# Hades: preserve the returned, feed the underworld

**Text proposal `hades-text-v2-proposal-1`; no image work.** The commander and all ten card IDs remain fixed. [Full custom specification](custom-cards.yaml), [99](final.txt), [complete 100](commander-deck.txt), [mechanical count check](validation.json).

The revised list supplies its own graveyard rather than expecting marked creatures to die again. Finality replaces dying with exile: those creatures neither refill the graveyard nor trigger Hades, Charon, persist, or ordinary death payoffs. The deck still earns its god's income from unmarked creatures and opposing casualties, then protects a growing company of returned individuals. Plouton is the competing choice: turn an inhabitant into extraordinary wealth, or preserve that person's chance to return.

## Proposed changes to custom cards

### H02 — The Helm of Darkness · {1}{W}{B}

Legendary Artifact — Equipment · Rare

> Flash  
> When The Helm of Darkness enters, attach it to up to one target creature you control. Then that creature phases out.  
> Equipped creature has menace and ward {2}.  
> Equip {2}

The wearer actually dons the helmet before disappearing. The attached Helm phases out **indirectly** with the creature and returns attached during the creature's controller's next untap step (CR 702.26a/g). Counters remain, no enter/death events occur, and the rescue does not erase finality. Choosing zero targets is legal. If the sole chosen target becomes illegal, the trigger fails; removing only the Helm does not stop the legal creature from phasing out. This is a one-time enter rescue; ordinary equipping cannot repeat phasing. The Cyclopes' gift and invisibility are attested in [Apollodorus 1.2.1](https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html) and the ancient accounts collected under [Hades' treasures](https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HaidesTreasures.html).

### H03 — Do Not Look Back · {W}{B}

Instant · Rare

> Until your next turn, creatures you control with finality counters on them gain hexproof, indestructible, and “This creature can't block.”  
> Draw a card.

The unrelated attacker exile is gone. Protection lasts through the journey, with a concrete forward-only cost: the company cannot turn back to defend. This is a declared combat metaphor for Orpheus' condition, not a claim that the myth involved an attacking monster. [Apollodorus 1.3.2](https://www.theoi.com/Text/Apollodorus1.html) provides the condition and its failure. With no marked creatures, it still cycles; with a returned army, it supports a protected attack and preserves the survivors through opponents' turns. The lack of blockers leaves a real opening.

**No targets are chosen at all**, so removing one creature never makes the whole spell fail for lack of targets. This differs from an optional-target spell: choosing zero targets avoids that failure, but choosing a sole target which later becomes illegal does not. All three granted abilities apply only to creatures marked when this spell resolves (CR 611.2c). Later marked arrivals receive neither protection nor the blocking restriction. “Can't block” does not remove a creature already blocking, so casting after blockers are declared can still save existing blockers; that is normal rules behavior, not a special exception.

### H04 — Judgment in the Underworld · {2}{W}{B}

Sorcery · Rare

> Destroy all creatures that don't have finality counters on them.

Four mana, one readable judgment. An unmarked Hades dies, and an opponent's marked creature survives. This is the second of only two creature sweepers in the revised 99, alongside The Host's Welcome. The three judges' jurisdiction, adapted into an existing mark of permitted return, stays the story; unrelated artifact/enchantment removal moves entirely to the deck's abundant dedicated answers.

### H06 — Plouton's Buried Riches · {3}{B}{B}

Legendary Enchantment · Mythic · **Signature haymaker**

> When Plouton's Buried Riches enters and at the beginning of your upkeep, mill six cards. Then you may exile up to three creature cards from your graveyard. For each card exiled this way, draw a card and create a tapped Treasure token.

An immediate fuel-and-payout trigger replaces the empty turn-five investment. The choice happens **after** milling and can use old or newly milled cards. One creature buys one card/one tapped Treasure; two buy two/two; three buy three/three. None of these is guaranteed by milling six. The buried wealth belongs to Plouton's attested association with wealth from beneath the earth; sacrificing future return for present abundance remains the mechanical narrative. See the Plato extracts collected under [Hades as god of wealth](https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HaidesGod.html).

With an empty graveyard and a notional unchanged 29-creature/99-card library, six cards contain about **1.76 creatures on average**. Actual library composition differs as creatures are drawn, milled, and exiled. Spending two buys two cards and two tapped Treasures; three of each is the ceiling, not the baseline. Keep a desirable creature rather than cashing everything out. Milling six is mandatory, and repeatedly milling plus drawing can exhaust the library: the engine is not infinite. Removing Riches stops future triggers, not an already-triggered payout. Graveyard exile in response clears old fuel but cannot intercept newly milled creatures during the same resolving trigger. Treasure enters tapped, including at upkeep after that turn's untap step has already passed.

