Festive Funeral MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant
Released	2019-10-04
Set symbol
Set name	Throne of Eldraine
Set code	ELD
Number	87
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Zack Stella

Key Takeaways

Enables card advantage by turning your graveyard into a valuable battlefield asset.
Instant speed offers tactical advantage, keeping gameplay dynamic and unpredictable.
Moderate costs and deck constraints may limit the card’s universal applicability.

Text of card

Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in your graveyard.

"Even as we mourn the last, we look to the next with joy. Hopefully, my new suitor will bring the Cauldron home." —Ayara, First of Locthwain

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Festive Funeral leverages its mechanics to turn a possible disadvantage into a boon by allowing a player to assess their graveyard and utilize that resource to diminish an opponent’s creatures. This translates into direct card advantage as you’re effectively harnessing the cards you’ve already played in the game.

Resource Acceleration: While Festive Funeral doesn’t produce mana or tokens, it can be an accelerant in strategies focused on exploiting graveyard synergies. It can potentially make other cards in your deck more potent, speeding up your overall game plan.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Festive Funeral at instant speed gives players the tactical versatility to wait for the perfect moment. Whether that’s responding to an opponent’s threat or simply at the end of their turn, instant speed means keeping your options open and your opponents guessing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Festive Funeral card demands players to discard another card as part of its casting cost, which can deplete your hand and reduce strategic options, particularly detrimental in formats where card advantage is crucial.

Specific Mana Cost: This card encompasses a black mana cost that might not seamlessly integrate into multicolor decks, restricting its versatility to predominantly black or mono-black decks that can consistently meet the color requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost that stands on the higher side, the Festive Funeral card can prove to be a resource-heavy choice during the early game or in a fast-paced environment where lower-cost spells could be cast multiple times for greater overall effect.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Festive Funeral adds value to a variety of black archetype decks due to its ability to turn your graveyard into a resource. This card enables surprise turns of events, turning the loss of creatures throughout the game into a beneficial mechanic.

Combo Potential: The card thrives in decks with self-mill or sacrifice themes, empowering strategies that revolve around filling the graveyard. Its ability to scale based on number of creatures in your graveyard offers great synergy with these strategies.

Meta-Relevance: Given the prevalence of graveyard-based strategies in the current meta, Festive Funeral offers an efficient removal option that becomes more potent as the game progresses. It has the potential to swing games in your favor against a variety of popular decks.

How to beat

Festive Funeral leverages its power from the number of cards in its controller’s graveyard, transforming loss into an advantage in a typical MTG match. With it poised to alter the battlefield dynamics significantly, thwarting this card involves strategic foresight. Targeted graveyard disruption cards like Tormod’s Crypt can neutralize Festive Funeral’s impact by purging the graveyard before it cashes in on its potential. This forces your opponent to rebuild their graveyard from scratch, drastically reducing the effectiveness of their spell.

Another tactic is to prioritize instant-speed removal or counterspells like Negate to address Festive Funeral efficiently. It’s crucial to maintain these forms of interaction in hand, and meticulously plan the timing of their use. Quick and precise responses will effectively stave off the card’s looming threat. Finally, consider using exile effects which render Festive Funeral obsolete by removing potential targets altogether. It’s all about staying one step ahead, limiting graveyard accumulation, and preserving countermeasures for crucial moments.

Effectively disrupting your opponent’s strategy, then, is as much about anticipation and planning as it is about the tactical deployment of the right spells at the opportune times. With a well-tuned deck and a strategic mindset, Festive Funeral’s impact on your games can be mitigated, ensuring your path to victory remains unobstructed.

Cards like Festive Funeral

The Festive Funeral card carves its niche in the landscape of Magic: The Gathering’s removal spells. Its closest relatives are those that also scale with a specific gameplay aspect. Take Murder for example, a classic, straightforward removal spell. It simply destroys a target creature for three mana without the scaling effect tied to the number of cards in your graveyard, which is where Festive Funeral gains its unique angle.

Another relative to Festive Funeral is Bone Splinters, which requires the additional cost of sacrificing a creature. This cost can mitigate the advantage of its single mana requirement, making it less flexible than Festive Funeral that charges more mana upfront but can potentially result in a larger impact later in the game as the graveyard fills. Then, there’s Mire’s Grasp, which, while cheaper and capable of reducing a creature’s power and toughness, doesn’t fully remove the creature unless those stats reach zero, unlike Festive Funeral’s potential for outright removal regardless of the creature’s size.

Ultimately, Festive Funeral offers strategy and a potentially powerful effect in later stages of the game, demonstrating its worth among MTG’s varied removal spells that can sway the tide of a match.

Cards similar to Festive Funeral by color, type and mana cost

Death of a Thousand Stings - MTG Card versions

Rescue from the Underworld - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Festive Funeral MTG card by a specific set like Throne of Eldraine, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Festive Funeral and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Festive Funeral has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Festive Funeral card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2019-10-04	Festive Funeral is still on the stack while you determine the value of X. It doesn't contribute to the value of X.
2019-10-04	The value of X is determined only as Festive Funeral begins to resolve. The target creature's power and toughness won't change if other cards are put into your graveyard later in the turn.