In many cases, a Magic: The Gathering card will fly under the radar because its wording obscures its true power level. This is especially true when it comes to older cards, as they hail from an era where Wizards was still refining how rules text was communicated. In the case of Tombstone Stairwell, for example, confusing wording masks a true MTG Commander powerhouse. This week, thanks to a spotlight on social media, players are waking up to this card’s huge potential.
Tombstone Stairwell MTG
Tombstone Stairwell returned to the conversation today thanks to a new video from MTG content creator Ben Bateman. In the video, Bateman pointed out that the card is commonly slept on because of the strange nature of its wording.
On a first reading, it’s easy to come away thinking that Stairwell only grants players tokens on their own upkeep. What the card actually does, however, is grant each player tokens on every upkeep. In Commander, this means you’ll get three turns worth of tokens before that pesky Cumulative Upkeep cost comes into play.
For this reason, Tombstone Stairwell is an incredibly efficient token generator with even just a handful of creatures in your graveyard. Since the tokens are temporary, however, you will need to include some ways to gain value from them. Instant-speed sacrifice outlets, like Goblin Bombardment and Altar of Dementia, are your best bets here.
These cards let you keep your tokens around until each end step as blockers, then cash them in to advance your game plan. Since each new wave of tokens dies every turn, you can also lean into cards that reward you for creature death, like Pitiless Plunderer and Moldervine Reclamation.
If you really want to get the most out of Tombstone Stairwell, you can include some cards that cancel out its drawbacks. Solemnity is a great pick here, cutting off Age counters and therefore removing the Cumulative Upkeep cost as a factor. You can also use cards like Hex Parasite and Thrull Parasite to remove the Age counters for a similar effect. If you want your tokens to stick around, Avacyn, Angel of Hope can prevent their destruction. Kambal, Profiteering Mayor offers similar utility, since Stairwell only destroys the tokens it makes.
The Sleeper Awakes
Even if you don’t build around it, Tombstone Stairwell easily slots into a ton of different MTG Commander decks. In Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, for example, it offers an easy way to flip your Commander and get that emblem going, as well as sacrifice fodder for the back side’s draw ability. Since the tokens it creates are Zombies, Stairwell is also excellent in Zombie Typal decks like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born.
If you’re feeling extra-nasty, Tombstone Stairwell is even capable of securing some very quick, combo-esque wins. With a Blood Artist effect in play, you’ll get to dish out damage every time a token dies. If players’ collective graveyards are sufficiently stocked, this can close things out in a single turn cycle. Syr Konrad, the Grim is an ideal Commander pairing here, since it enables this ‘combo’ while also offering a mill effect that can get those graveyard numbers up.
With all of these powerful applications, you’d expect Tombstone Stairwell to be a widely-played card in Commander. According to EDHREC data, however, just 10,000 decks run it in total. This is partly due to the card’s confusing wording, and partly due to its Reserved List status, which severely limits its available supply.
These days, the card’s high price is another factor in why it’s underplayed. After Sephiroth dropped last year, the card saw a significant price spike. It’s still sitting at around $45 currently, which unfortunately puts it out of reach for many players. Since Wizards won’t be reprinting the card, there’s sadly no chance that it becomes more accessible in the future, either.
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