### H10 — Cerberus · {3}{B}{B}

Legendary Creature — Dog · Rare · **5/5**

> Menace  
> Creatures you control with finality counters on them have menace.  
> Whenever Cerberus enters or attacks, mill six cards. Then you may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

A substantial enter trigger gives the five-drop immediate utility: six new cards in the graveyard, an optional creature in hand, and a 5/5 evasive body. The attack repeats that progress while helping the marked army connect. Recovery is optional so Cerberus need not take Hades' intended resurrection target. It does not target, so a newly milled creature can be chosen. No automatic free recast or sacrifice outlet is added.

[Hesiod's hound](https://www.theoi.com/Ther/KuonKerberos.html) receives arrivals and prevents unauthorized escape. Milling enacts reception into the host; the selected return is a game adaptation of permission under Hades' authority, not a claim that the mythic dog resurrects people. The design no longer devours the deck's own resurrection targets for incidental counters.

### Unchanged printed cards

H01 The Host's Welcome, H05 Charon, H07 Orpheus, H08 The Descent for Eurydice, and H09 Eurydice retain their exact printed text. The full YAML includes all ten. Welcome and Riches remain the two designated extraordinary signatures; Orpheus and the Saga supply additional strong resource sequences. Charon's income remains conditional on real deaths, not finality exile or milling.

## Ten existing-card swaps

These are additional improvements to the existing 89, separate from the preserved ten baseline-to-custom substitutions.

| Out | In | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Skullclamp | Ripples of Undeath | Finality defeats death-draw; repeatable mill with optional selection feeds the actual plan. |
| Midnight Reaper | Mire Triton | Death-only draw becomes an immediate mill body with deathtouch and life. |
| Archon of Justice | Vile Entomber | Death-only answer becomes immediate, chosen graveyard setup plus deathtouch. |
| Skeletal Scrying | Ransack the Lab | Stop eating resurrection fuel to draw; select a card and stock two instead. |
| Plumb the Forbidden | Corpse Churn | Stop encouraging sacrifice of finite returned creatures; mill and optionally recover a creature. |
| Mardu Woe-Reaper | Undead Butler | Replace narrow, fuel-consuming exile with enter-mill. Butler's death ability is optional upside on its first life. |
| Nighthawk Scavenger | Stinkweed Imp | A defensive flyer doubles as a dredge source when it reaches the graveyard. |
| Vanquish the Horde | Perpetual Timepiece | Third wipe becomes cheap repeatable fuel, with a finite emergency shuffle. |
| Baneslayer Angel | Cemetery Tampering | Generic five-drop becomes continuing setup; hideaway is a bonus, not the reason to count it. |
| Scavenger Grounds | Vault of the Archangel | Stop sweeping our own fuel; give the developed army a credible profitable attack and life recovery. |

Scavenger Grounds' removal does not erase graveyard interaction: Bojuka Bog, Soul-Guide Lantern, and Nihil Spellbomb remain. Fifteen primary targeted-interaction slots include creature removal, noncreature answers, and those graveyard tools. The one-sided Welcome and selective Judgment remain the only creature sweepers.

## Count, fuel, and floor audit

The 99 has **37 lands, 29 creatures, 89 existing cards and ten custom cards**; adding Hades makes 100. There are 62 nonlands. Mana-value curve: 1:12, 2:19, 3:12, 4:6, 5:6, 6:4, 7:2, 8:1. All existing cards pass current cached Commander legality and W/B identity checks; no nonbasic duplicates.

The exact primary-role partition is 37 land / 10 ramp / 8 draw / 13 graveyard setup / 15 targeted interaction / 2 sweeper / 8 protection-recovery / 6 pressure-value bodies. [Every assignment](role-counts.json) is explicit. These are exclusive bookkeeping slots; Cerberus and Riches also supply fuel, removal angels are also threats, and the Saga also recovers and draws. The ten ramp slots include conditional Charon, Knight and Warhound, not ten unconditional mana rocks.

**Fifteen overlapping graveyard-fuel pieces:** Stitcher's Supplier; Entomb; Buried Alive; Vile Entomber; Ripples of Undeath; Mire Triton; Ransack the Lab; Corpse Churn; Undead Butler; Stinkweed Imp; Perpetual Timepiece; Cemetery Tampering; The Descent for Eurydice; Plouton's Buried Riches; Cerberus. Twelve mill/select into the graveyard (Ransack technically puts rather than mills); three bury chosen cards. Ten fuel sources cost at most three and work without Hades or attacking; Stinkweed Imp is an eleventh cheap source but must first reach the graveyard and replaces a draw. Do not count its dredge as immediate output from casting the creature.

