Card in Review - Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

While throwing creatures at your opponent's face is a good time, nothing's more frustrating than having them killed off. Between blockers, kill spells and you occasionally being forced to chump-block, it's not often a critter can stick to the board for long. So rather than try to fight the inevitable, why not embrace it? If they die, so be it - bring them back as many times as you need!

Sounds a little lofty, doesn't it? We can't all be Nether Spirit. Well, so long as you don't mind cavalry charges, you can play all of your creatures from your graveyard just as easily as from your hand - while your crucial card is in play, that is. If you're picturing some mana-hungry behemoth like Debtors' Knell or Sheoldred, worry not. All you need is 3 paltry mana and a little creative deckbuilding, and the Dead Men of Dunharrow will be yours to command!

That wily scourge of Stromgald, Haakon makes sure his knight buddies come back for seconds and thirds and fourths and... you get the idea. What we have here is a very peculiar, very thought-provoking card. He's a three mana 3/3 that you can freely play from your graveyard - but not from your hand! To keep you from eternally replaying him willy-nilly once he's in place, you get shocked every time he dies, so you have incentive to keep him safe and sound once he's in play. Most interesting, of course, is that second ability - once he's out, you can play any other knight from your graveyard again and again without consequence. Talk about card advantage!

So a knight tribal deck with some way to get him in the graveyard can certainly take advantage of this recursive engine, but fortunately there's a little more to this powerful creature than simply replaying dead knights. It turns out there are a few ways to capitalize on his ability, or to reap a little extra synergy while you're at it.

Set Up Us the Bomb

So first thing's first: you need to make sure you can actually use Haakon before you can take advantage of his ability. So how do you get him in the graveyard reliably?

A quick and easy way to stuff him in the morgue without even having to draw into him is Entomb. Drawing an Entomb after he's already active is hardly a dead card either, as you essentially get to grab any Knight card you want and make it available to be played from the graveyard. Too small an effect? Triple your returns with Buried Alive, which essentially tutors for Haakon and two other cards of your choice. Eat your heart out, Behold the Beyond!

Of course, sometimes you'll just draw Haakon, in which case having a way to discard is key. It's also an easy source for value after you have him out, because again, a knight in your graveyard is no harder to play than one in your hand, so you might as well always discard them for something. Perhaps most fitting is the Mercenary Knight, a Portal-exclusive twist on Hidden Horror that requires you to discard a creature when he shows up. A 4/4 for three mana is still pretty darn good, and him setting up Haakon is just gravy - nevermind that you can later recur him, thanks to his knightly status. There aren't many others in the way of knights who ask for discards - Markov Dreadknight qualifies, but at five to play and three to activate, he's probably far too slow. If you don't mind splashing red, Olivia, Mobilized for War is another good option, granting your creatures haste and a permanent boost while being a 3/3 flyer for 3. Call the Bloodline isn't a creature, but it can trade Haakon in for a knight token - handy if you have a tribal build. Lim-Dûl's Paladin isn't especially good, but it fits the bill and is one of my personal favourite cards!

Of course, not all of your discard can come from knights. Cheap looting spells, such as Careful Study or Faithless Looting, let you draw cards while ditching knights to be recurred later. Another useful outlet includes spellshapers, which let you pitch any card for a useful effect. Devout Witness, Notorious Assassin and Mageta the Lion all provide key removal while setting up your knights for recursion. Discard Haakon to Bog Witch and you can immediately use the mana to play him!

Recurring Knightmare

Haakon's usefulness in a knight-centric deck is not to be understated. So long as you can get him into your graveyard even semi-reliably, he can add immense value to the late-game punch of a tribal deck.

Knights exist mostly in white and black, though Haakon could contribute to anything from a monoblack list to a multicoloured mess that seeks to capitalize on anything that wants to be played from your graveyard. White Knight and Black Knight, in addition to being the most classic of creatures, provide two of the most desirable protections. The paired Pump Knights - in both first striking and flying flavours - do the same and provide mana sinks for a powerful offense. Stillmoon Cavalier combines all of the above into one versatile three-drop! Not that you need limit yourself to the white/black axis: Silver Knight adds pro-red and Mirran Crusader is proof against green.

