Tech for Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride in Control Matchups

In TCG ·

Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride card art from Wilds of Eldraine by Igor Krstic

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Two-Faced tech for control players: navigating the shadows with Fell Horseman

Control matchups in Modern-leaning or Pioneer-adjacent environments often hinge on keeping the battlefield clear while slowly accumulating inevitability. The Wilds of Eldraine double-faced card Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride slips into that role with a quiet, methodical menace. On the front, Fell Horseman is a sturdy 3/3 Zombie Knight for {3}{B} that can swing in while you stall the opponent with removal, sets of card draw, and life-preserving plays. On the back, Deathly Ride offers a one-mana dalla-turned-crook: a cheap Adventure that can yank a key creature card from your graveyard back into your hand, with the cherry-on-top of exile-and-cast potential for the other face later in the game. It’s a dual-purpose puzzle box, designed for players who relish timing, tempo, and value over brute force. 🧙‍♂️🔥

Face-by-face: what each half brings to the table

  • Fell Horseman — Creature — Zombie Knight | Mana cost: {3}{B} | Power/Toughness: 3/3
    Oracle text: When this creature dies, put it on the bottom of its owner's library.
    In a control shell, that death trigger is more than a flavor line; it makes Fell Horseman a dependable late-game anchor. It’s not a card that vanishes into the graveyard chant; instead, it reliably cycles to the bottom of the library, slowing down graveyard-centric strategies and buying you a turn or two of stabilization. In grindy matchups, a 3/3 that survives early removal and dodges a single forced discard can turn the tide as you peel for your next answers. And if your plan includes recurring threats through other means, this bottom-of-library mechanic protects your graveyard from being emptied out too quickly by aggressive decks. ⚔️
  • Deathly Ride — Sorcery — Adventure | Mana cost: {1}{B}
    Oracle text: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. (Then exile this card. You may cast the creature later from exile.)
    Deathly Ride is the tempo lever that makes a control strategy hum. For {1}{B}, you fetch a creature from the graveyard back to your hand, creating a perpetual reservoir of threats or answers you can deploy on demand. The follow-up exile clause is what unlocks the MDFC’s long-term value: you can cast that returned creature later from exile, effectively giving you a second life for a creature you care about—without needing to draw it again. This is particularly potent in long games where one solid roadblock can lead to a decisive swing a few turns later. The Adventure cost is deliberately modest, letting you weave it into your curve even when you’re light on bidirectional pressure. 🪄

Strategic pathways: how to deploy Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride in control maelstroms

In practice, you’ll want to maximize the card’s versatility across the early, mid, and late stages of the game. Early on, deploy Fell Horseman as a reliable, statically-stable blocker or a low-risk attack threat if your mana fits. You’re not expecting a one-turn defeat here; you’re setting a tempo plan that says, “I’ll trade efficiently and outlast you.” The death-on-dies trigger nudges you toward preserving resources, as it nudges your deck toward the bottom of the library rather than the graveyard. This makes your life total a bit more comfortable against attrition-based matchups, giving you room to maneuver. 🧙‍♂️

When the board stalls, Deathly Ride becomes the control deck’s Swiss Army knife. Fetch a creature from your graveyard—whether it’s an important defender, a key utility creature, or a spell that needs a graveyard to be meaningful—and redraw it into your hand at the crucial moment. The exile clause invites a delayed gratification, letting you cast the returned creature from exile later as a surprise attack or a tempo play. This duality is what makes the card elegantly suited to control archetypes that prize inevitability. It’s about resilience: you’re not just grinding; you’re assembling a toolkit that reshapes the late game on your terms. 🎨

From a matchup perspective, the card shines against aggressive starts and midrange stalemates alike. Against aggro, Fell Horseman’s body helps stabilize the board while Deathly Ride recycles an essential blocker or pivot threat, giving you lifelines to reach your removal suite or a key planeswalker you’re hiding in hand. Against other control shells, the duo accelerates your resource generation, thinning your deck for the right answer and letting you pivot to your plan B with a reanimated threat looming in exile. The black mana reinforcement—{B} in both faces—also synergizes well with classic control tools such as selective discard, targeted removal, and graveyard synergy-light strategies that don’t require a full-blown graveyard plan to shine. 🧯💎

Deck-building notes and practical tweaks

  • Include solid removal in suite to clear the way for Fell Horseman’s entry. Cards like Go for the Throat or Fatal Push pair well with Deathly Ride’s recursion plan.
  • Complement the MDFC with draw engines that help you find Deathly Ride earlier in the game, so you can cash in its graveyard-retrieval value when the moment is right.
  • Consider graveyard hate as a mixed bag—while your own plan hinges on graveyard recursion, you’re still best served by balanced disruption that buys you time without overcommitting to a single axis.
  • Sideboarding can tilt toward heavier control or more aggressive stances depending on the meta. The flexibility of the two faces gives you a versatile post-board plan that can morph into a resilient midrange anchor.

Beyond the numbers and rules, the flavor and design hold a special charm. Igor Krstic’s art on the faces—capturing a somber Zombie Knight paired with a necromantic, shadowy ritual—reminds us that Eldraine’s world thrives on a mix of fairy-tue logic and darker undercurrents. The two-faced design is a celebration of the dual nature of strategy: offense and defense, risk and reward, all within a single card. It’s the kind of MTG design that invites you to think in layers, not as a single line of play. And if you’re chasing that elegant, control-centered arc, you’ll find Fell Horseman // Deathly Ride a satisfying companion in the years of drafting and battlefield reading ahead. 🧙‍♂️🎲

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