Buried Ogre: MTG Community's Funniest Jokes and Nicknames

In TCG ·

Buried Ogre MTG card art by Dave Geyer, a zombie ogre lurking from the grave

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Buried Ogre: A Graveyard of Laughter and Lessons for Black’s Theme

In the tapestry of MTG humor, some cards become inside jokes because of their flavor, timing, or just how delightfully odd they are. Buried Ogre, a rare zombie ogre from Mystery Booster Playtest Cards 2021, fits that bill with a grin and a grumble. For a mana cost of {1}{B}{B}{B} you get a substantial 6/4 body that’s as menacing as it is mischievous. The kicker? You may begin the game with Buried Ogre in your graveyard. If you do, you lose 1 life. It’s a crispy little paradox baked into a single line of rules text 🧙‍♂️🔥. The card’s mischief lives in its possibility—do you want the Ogre front and center or quietly waiting in the shadows, ready to emerge like an overfed zombie at your next upkeep?

Community fans quickly turned Buried Ogre into a running joke about graveyards as a strategic “backup plan.” The idea of starting with a monster already in the graveyard echoes classic black strategies—reanimator, self-milt, or cheeky temptation to throw life away for a big payoff. But the card’s true charm is the playful tension between risk and reward. It invites players to riff on “what if I start with a corpse on my side,” a concept as elegantly macabre as it is silly in a casual setting 🎲. The humor isn’t just about the stat line; it’s about the vibe—the cheeky invitation to embrace the underworld while still clobbering your opponent with a 6/4 on turn four or five.

Community jokes and the nicknames that stuck

Over time, MTG communities crafted colorful nicknames that capture Buried Ogre’s personality. Here are some of the most popular and enduring monikers you might hear in casual chats, on streams, or in friendly kitchen-table decks:

  • Graveyard Gatekeeper
  • The Dirt Nap Dispatcher
  • Stinky Skeleton's Big Brother
  • Shovel-wielding Doomhouse
  • Nap Time is Ogres Time
  • Bone Yard Boss
  • The Graveyard Gardener (of Gloom)
  • 6/4 Stomper from the Afterlife
  • B.O. (Buried Ogre) for short—the underworld’s best recruiter
  • Turn Four Surprise Party Planner

These nicknames aren’t just wordplay; they’re a social snapshot of how players who love black’s graveyard flavor interact with MTG’s community humor. When someone drops “Graveyard Gatekeeper” mid-game, you can practically hear the shovels clicking and the skulls clacking together. It’s a shared wink that bonds players across formats and tables 🧙‍♂️💎.

Flavor, design, and the art of the joke

From a design perspective, Buried Ogre embodies the playful potential of Mystery Booster’s playful framing. The card’s ogre lineage—tough, dump-truck of a creature—meets the graveyard mechanic, a classic black motif. The art by Dave Geyer captures the stone-cold confidence of a zombie ogre who’s earned a seat in the graveyard club and is ready to come roaring back if you’re not careful 🎨. The “you may begin the game with Buried Ogre in your graveyard” line isn’t a boring instruction; it’s a flavor invitation—to risk a life in service of a bigger punch, to joke with the idea that your best attacker might be literally sleeping under the battlefield we call the grave. And the rarity—rare in a fun, non-standard set—emphasizes the card’s novelty. It isn’t just a playable six-power behemoth; it’s a storytelling prop, a nod to the wilder edges of MTG’s design space. The humor lands because it respects the game’s core: if you’re going to play black, you should feel like you’re peering into a shadowy, slightly ridiculous underworld where power, risk, and a dash of fate collide 🔥⚔️.

“Buried Ogre isn’t just a card; it’s a mini-mable of black-to-the-graveyard humor that makes casual games feel epic and silly at the same time.”

For collectors and theory-crafters, Buried Ogre also makes an appealing talking point. It’s a reminder of the wild, experimental phase of MTG’s history—playtest cards that found their way into our hearts and warped our casual games in the best possible way. The card’s price on Scryfall barely scratches the surface of its cultural value, and the design’s personality keeps it memorable long after the sleeves are swapped for dusty cardboard boxes 📦.

Where does Buried Ogre fit in today’s meta and memory?

In truly modern terms, Buried Ogre is not typically a tournament staple; it’s a celebration of the game’s playful spirit. It’s the kind of card that surfaces in Commander chaos games or casual leagues where players are more interested in flavor and vibes than strict optimization. If you’re building a deck that embraces unconventional graveyard shenanigans, Buried Ogre can be a fun centerpiece or a cheeky sideboard-ish anchor—just remember to laugh, not lament, when life-count drops after a risk you chose to take 🧙‍♂️🎲.

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