Corpse Lunge MTG Card

Corpse Lunge provides both instant speed flexibity and a strategic use of your graveyard. It demands a creature exile from the graveyard, which could impact other strategies. Offers unique removal utility compared to related cards like Tragic Slip.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant
Released	2011-09-30
Set symbol
Set name	Innistrad
Set code	ISD
Number	93
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Christopher Moeller

Text of card

As an additional cost to cast Corpse Lunge, exile a creature card from your graveyard. Corpse Lunge deals damage equal to the exiled card's power to target creature.

Cards like Corpse Lunge

Corpse Lunge presents a unique approach to creature removal within the realm of Magic: The Gathering. It bears some resemblance to cards like Tragic Slip, which also capitalizes on the concept of a creature’s death to unleash its potential. While Tragic Slip can potentially give a creature -13/-13 in response to a death trigger, Corpse Lunge requires a creature in your graveyard to calculate its damage, directly targeting a creature an opponent controls.

Closely related is the spell Bone Splinters, requiring the sacrifice of a creature as the cost for its powerful effect. While Corpse Lunge scavenges value from your graveyard, Bone Splinters demands a present and immediate sacrifice. Additionally, Nameless Inversion offers flexibility being both a creature buff to your own creatures or a removal tool against your opponent’s, albeit without the need for a creature in the graveyard. However, it lacks the direct damage that Corpse Lunge can potentially deal.

Examining these cards, Corpse Lunge secures its niche through leveraging graveyard resources, offering tactical removal choices for players who tactfully manage their creature resources in Magic: The Gathering, emphasizing strategic graveyard play.

Cards similar to Corpse Lunge by color, type and mana cost

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Corpse Lunge offers a direct method to eliminate an opponent’s creature by leveraging your graveyard. This translates into a functional trade-off where you not only remove an adversary’s resource but also utilize the cards you’ve already played, essentially gaining card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: While Corpse Lunge itself doesn’t directly accelerate resources, its relatively low cost and the potential to reuse creatures from your graveyard can indirectly lead to resource acceleration. This gives you the advantage of managing your mana efficiently and potentially freeing up mana for other strategies.

Instant Speed: Corpse Lunge’s instant speed capability ensures you have the flexibility to react during your opponent’s turn or at the end of their turn, which can be strategically advantageous. You can keep mana available for other actions while still posing a threat to your opponent’s key creatures with a surprise removal.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Corpse Lunge requires that you exile a creature card from your graveyard as part of its casting cost. This can deplete valuable creature resources from your graveyard, which may be counterproductive if your strategy relies on graveyard synergies.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana configuration, one black and two generic mana. This specific cost means that it finds a place predominantly in black-centric or two-color decks, potentially limiting its versatility across various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The requirement of three mana to deal damage equal to the power of the exiled creature may seem steep, especially when considering alternative removal spells in the format that could handle threats at a lower cost or without a requirement to tap into graveyard resources.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Corpse Lunge offers a dynamic solution to dealing with creatures by turning your graveyard into a resource. It can adapt to various strategies, from aggressive decks looking to clear blockers to control decks seeking spot removal.

Combo Potential: This card is an excellent addition to decks focusing on self-mill or reanimator themes. By loading up your graveyard, you can amplify the effectiveness of Corpse Lunge, turning it into a potent removal spell.

Meta-Relevance: In a game state with creature-heavy decks, Corpse Lunge becomes increasingly valuable. It deals directly with threats on the board and serves as a smart response to meta trends that favor creature-based tactics.

How to beat

Corpse Lunge presents itself as a valuable removal tool in Magic: The Gathering, especially within the Limited format and wherever creature-based strategies are the norm. The key to overcoming this instant-speed removal is by being mindful of the creatures you have in your graveyard because Corpse Lunge relies on them to determine its damage output. In games where graveyards are heavily utilized or against decks with reanimation themes, Corpse Lunge can be a formidable card.

A practical approach to countering Corpse Lunge involves the use of graveyard hate cards that can remove creatures or, better still, exile the entire graveyard. This not only diminishes the potency of Corpse Lunge but can also disrupt your opponent’s broader graveyard-based strategies. Cards like Relic of Progenitus or Scavenging Ooze are excellent examples that can keep graveyards under control and mitigate the impact of Corpse Lunge’s damage calculation.

Ultimately, while Corpse Lunge can offer a significant advantage by turning a creature’s power into removal, it loses much of its effectiveness if you maintain control over graveyard contents, leaving your opponent with fewer options and weakening their removal capabilities.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Corpse Lunge MTG card by a specific set like Innistrad, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Corpse Lunge and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Corpse Lunge has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Corpse Lunge card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2013-04-15	Players can only respond once this spell has been cast and all its costs have been paid. No one can try to otherwise remove the creature card you exiled in order to prevent you from casting this spell.
2013-04-15	You must exile exactly one creature card from your graveyard to cast this spell; you cannot cast it without exiling a creature card, and you cannot exile additional creature cards.