BUG Zombies w/ Gifts Combo

Modern*

ciarannihill

Land (23)

• 3x Cavern of Souls
• 2x Creeping Tar Pit
• 1x Forest
• 2x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Overgrown Tomb
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4x Verdant Catacombs
• 2x Watery Grave

Creature (28)

• 2x Blood Artist
• 2x Bloodghast
• 2x Crypt Champion
• 2x Diregraf Captain
• 4x Geralf's Messenger
• 4x Gravecrawler
• 4x Lotleth Troll
• 4x Prized Amalgam
• 4x Relentless Dead

Instant (7)

• 3x Collected Company
• 4x Fatal Push

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Thoughtseize

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Sideboard

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Collective Brutality
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 2x Thoughtseize

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Choke

Creature (3)

• 1x Crypt Champion
• 2x Phantasmal Image

Instant (7)

• 3x Abrupt Decay
• 4x Gifts Ungiven

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So I really wanted to find a deck where I could justify running the Crypt Champion + Phantasmal Image combo, and the reality is that sadly it's only practical as a secondary win condition against opposing combo/control decks out of a regular Zombie deck IMO. Thanks to the color spread you can do some very interesting things, specifically you can maindeck Collected Company as a value card and substitute CoCo for Gifts Ungiven when the matchup is going to rely more on the Crypt Champion Combo.

If you're not aware both the Crypt Champion Combo works, here it is:

Crypt Champion enters the battlefield, you stack his two triggers, make sure he brings back a creature first. When this resolves, bring back Phantasmal Image, copying the Crypt Champion (This is where having a second image in the graveyard can help with redundancy, because it makes the stacking of these triggers less important) this time stack the triggers in the reverse order, sacrificing it before the "return to play" trigger resolves. Because the "Return to play" trigger isn't targeted you only have to select the creature upon resolution, allowing you to bring back Phantasmal Image again. You repeat this with a Blood Artist, Diregraf Captain or the new Wayward Servant in play and get infinite pings, winning the game. This used to be a combo with Safi Eriksdotter as well, but I personally prefer this one since it's in colors with Gifts Ungiven, which can help you find your combo pieces and even get them into the bin for you (This is also one of the numerous combos enabled by Reveillark, if all of your combo pieces are in the graveyard and you evoke Reveillark with Cavern of souls in play you win, lol)

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 2 Mythic Rares 38 - 11 Rares 10 - 2 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.27