Corpulent Corpse MTG Card


Corpulent Corpse offers card advantage through its surprise unearth ability, enhancing player strategy. Its activation cost aids in resource management, enabling multitasking within a turn. The instant-speed option of its ability increases tactical flexibility and response capability.
Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Zombie
Abilities Fear,Suspend
Power 3
Toughness 3

Text of card

Fear Suspend 5— (Rather than play this card from your hand, you may pay and remove it from the game with five time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When you remove the last, play it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)


Cards like Corpulent Corpse

Corpulent Corpse establishes its niche within the realm of reanimation targets in Magic: The Gathering. Drawing parallels to Sutured Ghoul, both cards feature significant power coming back from the graveyard. Corpulent Corpse offers quick impact with its unearth ability, allowing it to swing in for damage without needing to stick around. In contrast, Sutured Ghoul requires a more permanent reanimation strategy but rewards you with the potential for a massive power creature based on what you exile for its casting.

Another comparable is the fearsome Visara the Dreadful, a creature with a similar mana value and an impactful battlefield presence. While Visara doesn’t boast the unearth mechanic, it brings removal-on-demand with its destructive tap ability. Corpulent Corpse, lacking such control capabilities, focuses instead on aggressive and short-term board impact.

Therefore, assessing Corpulent Corpse against its counterparts, it stands out for players who favor a quick and forceful reanimated attack, although it may not have the longer-lasting board influence of creatures like Visara the Dreadful or the growing power potential of a card like Sutured Ghoul.

Sutured Ghoul - MTG Card versions
Visara the Dreadful - MTG Card versions
Sutured Ghoul - MTG Card versions
Visara the Dreadful - MTG Card versions

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

Nightmare - MTG Card versions
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Geth, Lord of the Vault - MTG Card versions
Toxic Nim - MTG Card versions
Nightmare - MTG Card versions
Ihsan's Shade - MTG Card versions
Necrosavant - MTG Card versions
Dakmor Lancer - MTG Card versions
Face of Fear - MTG Card versions
Wire Surgeons - MTG Card versions
Grave Titan - MTG Card versions
Chittering Harvester - MTG Card versions
Crossway Troublemakers - MTG Card versions
Anurid Murkdiver - MTG Card versions
Gempalm Polluter - MTG Card versions
Nefashu - MTG Card versions
Twisted Abomination - MTG Card versions
Iname, Death Aspect - MTG Card versions
Yawgmoth Demon - MTG Card versions
Ascendant Evincar - MTG Card versions
Bog Hoodlums - MTG Card versions
Helldozer - MTG Card versions
Geth, Lord of the Vault - MTG Card versions
Toxic Nim - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Corpulent Corpse’s unearth ability not only returns it to the battlefield, potentially bypassing traditional casting costs, but it also can create advantageous scenarios by surprising your opponent or fortifying your board presence at a crucial moment.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana or tokens, the low-cost unearth ability of Corpulent Corpse can be considered a form of resource acceleration. It enables you to utilize your mana efficiently, allowing you to deploy threats while keeping resources available for other actions.

Instant Speed: The unearth ability can be activated at instant speed, granting Corpulent Corpse an element of tactical flexibility. You can choose the best moment during your turn or even in response to your opponents’ actions to make the most impactful play.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Corpulent Corpse card necessitates that you pitch another card to use its unearth ability, potentially depleting your hand when you might need to hold onto key cards for strategic plays.

Specific Mana Cost: The cast cost of this card is steeped in the black mana pool. This could pose a problem for multicolored decks that might struggle to generate the necessary black mana consistently, making the Corpulent Corpse less flexible in various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sporting a demanding mana value for its stats, Corpulent Corpse can create a mana bottleneck in your game. This card can be eclipsed by creatures of similar mana cost that bring more to the table in terms of abilities or power/toughness ratio, offering better value for the mana investment.


