an opponents best creature with a Murderous Cut with Delve. Not only do you demoralize an opponent at the beginning of the end of their turns , you have also set up your best creatures for reanimation during your upkeep.Talk about being unfair. The Sultai Brood don't look like they are big on fairness. 

Aside from Delve , another solution is to return creatures from your graveyard back to your hand. Grave digger and Soul of Innistrad are really good at this particular action. Don't worry if your hand gets filled up with creature cards , you could always discard them so that Kheru Lichlord could reanimate them on your next upkeep.

Pharika,God of Affliction is a great fit for any deck that features the Kheru Lichlord since she could clean out non-desirable reanimation targets and also churn out a a 1/1 B/G Enchantment Creature snake with Deathtouch in the process. Not bad all in all because you still get something in return for your trouble. 

My theory with the Kheru Lichlord not being able to cast spells on specific targets?He just has terrible aim...but despite his aim Kheru Lichlord may still prove his worth soon.He better.