Protection not proactive enough for your tastes? The four paladins - Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western - let you destroy permanents of the appropriate colours. Too many card slots to worry about? Once again, you can combine them all in the white-heavy form of Pentarch Paladin.

There are more to knights than playing around with colours, of course. Knight tribal didn't properly exist until the printing of the Knight Exemplar, which is a godsend for creature combat. Sure, you can already replay any knights that die, but isn't it even better going one step further? Making Haakon indestructible keeps him from nibbling at your life total, and now you're even more resilient to board wipes - instead of having to replay everyone from your graveyard, all you need do is replay the Exemplar... unless, of course, you have two in play, in which case everyone is invulnerable! At that point, since you're already running white and black, you might as well throw in some board wipes of your own. The other half of knight tribal rests on the diminutive shoulders of Kinsbaile Cavalier, who turns every one of your knights into a damage-dealing monster. Double Strike and Indestructibility are perhaps two of the most desirable keyword abilities to exist on a creature; having access to both in one tribe is very frightening indeed.

When Is a Knight Not a Knight?

So is that it? If all there is to Haakon is playing knights from your graveyard, you didn't need an article to tell you about it. You could have easily searched "knight" on the Gatherer yourself, thanks.

But really, when is a "knight" not a knight? When it's a blobby sour-patch kid!

Counting as every creature type whether they're alive or dead, Changelings bring a few extra bodies to the stable of creatures Haakon can recur, though the only ones of any real interest will be the rares. Shapesharer can become another copy of a lord or some useful creature your opponent has, Chameleon Colossus is buff and has protection from black, and Mirror Entity can turn a team of weenies into an army of towering bruisers. If you're splashing blue, Amoeboid Changeling can combine with Knight of the Mists for some very convoluted, very tribal-specific removal!

Not impressed? What if I mentioned that more than just creatures have Changeling? That's right, take a closer look at Haakon and you'll notice he lets you play knight cards from your graveyard, not just knight creature cards. Ergo, Crib Swap, Nameless Inversion and the like are fair game to be replayed! Unlike creatures, of course, an instant or sorcery will immediately drop back into your graveyard after it resolves, meaning you can just play these spells again and again for as long as you have the mana open. Talk about a one-man machine gun!

Honourary Members

There are plenty of strong knights, but Haakon's ability is so impressive - it's kind of a shame to limit oneself. Why not open the door for all kinds of creatures who would love the ability to be replayed at will?

For two measly mana, Ashes of the Fallen means Haakon allows you to play any creature from your graveyard. It's more mana-intensive, but Conspiracy also lets your creatures reap the benefits of any knight tribal once they're in play. Now, when you can pick from any creature ever printed, there are plenty that become kind of crazy when they can be freely played from the graveyard.

Starting off with the cheap offerings, Death Cultist drains one life from your opponent for each black mana you pay. Once the pieces are in place, you can probably just dump all of your mana there and win in short order. Children of Korlis can undo any amount of non-fatal damage each turn - especially handy since Haakon will burn you each time he dies. Spore Frog or Kami of False Hope are a fog each turn. Fume Spitter can pile up counters to take out even the biggest creatures, which also gets around indestructibility. Elvish Lyrist and Elvish Scrapper can pick off an enchantment or artifact, respectively, while Rootwater Diver and Tragic Poet can cheaply do the opposite. Sidisi's Faithful is very interesting, in that he's an infinite number of sorcery-speed Unsummons if he exploits himself each time. If you can get it through, Hope of Ghirapur can stop noncreature spells every turn.

As hinted at with Sidisi's Faithful, any creature with Evoke or Exploit can essentially become a spell under Haakon! You play them, their 187 effect triggers, then they drop back into the graveyard, ready to be played again. This can really extend the versatility of your toolbox. Mulldrifter becomes Divination, Shriekmaw acts as Terror, Offal Snout is a better Coffin Purge and Cloudthresher earns you a mini-Hurricane. Ingot Chewer and Wispmare can pick off an artifact or enchantment for one mana apiece, but perhaps most devastating is Nevermaker - four mana's a little steep, but repeatedly putting your opponent's cards on top of his library can prevent him from ever progressing.

