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Creative Lines and Tempo Play with a Blue-Black Twist

Blue magic often gets the spotlight for card selection, protective countermagic, and cunning mind games, while black leans into resourceful pressure and resilient, decayed persistence. When you combine Revenge of the Drowned, a nimble Innistrad: Midnight Hunt instant for {3}{U}, with a plan to pressure the opponent and sculpt your board, you unlock a surprisingly flavorful and functional tempo engine 🧙‍♂️🔥. This common rarity instant may look modest on paper, but its flavor—forcing the owner of a targeted creature to place it on the top or bottom of their library—opens the door to creative mind games and clean, punishing follow-ups. The moment that 2/2 black Zombie token with decayed stomps onto the battlefield, your deck becomes a chess game where each move gnaws away at your opponent’s defenses 💎⚔️.

Below are five creative lines you can use to spark memorable moments at the table. They’re not just clever words; they point to real tempo ideas you can fold into a bluesy, black-tinged game plan. Take these as prompts for your next game night—or as battle cries when you need to tilt the odds in your favor 🎲.

Five creative lines you can drop with style

• Line A: "Top or bottom—your choice. Either way, I’m stealing tempo and summoning a tiny undead army." Deck idea: couple Revenge of the Drowned with low-cost cantrips and a token-maker to keep pressure in the air while you find answers. The decayed Zombie token forces your opponent to answer a looming board presence as you keep your plan intact 🧙‍♂️.
• Line B: "Blue fog, black bite: your top card gets re-routed, and a 2/2 Zombie crawls out of the mist." Flavor-wise, this line leans into the contrast of blue cards that manipulate information and the bite of a decayed zombie that can’t block but can chip away at life totals—perfect for a tempo setup that leaves your opponent with tough decisions 🔥.
• Line C: "I give you a choice—careful draws or risky plays—and I answer with a tapping near-permanent tempo that blooms into a decayed offense." Practical note: use this line when you’ve got a plan to follow Revenge of the Drowned with a counterspell or a bounce effect, reinforcing the idea that your control elements pace the battlefield while the Zombie token noses closer 👀.
• Line D: "Your threat goes on top or bottom; I drop a blue spell, and a single Zombie shifts the tempo from tempo to inevitability." The rhythm here is to keep a steady stream of cantrips or cheap disruption, letting the Zombie token pressure the opponent’s life total while you assemble your actual win condition 🎯.
• Line E: "A net may look heavy, but it catches the perfect draw—one Revenge, and suddenly the board is a chessboard where every move feeds the next decayed bite." This line nudges your table into recognizing how the card’s effect interacts with your draw steps and your token generation, turning a pinpoint answer into a multi-turn plan 💎.

“A heavy net doesn’t always mean a good catch.” — flavor text from Innistrad: Midnight Hunt fits the mood, and this line invites you to weave control with a creeping zombie swarm.

As you can see, the card’s core charm is not just the clever top-or-bottom manipulation; it’s the immediate, offline-friendly payoff of a 2/2 zombie with decayed. That token can’t block, but it can sprint toward your opponent’s life total if you pair Revenge with a few budget-friendly cantrips and draw engines. The blue component comes through in the tempo and the subtle card selection, allowing you to keep the board clear and your options open while the undead edge ever closer 🔥.

From a design perspective, Revenge of the Drowned embodies the clever cross-pressure that makes Innistrad block a fan favorite. You’re paying a modest mana cost for a flexible effect that both punishes a nuisance creature and spawns a threat of your own. The decayed keyword adds flavor and a touch of caution: you’ll get value, but you’ll also be sacrificing your spawn at end of combat if it goes on the field and attacks—perfect for teaching the patient gamble that modern blue-black tempo decks love to embrace ⚔️🎨.

For players collecting or building around this card, its common rarity doesn’t undercut its potential to shine in Commander or in a Historic shell where blue control and zombie proxies have room to breathe. The Midnight Hunt set, with its gothic aesthetic and haunting flavor, remains a goldmine for players who enjoy mixing puzzle pieces and flavorful, thematic moments in their games 🧙‍♂️💎. If you’re contemplating a small-budget surprise for your next Friday Night Magic, this instant is a cheeky beacon: it’s not just about removing a threat; it’s about steering the narrative and setting up a “win-the-next-turn” moment that looks every bit as clever as it feels when you utter your favorite line.

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