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Undying trick!

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Woodfall PrimusEnlarge

Woodfall Primus

{5}{G}{G}{G}

Creature — Treefolk Shaman

Shadowmoor

Read rules for Woodfall Primus
Trample When this creature enters, destroy target noncreature permanent. Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

6/6

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Mikaeus, the UnhallowedEnlarge

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

{3}{B}{B}{B}

Legendary Creature — Zombie Cleric

Dark Ascension

Read rules for Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
Intimidate (This creature can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.) Whenever a Human deals damage to you, destroy it. Other non-Human creatures you control get +1/+1 and have undying. (When a creature with undying dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

5/5

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Date Posted: Thu Aug/23/12 at 1:35 pm

Jesscrazy
Posts: 70
Joined: 30-Mar-11

Usually the 'reanimate-for-one-turn' effects ask you to exile the creature at end of turn. Footsteps of the Goryo asks you to sacrifice at end of turn, so something like Mikaeus' granting of undying could keep anything you reanimated alive!

I think the best one to reanimate would be woodfall primus. He'd ETB because of Goryo, then be sac'd at EOT, then undying would cause him to ETB again, and the persist counter and undying counter would cancel, so you'd be free to kill woodfall again for his trigger indefinitely!
Date Posted: Thu Aug/23/12 at 3:01pm

spiderman1100
Posts: 354
Joined: 19-Apr-12

You don't even need the footsteps, just kill the Primus!
Date Posted: Fri Aug/24/12 at 7:08am

Boyachi
Posts: 1553
Joined: 02-Nov-11

Footsteps only makes you have to sacrifice Primus once, not multiple times, hence you'd need a new sac outlet afterwards.
Date Posted: Sun Aug/26/12 at 9:02pm

tinkerbell
Posts: 14
Joined: 04-Apr-11

Yes this works with any persist creature, but not the way you decribed. when the creature is put into the graveyard both undying and persist trigger. chooing the order these hit the stack (because you control both and they both happen at the same time.) you choose one or the other to happen first. when they resolve, the one closest to the top of the stack will happen first and the other gets countered because its target is no longer in the zone it was in (graveyard). you can do this back and forth each time your creature dies.
Date Posted: Tue Aug/28/12 at 3:49am

Kethiju
Posts: 225
Joined: 24-Jul-12

It actually works. You know...except the counters "canceling" eachother out. Just checked the rulings on it, and hot damn...time for a new deck. Here's the rulings for your enjoyment;

  • All cards printed with undying are creatures. If a creature with undying stops being a creature (for example, an artifact creature with undying becomes a noncreature artifact due to Neurok Transmuter's second ability), undying will still trigger.
  • Likewise, if a noncreature permanent becomes a creature, gains undying, and is put into a graveyard, the undying ability will still trigger even though that permanent won't be a creature when it returns to the battlefield.
  • Multiple instances of undying trigger separately, but are effectively redundant as only the first instance to resolve will have any effect.
  • An object returned to the battlefield with the undying ability is a new object with no memory of its previous existence. It has "summoning sickness".
  • Tokens can gain undying, and the ability will trigger if a token is put into a graveyard. However, like all tokens, it can't return to the battlefield and will cease to exist as a state-based action before the ability would go on the stack.
  • Undying relies on the last known information about the permanent just before it was put into a graveyard. If that permanent had a +1/+1 counter on it, then receives enough -1/-1 counters for it to be put into a graveyard due to having 0 toughness or lethal damage marked on it, it won't return to the battlefield despite the state-based action of +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters "cancelling each other out". As the permanent last existed on the battlefield, it had a +1/+1 counter on it, so undying will not trigger.
    • With this in mind, the first time the creature dies is the only time you have to choose the stack order, since one of the triggers won't even trigger after the first time.




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