On the Tarkirian side of things, there's less to work with, but still a few cards worth consideration. Qarsi Sadist acts as a less black-heavy Death Cultist, draining two life for two mana. Sidisi is a five-mana tutor for anything, and so long as you have a heavy amount of blue mana, Silumgar Sorcerer can combine with Hope of Ghirapur to keep your opponent from ever playing anything!

Echo creatures are a little different in that their disposal comes with a time-delay trigger, but replaying Avalanche Riders, Bone Shredder or Deranged Hermit once every turn should still put you plenty ahead.

Any creature that pays for itself when it shows up or dies - Priest of Gix, Priest of Urabrask, Myr Moonvessel, Cathodian, Su-chi - can be infinitely replayed along with a sacrifice outlet. Altar of Dementia or Goblin Bombardment should just let you win on the spot, and if the sacrifice doesn't accomplish anything, then Impact Tremors or Blood Artist can pick up the slack.

Starboard Attachments

So being able to play any knight from your graveyard is good, and being able to play any creature from your graveyard is great. If we know what our goal is, though, why not capitalize on it? I don't just mean sacrifice outlets and boardwipes, I mean cards that flat-out reward you for digging up the dead!

If you're already splashing blue for looting effects like Careful Study, then plugging in Secrets of the Dead seems like a perfect match. Each creature you replay is made into a cantrip, and Nameless Inversion will net you insane card advantage. If you're playing with Ashes of the Fallen, then River Kelpie has the same effect on a creature. You probably won't be hurting for spare bodies, but Prized Amalgam comes along for free every time you play something else from your graveyard - not a bad deal!

If you're considering red for looting instead, then Burning Vengeance throws in a free Shock with every card you replay - helps to clear the board for all of your attackers, or snipe at your opponent in a stalemate. Flayer of the Hatebound again has a similar effect on a creature, and while it's twice as much mana, it has the potential to do much more damage.

Green doesn't have as much on offer in terms of graveyard effects, but Vengevine acts as a bigger, nastier Amalgam if you were planning to replay two creatures anyway. And while there are a lot of potent answers it leaves out, Ground Seal is perhaps unique in terms of being "graveyard hate hate." It blocks targeted removal like Withered Wretch or Scavenging Ooze from taking out your well-stocked graveyard!

By Your Command

Haakon can be played from your graveyard, and only your graveyard. This precludes dropping him from your hand, of course, but also off your library due to Future Sight or out of exile thanks to Mind's Desire. So because of this fact, Haakon must be the worst commander of all time, huh? He starts in your command zone and you can never play him because hey, he's not in your graveyard.

As it happens, though, there is exactly ONE workaround - Command Beacon from Commander 2015, which lets you bypass the casting of your commander by sliding him directly into your hand. From there, you can discard Haakon as usual and then proceed as planned. What will your deck actually do at this point? Who cares, if you managed to get Haakon from his seemingly unbreakable prison that is the command zone into play, you've already won. At least take solace in the fact you're playing black - you can load up on all the tutoring effects you can get to try and haul out that Command Beacon as consistently as possible.

Return of the Living Deck

As expected, at this point we could all do with a little proof of concept.

My first outing with Haakon was a fairly standard W/B tribal affair, filling up the graveyard with goodies before seeking to out-value your opponent with a constantly-replenishing army. This one I've physically built and have had great fun with it, especially in multiplayer games.

Trying a R/B version lets one make full use of Burning Vengeance and Faithless Looting for support in a quicker, more aggressive build. Of course, if you're filling your graveyard, red also opens the door for a killing machine in any graveyard-based deck: Anger!

Lastly, even a mono-black build can make full use of Ashes of the Fallen to turn any utility creature or desirable bruiser into a knight as far as Haakon is concerned. Dressing up your dead friends as knights might seem like troubled behaviour, but if it's good enough for the Big H then it's jolly well good enough for me!