Lamplight Phoenix

Every recursive Phoenix prices its return differently: Rekindling Phoenix sets up a delayed rebirth, the older lineage charged mana on the following upkeep, and each treats the graveyard as an afterthought. This one makes the graveyard the whole transaction. The death trigger doesn't ask for mana or an attack; it asks you to collect evidence 4, exiling cards from your yard with a combined mana value of at least four (a single big spell will do it, or a handful of small ones) to bring the bird back tapped. That reframes what the 3/3 flier is actually doing. It isn't a self-sufficient recursion engine, since an empty graveyard leaves the death trigger blank; it's a payoff that converts spent resources into a second body. The tension is genuine: the cards you feed it are cards you might have wanted to flashback, escape, or otherwise reuse, so each rebirth weighs the flier against whatever you bury to get it. And because the return keys off death rather than a fixed upkeep window, the Phoenix rewards decks built to trade it repeatedly into damage, a sacrifice outlet, or removal, then buy it back so long as the yard holds enough value. Collect evidence usually rides on a spell as a bonus rider; here it is the load-bearing cost, turning cardboard already paid for into recurring pressure in the air.