Crypt Champion MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Crypt Champion presents an opportunity to bring a creature back from the graveyard, effectively giving you access to additional creatures without drawing extra cards. This makes it a valuable tool for decks that thrive on reusing creature abilities or simply need more board presence.

Resource Acceleration: While Crypt Champion itself doesn’t provide direct resource acceleration, it synergizes well with decks that do. By recovering key creatures that facilitate mana generation, it supports your overarching strategy of ramping up resources quickly.

Instant Speed: Although Crypt Champion is not an instant, its double strike ability compensates by offering the potential for immediate impact on the game. In a well-set battlefield, deploying Crypt Champion can mean a sudden change in board dynamics, pressuring your opponent before they have time to react on their next turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Crypt Champion comes with a distinct drawback that asks the player to sacrifice a creature when it enters the battlefield. This can place a strain on your playing field, especially if your strategy hinges on maintaining a robust presence with multiple creatures to leverage.

Specific Mana Cost: Crypt Champion has a hybrid mana cost that requires both red and black mana. This hybrid cost can be restrictive, pigeonholing it into mostly multicolor decks that can consistently produce both types of mana, potentially limiting its overall versatility in various deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sporting a mana value of four, Crypt Champion may seem steep for its 2/2 stats. There are other creatures or spells at a similar mana range that offer more substantial immediate impact or longer-term value, making the cost-to-benefit ratio of Crypt Champion less advantageous when deck building or in the midst of combat.

Reasons to Include Crypt Champion in Your Collection

Versatility: Crypt Champion is a flexible addition to any deck looking to leverage its double casting color mechanism. It can seamlessly integrate into multicolor decks and benefits any strategy emphasizing creature revival or sacrifice.

Combo Potential: When paired with cards that have enter-the-battlefield effects or those that gain value from creatures dying, Crypt Champion can become a recurring combo piece, offering continuous advantages throughout the game.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where graveyard manipulation and creature-based strategies are prevalent, Crypt Champion shines by providing a reliable way to recur valuable creatures, all the while keeping pressure on your opponents with its respectable combat stats.

How to beat Crypt Champion

Crypt Champion is a card that could pose a unique challenge in the right deck, with its double red and double black mana cost and resurrection ability upon entering the battlefield. Defeating Crypt Champion requires understanding its strengths and effectively mitigating them. Cards that exile creatures from the graveyard become crucial tools. For example, using Tormod’s Crypt can effectively nullify Crypt Champion’s resurrection ability by removing potential targets from the game before it can bring them back. Alternatively, Rest in Peace is a solid choice, as it exiles all cards from all graveyards, preventing any creature recursion tricks that Crypt Champion tries to pull off.

Control strategies can be potent as well. Counterspells like Counterspell or Mana Leak can prevent Crypt Champion from ever hitting the board, leaving your opponent’s plans thwarted. Overall, by staying one step ahead and disabling the interactions with the graveyard or preventing Crypt Champion from resolving, one can maintain the upper hand.