On their own, Riches mills six immediately; Cerberus mills six immediately and can recover a creature; Helm rescues one existing creature and remains equipment; Judgment is a normal four-mana wrath if nothing is marked; Do Not Look Back cycles when no creature is marked. Charon/Orpheus/Eurydice remain conditional, but the new support reliably supplies bodies and graveyard access. Neither six-card mill is guaranteed to hit a creature.

Some retained creatures have death text that finality suppresses, but each has an independent enter or battlefield floor: Supplier mills three; Butler mills three; Solemn fetches a land; Cavalier destroys a nonland permanent; Ashen Rider exiles a permanent; Puppeteer Clique borrows an opposing creature with haste. Their death text is **not** included in the marked-creature value estimate. Morbid Opportunist remains because it sees opposing creatures die too. Welcoming Vampire/Tocasia's Welcome can become less productive once Eurydice grants +2/+2; that is a visible late-game conversion from setup to pressure, not presumed endless draw.

## Representative play and risks

**Opening:** three lands, Signet, Mire Triton, Ransack and Swords makes early development and fresh fuel without drawing Hades. Turn two Triton or Signet depends on pressure; turn three Ransack finds the next land while leaving mana for Swords. A creature milled by either makes a later Orpheus or Reanimate live.

**Commander turn:** with six mana, Hades returns a selected utility creature at end step. With seven mana, leave one white for protection or removal. A returned Vile Entomber stocks a larger threat for the next turn; it does not create a second immediate Hades trigger. Opposing deaths can produce income; do not assume all three opponents provide one every turn.

**Signature resource turn:** Riches mills two creatures when one expendable creature was already in the graveyard. Cashing all three produces three cards and three tapped Treasures; retaining a removal angel means cashing only two for two/two. Cerberus can later refill and optionally put a needed answer in hand, while Hades takes a different creature at end step.

**Recovery:** after an ordinary wrath, marked creatures are gone to exile and cannot be recovered. Use surviving mill permanents or a fresh Supplier/Butler to stock new people, then Saga, Reanimate or the commander to build a new company. The Helm protects an individual without resetting their counter; Do Not Look Back protects the marked company at the cost of its blocking next turn.

**Closing:** marked Eurydice makes marked Ashen Rider a 7/7 flyer, Cerberus a 7/7, Hades a 6/9, and is herself 2/2. That established four-creature army attacks for 22; Cerberus and marked creatures have menace, while Hades has it only if marked. Angel of Invention or Necropolis Regent increases later pressure. Vault makes blocking profitable or replenishes life. No haste or immediate lethal is assumed; each piece is exposed to interaction, and removing Eurydice shrinks the attack.

No repeatable sacrifice outlet, counter removal, extra turn/combat, deterministic kill, or mass land destruction is introduced. Victimize is a one-shot sacrifice; finality makes repeated return finite. Sun Titan plus a cheap setup body creates value once per enter/attack, not an unlimited loop. Perpetual Timepiece exiles itself to shuffle and cannot perpetually recycle. Charon cannot use its tap ability indefinitely. Plouton is a self-fueled resource engine with a three-card/three-Treasure ceiling per trigger and needs multiplayer testing, especially when followed by Hades on the next turn. Repeated mandatory milling plus draw risks decking; Cemetery's twenty-card bonus competes with cashing creatures out, and is not assumed online. Hades' strong theft and broad answers may still make games long; the cut to two sweepers and added combat land help pressure convert into a finish.

## Evidence and review status

Current card records and legalities were fetched from Scryfall on 2026-09-25 and saved in [verified-cards.json](verified-cards.json), retaining the original evidence and adding only the ten actual additions. Primary Gatherer links remain where supplied by Scryfall, but direct Gatherer requests returned HTTP 403; no independent live Gatherer text comparison is claimed. Current legality was cross-checked against [Wizards' banned list](https://magic.wizards.com/en/banned-restricted-list). Primary printed/rules support includes [Modern Horizons 3 release notes](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/modern-horizons-3-release-notes), [Crimson Vow notes](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/innistrad-crimson-vow-release-notes-2021-11-10), [Modern Horizons notes](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/feature/modern-horizons-release-notes-2019-05-31), and [New Capenna notes](https://media.wizards.com/2022/downloads/SNC_Release_Notes/EN_MTGSNC_ReleaseNotes_20220331.pdf). The local Wizards comprehensive rules settle phasing and finality.

This is a designer proposal for independent review, not a claim of playtested balance or a new image freeze.