The Dead Shall Serve is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
When you set this scheme in motion, for each opponent, put up to one target creature card from that player's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. Each of those creatures attacks its owner each combat if able.
Complete guide
The Dead Shall Serve is a powerful scheme that turns your opponents' fallen heroes against them. As a scheme card, it triggers when you flip it from your scheme deck, allowing you to reanimate creatures for free with a vengeful twist. These resurrected minions are bound by a compulsion to strike back at their original owners.
What It Does
When this scheme is set in motion, you choose up to one creature card from each opponent's graveyard. These creatures are placed directly onto the battlefield under your control. The primary catch is that these creatures must attack their original owners during every combat phase if they are able to do so.
Step-by-Step Resolution
First, the scheme ability is put onto the stack when it is flipped. You choose your targets—up to one per opponent. As the ability resolves, all targeted cards enter the battlefield simultaneously under your control. From that point on, a continuous effect applies to these creatures, forcing them to attack their owners during each of your declare attackers steps.
Common Mistakes
A common error is trying to attack a planeswalker controlled by the owner; however, the card specifies the creature must attack the owner specifically. Another mistake involves costs; if an effect like Ghostly Prison is active, you are not forced to pay mana to allow the creature to attack. If you don't pay, the creature simply doesn't attack its owner, and is then free to attack someone else or not at all.
When to Play It
This scheme is best utilized when your opponents have high-impact creatures in their graveyards. Since it happens at the start of your precombat main phase, you can immediately utilize any 'enters the battlefield' triggers or prepare for a devastating combat phase if the creatures do not have summoning sickness.
Interaction examples
Command Tower
Sol RingIf your opponent discarded a creature earlier while using Command Tower and Sol Ring for mana, you can target that creature with The Dead Shall Serve. Even though the reanimated creature is under your control, it will be forced to attack that opponent in every combat phase possible, regardless of whether you have the mana to cast other spells.
If you control a creature brought back by The Dead Shall Serve and your opponent controls an effect that requires you to pay {2} to attack them, you can use Sol Ring to pay that cost to fulfill the 'if able' requirement. However, the rules state you are never forced to pay a cost to attack, so you may choose not to use Sol Ring and instead let the creature sit idle or attack a different player if the owner is protected.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : The Dead Shall Serve
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
For each opponent, you may choose not to target any creature cards in that player’s graveyard.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
Each of the creatures you put onto the battlefield this way must attack its owner, not a planeswalker that player controls.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
If, during your declare attackers step, one of these creatures is tapped or is affected by a spell or ability that says it can’t attack, then it doesn’t attack. If there’s a cost associated with having that creature attack, you aren’t forced to pay that cost, so it doesn’t have to attack in that case either.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
If one of these creatures can’t attack its owner during any given turn (due to a spell or ability such as Chronomantic Escape, or because a player on the opposing team has gained control of it, for example), it may attack another player, attack a planeswalker an opponent controls, or not attack at all. If there’s a cost associated with having that creature attack its owner, you aren’t forced to pay that cost, so it may attack another player, attack a planeswalker an opponent controls, or not attack at all.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
If there are multiple combat phases in a turn, each of these creatures must attack its owner in each of them that it’s able to.
No other card is named in this ruling.
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Meta decks with The Dead Shall Serve
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.