Coffin Puppets MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Zombie
Power 3
Toughness 3

Key Takeaways

  1. Provides consistent creature revival each upkeep, offering repeatable benefits and sustaining board presence.
  2. Enables early deployment of high-cost creatures, granting a significant tempo advantage in-game.
  3. Grants the option to sacrifice for strategic benefit at upkeep, allowing player flexibility during matches.

Text of card

Sacrifice two lands: Return Coffin Puppets from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate only during your upkeep and only if you control a Swamp.


Card Pros

Exploring the strengths of Coffin Puppets in your MTG deck reveals a few notable aspects that could tip the balance in your favor during gameplay. Let’s delve into what makes this card an intriguing option for players looking to add some strategic depth to their collection.

Card Advantage: While Coffin Puppets doesn’t directly allow you to draw cards, its resurrection ability can be a form of card advantage. By bringing back a creature from your graveyard each upkeep, you’re effectively getting repeated value from the same card, and saving resources on not having to play new creatures from the hand. This persistent revival can outvalue opponents over time.

Resource Acceleration: Coffin Puppets itself may not ramp up your mana resources directly, but by reanimating high-cost creatures, you can bypass the need to accumulate the mana usually required to cast them. This effectively accelerates your resource usage, allowing you to deploy threats faster than you could by playing from your hand.

Instant Speed: While Coffin Puppets activates at the beginning of your upkeep, which is not instant speed, it does offer you the flexibility to decide during each of your upkeeps whether you want to sacrifice Coffin Puppets or not. This allows strategic planning on when to utilize its ability to the fullest, potentially during an opponent’s end step to surprise them with an unexpected blocker or attacker on your turn.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Coffin Puppets’ casting calls for the player to sacrifice a creature in addition to paying its mana cost, which can create a setback if your battlefield presence is already low.

Specific Mana Cost: This card has a color-intensive mana cost, requiring both triple black and two generic mana, potentially restricting its inclusion to mono-black or heavily black-oriented decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The five-mana investment for Coffin Puppets is considerable, especially when evaluated against other creature options that may provide similar or greater board impact for less mana.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Coffin Puppets offers strategic flexibility, performing well in decks that thrive on creature reanimation or sacrifice mechanics. Its ability to take control of an opponent’s creature upon reanimation makes it a dynamic choice for gameplay.

Combo Potential: This card has synergy with various graveyard manipulation tactics. With the right setup, you can formulate powerful plays that recur Coffin Puppets multiple times for continuous board control.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames where creature-heavy strategies prevail, Coffin Puppets can shine by disrupting opponent plays and consistently reusing valuable creatures from any graveyard.


How to Beat Coffin Puppets

When facing a card like Coffin Puppets in Magic: The Gathering, players must rethink their typical strategy. Known for its resurrection ability that toys with graveyards, it takes seasoned gameplay to outmaneuver its effects. The key to beating Coffin Puppets lies in preemptive graveyard management or in disrupting the reanimation process. This could mean incorporating cards that exile graveyard content or employing spells that counter a creature’s revival, such as Ashiok, Dream Render or Leyline of the Void which eliminate the chance for an opponent to bring back creatures from the graveyard.

Another effective strategy is to focus on removing Coffin Puppets before its ability can be activated. This might be achieved with instant removal cards like Path to Exile or having sacrifice outlets to avoid giving your opponent control of any critical creatures. Additionally, using enchantment removals like Disenchant will ensure your rivals can’t leverage Coffin Puppets’ abilities to their advantage. Approaching the game with these strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to deal with the peculiar challenges posed by this unique card and keep the battlefield in your favor.


Cards like Coffin Puppets

In the vast repertoire of Magic: The Gathering cards, Coffin Puppets stands out with its distinct reanimation capability. Comparable to other resurrection themed cards such as Zombify, which also brings creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield, Coffin Puppets adds a layer of control by giving the reanimated creature haste. Zombify, while it forgoes the haste, does not require you to sacrifice the creature at your next upkeep, a trade-off Coffin Puppets players must consider.

Analogous to Coffin Puppets’ niche is the spell Footsteps of the Goryo. Although it revives a creature with haste, much like Coffin Puppets, it follows with a sacrifice at the next end step instead of the next upkeep, presenting a slightly tighter window for using the resurrected monster. Unlike Coffin Puppets, it’s less mana-intensive, which can be essential for quicker play dynamics.

When examining the unique aspects and strategic advantages of different reanimation options in Magic: The Gathering, Coffin Puppets serves a particular role. By enabling an immediate offensive thrust with a reanimated beast, it’s a card that demands precise timing and offers high-risk, high-reward plays to daring necromancers of the game.

Zombify - MTG Card versions
Footsteps of the Goryo - MTG Card versions
Zombify - MTG Card versions
Footsteps of the Goryo - MTG Card versions

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Entropic Specter - MTG Card versions
Predatory Nightstalker - MTG Card versions
Fallen Angel - MTG Card versions
Stone Catapult - MTG Card versions
Sengir Vampire - MTG Card versions
Hollow Dogs - MTG Card versions
Grotesque Hybrid - MTG Card versions
Earwig Squad - MTG Card versions
Indulgent Tormentor - MTG Card versions
Sootfeather Flock - MTG Card versions
Zombie Cutthroat - MTG Card versions
Gluttonous Zombie - MTG Card versions
Vermiculos - MTG Card versions
Woebearer - MTG Card versions
Wei Elite Companions - MTG Card versions
Halo Hunter - MTG Card versions
Malakir Bloodwitch - MTG Card versions
Caustic Crawler - MTG Card versions
Shriekmaw - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Coffin Puppets MTG card by a specific set like Prophecy and Prophecy, 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 Coffin Puppets and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Coffin Puppets Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2000-06-05 and 2000-06-05. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12000-06-05ProphecyPCY 60s1997NormalBlackGlen Angus
22000-06-05ProphecyPCY 601997NormalBlackArnie Swekel

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Coffin Puppets has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2004-10-04 The ability works even if you sacrifice your last swamp to activate it. It only checks for a swamp on activation.

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