Reasons to Include Corpulent Corpse in Your Collection

Versatility: Corpulent Corpse fits seamlessly into decks that utilize the morbid mechanics or strategies focusing on creature death. Its flexibility is evident as it serves both as a tangible threat and a gateway to powering up death-trigger abilities.

Combo Potential: When paired with cards that benefit from creatures entering or leaving the battlefield, Corpulent Corpse can be a linchpin in devastating combo chains. Its moderate casting cost and potential for resurrection make it a recurring asset in such synergies.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta filled with graveyard manipulation or control decks, Corpulent Corpse shines. Its ability to return to the battlefield makes it a resilient component against removal-heavy strategies, ensuring your board presence remains consistent.


How to beat

Corpulent Corpse presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. This sizeable creature card can be a formidable blocker due to its high toughness. Players must be tactful when devising strategies to handle this resilient card. Targeted removal spells are an effective strategy here; cards like Path to Exile or Doom Blade can effectively neutralize it without a struggle. Board wipes, such as Wrath of God, can also clear the way, dealing with Corpulent Corpse and any other creatures in play.

Another angle to consider is utilizing exile effects to remove Corpulent Corpse from the game entirely. This will prevent any graveyard retrieval strategies that could bring Corpulent Corpse back into play. Cards like Scavenging Ooze offer a two-fold benefit, allowing players not only to exile Corpulent Corpse but also to strengthen their position on the board in the process.

Ultimately, maintaining control and having a plan for removal will keep Corpulent Corpse from overwhelming the game. Ensuring your deck has varied answers to different threats will enhance your chances of securing victory even when faced with this large undead creature.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Corpulent Corpse MTG card by a specific set like Time Spiral and Time Spiral Remastered, 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 Corpulent Corpse and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Corpulent Corpse Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2006-10-06 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Doug Chaffee.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12006-10-06Time SpiralTSP 982003NormalBlackDoug Chaffee
22021-03-19Time Spiral RemasteredTSR 1042015NormalBlackDoug Chaffee

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Corpulent Corpse has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2021-06-18 A creature cast using suspend will enter the battlefield with haste. It will have haste until another player gains control of it. (In some rare cases, another player may gain control of the creature spell itself. If this happens, the creature won’t enter the battlefield with haste.)
2021-06-18 As the second triggered ability resolves, you must cast the card if able. You must do so even if it requires targets and the only legal targets are ones that you really don’t want to target. Timing permissions based on the card’s type are ignored.
2021-06-18 Cards exiled with suspend are exiled face up.
2021-06-18 Exiling a card with suspend isn’t casting that card. This action doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
2021-06-18 If an effect refers to a “suspended card,” that means a card that (1) has suspend, (2) is in exile, and (3) has one or more time counters on it.
2021-06-18 If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
2021-06-18 If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again at the beginning of the card’s owner’s next upkeep.
2021-06-18 If the second triggered ability is countered, the card can’t be cast. It remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
2021-06-18 If the spell requires any targets, those targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it’s exiled.
2021-06-18 If you can’t cast the card, perhaps because there are no legal targets available, it remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended.
2021-06-18 If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” such as with suspend, you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those if you want to cast the card.
2021-06-18 Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that allows you to exile the card from your hand with the specified number of time counters (the number before the dash) on it by paying its suspend cost (listed after the dash). The second is a triggered ability that removes a time counter from the suspended card at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. The third is a triggered ability that causes you to cast the card when the last time counter is removed. If you cast a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of that creature (or, in rare cases, you lose control of the creature spell while it’s on the stack).
2021-06-18 The mana value of a spell cast without paying its mana cost is determined by its mana cost, even though that cost wasn’t paid.
2021-06-18 When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend (the one that lets you cast the card) triggers. It doesn’t matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it.
2021-06-18 You are never forced to activate mana abilities to pay costs, so if there is a mandatory additional mana cost (such as from Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), you can decline to activate mana abilities to pay for it and hence fail to cast the suspended card, leaving it in exile.
2021-06-18 You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effects that modify when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that stop you from casting it (such as from Meddling Mage’s ability) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or that requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time.