Champion of the Perished

Creature — Zombie

Whenever another Zombie enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on this.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (44)

SaberTech on Varina: Unalive in 2025

8 months ago

Well, I'll try picking some options to cut from different points in your curve so that I don't mess with the balance you are trying to go for too much.

• Changeling Outcast I don't think that this one is really worth it. It is an early drop that can net you some value off of Varina if attacks don't look great but I think that I would prefer to see a mana rock over that in my starting hand pretty much every time.

• Champion of the Perished, Shambling Ghast, and Lazotep Reaver are also pretty low value options that I would prefer to be a mana rock in my opening hand but they at least have a bit of potential scaling value. The Champion could get big enough to pressure opponents a bit even though it doesn't have trample, and both the Ghast and Reaver could potentially do something late game with the Liliana, Untouched By Death combo line. Still, I would consider any of those three to be cuttable for other stuff.

• Relentless Dead I think that this card is too mana hungry. Varina's card filtering lets the deck be pretty consistent in finding cards that it wants to cast, so it's a waste to leave mana untapped just so that you can make use of Relentless Dead's abilities if it dies. You have other ways of getting creatures back in the deck, and I think that Zul Ashur, Lich Lord already fills the role better.

• Headless Rider Preferably, you don't want to be trading away your utility zombies in combat if you can help it so the Rider becomes more of a backup to get some value if an opponent uses removal than a way of getting ahead on board. It can produce infinite tokens off of some of the decks combos, I'll give it that, but on its own it is trying to compete with Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, which can also combo and draw you cards. If you are looking for an alternative to it, I've actually been very impressed with Geralf, the Fleshwright in my own list. Geralf also combos and his ability to pump your zombies can get pretty nuts.

• Priest of the Crossing is a card that I'm just uncertain of. It's more a suggestion to just watch how this card performs for you in practice to see if it's worth it. I think that how well it fits will come down to play style.

• Noxious Ghoul and Temmet, Naktamun's Will kind of play a similar role in the deck, but from different angles. They both ultimately make your creatures harder to block. The Ghoul removes creatures, synergizes well with cards like Cryptcaller Chariot, and can fit in with some of your combos. It's dependent on other cards working well for it to do more than clear some small creatures each turn though. Temmet is a better body for your mana and his looting effect helps to fuel both itself and other cards in the deck. With other cards in the deck like On Wings of Gold, Zombie Master, or Death Baron that also make it harder for the opponent to block you could decide which of them ends up doing more for you overall after some testing.

• Land Tax is a card that I like in my own deck but what I mainly use it for is a way to put a bunch of cards in my hand to loot away for something better. I don't put too much emphasis on it as a way to mana fix. With only 6 basics in your deck you only get a couple shots with it, but considering that it is only 1 mana that still could be enough value for what you spend. Just something to keep your eye on.

broitsjustagame on An Answer to the Prayers [Zombie Tribal + Primer]

1 year ago

Any thoughts about Stitcher's Supplier or Champion of the Perished?

TheoryCrafter on The Drowned Perished

1 year ago

Personally, if I were going for redundancy in this deck, I'd have 3 copies of a lesser cost card, like Eaten Alive and Poppet Stitcher  ^Flip and 2 copies of a greater cost card, like Hero's Downfall and Geralf, Visionary Stitcher.

I don't think you have enough instants with a mana value of 2 or less to justify Discover the Impossible in your deck. May I suggest replacing them with either Fading Hope or Joint Exploration? Yes, you won't have any green to pay the kicker cost for Joint Exploration, but your opponents don't have to know that. >:D

May I suggest replacing Revenge of the Drowned with two more copies of either Crawl from the Cellar (for easier access to Poppet and Geralf) or No Way Out (for extra controlling aspects for the deck)? If these do not appeal to you then my next suggestion would be to replace Revenge of the Drowned with more zombie cards to feed into Archghoul of Thraben. May I suggest either Bladestitched Skaab or 2 more copies of Tainted Adversary? If you go with Bladestitched Skaab, I'd recommend replacing one copy of Champion of the Perished with it.

I hope all this helps. Thank you for reading me out. Happy Hunting!

Hypersayia9001 on Help make deck good

2 years ago

I would suggest Phyrexian Altar, which is admittedly pretty expensive but allows you to easily ramp up by sacing zombie tokens, but this also combos with Gravecrawler to give you infinite ETB and LTB triggers, which in turn goes well with the like of Noxious Ghoul, Butcher of Malakir, Champion of the Perished, Archghoul of Thraben, etc...

thefiresoflurve on Combo Commander

2 years ago

Cryptolith Rite can enable your commander's created tokens to immediately tap for mana, allowing a few more infinite combos.

I've done a lot of infinite comboing in my Esper ETB deck, and one tip someone gave me that was really helpful is: make sure your infinite combo pieces do work on their own. Basically: "Would I use this card outside the combo?" If the answer is "no", you can probably find a stronger combo.

a negative synergy I saw is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Maskwood Nexus. The Nexus will turn all your creatures into Humans, disabling Mikaeus' last ability. Really, all of the tribal synergies here feel kind of out of place. You have four cards (Champion of the Perished, Ayula, Conspiracy, and Maskwood Nexus) that wouldn't be in here without the others.

Siona, Captain of the Pyleas only has 5 targets in your entire deck, great candidate for replacement.

papafranku99 on Unholy Frenzy

2 years ago

You're welcome :) I'm using my paper deck that i've been playtesting on forge. I think Champion of the Perished will work especially well, and Lord of the Accursed will be a brutal way to bolster your attacks. I'd be interested to see how it plays now if you can get your combo going with Carrion Feeder, Gravecrawler, and Champion of the Perished. I'll play against it some more and let you know what i think

Valengeta on Unholy Frenzy

2 years ago

Thank you! What deck are you using against it? I'm trying to fit in Champion of the Perished and Lord of the Accursed in there but had to remove Thoughtseize and Whip of Erebos for them. What do you think?

TheVectornaut on Dead of Night

2 years ago

I think the biggest weakness of this deck is that it's hard to curve out early with so many of the slots occupied by cards at 3 CMC or higher. The ideal play pattern is probably to slam down Champion of the Perished on turn 1 and then follow up with a zombie or 2 every following turn until finishing with a bomb. This is difficult to do with Relentless Dead as your only 2 drop, and if you don't draw Champion, the lack of 1 drops makes things even worse. I'd recommend adding something like Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Cryptbreaker, or Dread Wanderer to provide early pressure in the absence of a champion. Then, on 2, I personally like Undead Augur for the draw, especially paired with a sac outlet like Carrion Feeder. Other 2s could be Waste Not with a discard package, Graveyard Marshal as a lordless Cemetery Reaper, or you could dedicate the slots to cheaper removal. Invoke Despair is very flashy but seldom as efficient as a Thoughtseize or Fatal Push. On 3, you have enough cards, although I would still offer Geralf's Messenger, Diregraf Colossus, and Lord of the Accursed as other options to consider. To make room, the most obvious place to start is the bloated 6-slot, and as much as I love using him in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest EDH deck, Champion of Stray Souls is very slow in 60-card formats. Helm of the Host, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, and Killing Wave (without a drain package with Gray Merchant of Asphodel) also seem underwhelming to me. It should be noted that I'm using modern as the basis for my evaluation. If your local casual meta is slow enough, running more big guys isn't as big of a problem, although I'd still try for more 1s and 2s just to avoid games where you're bricked until turn 3.