Vengeful Vampire

Undying is the rebate that justifies an otherwise ruinous body, and its elegance is that it builds in its own undoing: the creature comes back exactly once, growing into a 4/3 the second time around, and the counter it gains on return is the very thing that disqualifies it from a third trip. So what reads as recursion is really a two-uses-then-done resource, with the counter functioning as the off-switch that keeps undying self-limiting rather than inevitable. The strategic value sits below the stat line: a flyer that demands two answers feeds sacrifice loops, profitable chump blocks, and any deck that wants to throw the same evasive threat at a problem twice. Where undying turns mean is when something external strips the marker, or the creature dies before acquiring one, at which point the "once" becomes "again" and the rebate keeps paying out. The Flying is what saves the body from being a sacrifice token waiting to die: it can pressure life totals between trips through the graveyard, which is why the cost is best read as buying a durable, evasive engine piece rather than a tempo play that arrives late. The printed body alone never recommends it. The combination of evasion and a death trigger that punishes spot removal does.