One of the traits that makes monsters, from shambling zombies to Jason Voorhees, so terrifying is that they never seem to die. Bullets barely make them blink, and even when they're dead and buried they seem to keep coming back. These monsters aren't just undead: they're undying.

There are a lot of ways to bring creatures back from the graveyard in Magic: The Gathering, and the Undying ability is one of the easiest ones to take advantage of.

Undying has only shown up in a few sets, and on a few commander-specific cards, but it's a powerful effect that can fit into almost any decks, and which you can build wild combo deck around. So on today's Mechanics Overview, we're taking a look at Undying!

What is Undying?

Undying is a keyword ability that allows you to reanimate a permanent immediately after it dies, with a +1/+1 counter, making it an even bigger threat than it was before. But that +1/+1 counter is also a marker that prevents you from reusing the ability: Undying only triggers if that creature had no +1/+1 counters on it when it died.

Undying isn't particularly useful in decks that distribute a lot of +1/+1 counters, since they'll often "turn off" Undying. But if you have a way to remove counters, like with a Spike Rogue, you can make your Undying creatures remarkably hard to remove. This ability is also generally useful for protecting some of your creatures from board wipes, and allowing them to block or be sacrificed and come back a little stronger.

There are also a couple of ways to give Undying to other creatures. Undying Evil, for example, allows you to give a creature undying for one turn as an instant, allowing you to protect an important creature when it's about to be destroyed. It also shows up as a ticketed ability on the Phyrexian Midway Bamboozle sticker sheet, and the Haunted One background.

Undying was originally introduced in Dark Ascension, and has rarely shown up outside of that set and the following one, Avacyn Restored. It has, however, shown up occasionally in Commander products, as seen with Fallout's Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor.

In practice, Undying works almost exactly like Persist, an ability which brings creatures back into play from the graveyard if they died without any -1/-1 counters on them. However, if you manage to have a creature with both Undying and Persist, only one of the effects will be able to resolve each time it dies. Likewise, if a creature has two instances of Undying, they'll only get one +1/+1 counter when they return to play.

Best Cards With Persist

Flayer of the Hatebound is a 4/2 with Undying which causes any creature that enters play from your graveyard to deal damage equal to its power to any target. In a deck heavy on reanimation mechanics (including Undying) this can turn into reliable removal, or a surprising way to take out an opponent.

Each time Geralf's Messenger enters the battlefield, one of your opponents loses two life. With Undying, this means they'll lose at least four life for three mana, without counting the fact that you've got a 3/2 (later, a 4/3) to attack and block with. If you've got a way to remove +1/+1 counters (like that Spike Rogue mentioned earlier), it can turn into a wonderful combo piece to finish your game.

Since it gives all of your non-Human creatures Undying, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is an incredibly easy creature to build combos around. Paired with practically any creature with Persist and a sac outlet, you can keep reanimating your creatures over and over again, creating infinite mana, counters, tokens, damage, or practically anything else you need.

The Future of Undying

Wizards of the Coast continues to play with similar reanimation abilities, with recent standouts like Nine-Lives Familiar and Unstoppable Slasher. However, outside of Innistrad Remastered and a couple singles in Commander precons, Undying hasn't made another appearance.

Duskmourn: House of Horror would have been an excellent set for the ability to return, but for the time being, Undying seems to be relegated to Commander-focused products like preconstructed decks. However, there's still some room to explore the mechanic without retreading old ground.

Undying is only printed on creatures at the time of writing, but the Comprehensive Rules actually allow it to be printed on any permanent (CR 702.93a). Noncreature permanents would still come into play with a +1/+1 counter, so a land with Undying would be a slightly bigger threat combined with effects that animate land like Earthbending.