The 43 Best Reanimation Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 13, 2025

Reanimate | Illustration by Johann Bodin

There isn’t too much better in Magic than having things for free, or for far cheaper than they normally cost. Whether it’s ramping out with mana rocks or casting instants and sorceries for free, it’s a great way to get ahead and overwhelm opponents.

Over the course of a game of Magic, one zone naturally fills with cards as turns go by. That begs the question: Why not use the graveyard to your advantage?

That’s right, today we’re looking at reanimation effects and how to reanimate cards. How does reanimation work in Magic? Which reanimation spells and abilities are a necromancer’s dream? Let’s dive in and find out!

What Are Reanimation Cards in MTG?

Dread Return | Illustration by LJ Koh

Reanimation cards are ones that bring a permanent back from the graveyard to the battlefield or return a dying creature to the battlefield. Most reanimation cards bring back creatures of any kind, but a lot of the best ones occasionally bring back any permanent, permanents with a specific mana value, or even lands in the case of a few.

#43. Back for More

Yes, it’s expensive, but Back for More gives you an instant-speed reanimation effect added to a fight effect. It can be devastating depending on the target you choose, be it Phyrexian Obliterator or Screaming Nemesis. Or maybe you get a Vampire Nighthawk, so you can remove something and gain some life in the process. Definitely a more casual approach to reanimation.

#42. Abuelo’s Awakening

Abuelo's Awakening is an important part of Omniscience decks, allowing you to cheat the 10-mana enchantment into play by paying just 4. Yes, it returns as a fragile spirit, so it’s better to follow this spell with a proper Omniscience from your hand to ensure the cheating process gets going.

#41. Exhume

Being a common reanimation spell warrants its use, at least in formats like Pauper. Exhume is a good combo when you can use your turn 1 to loot a big creature into the graveyard, with cards like Consider or Faithless Looting, not to mention premium ones like Entomb. Another nice synergy is using cards that cycle for cheap like Troll of Khazad-dûm. The worst aspect of this card is that these days, other decks can have a cheap cycler available and also benefit from the effect.

#40. Life // Death

Life / Death is basically a 2-mana Reanimate, which is, of course, so much worse than the 1-mana spell. For 2 mana, you get other effects that are better like Animate Dead. This card at least offers added flexibility with the Life half, and sometimes you can finish the game this way.

#39. Kaya’s Ghostform

Kaya's Ghostform is a 1-mana enchantment that doesn’t necessarily bring a creature back from the graveyard immediately, but instead returns the enchanted creature to the battlefield when it dies or is put into exile. It’s like a preemptive reanimation.

All in all, it just provides a worse version of umbra armor. That’s good enough to hang around the bottom of this list, and it’s only up from here!

#38. Emeria, the Sky Ruin

Emeria, the Sky Ruin is a nonbasic land that can tap for white and reanimates a creature card in your graveyard if you have seven or more plains in play. It’s not too special, only functioning in mono-white Commander decks.

The tapped entry is a serious downside here because mono-white decks usually play a low curve, and it’s a major hindrance if you fail to play a mana rock or a turn-1 creature beacuse this is your only white source.

#37. The Cruelty of Gix

The Cruelty of Gix is a 5-mana black saga from Dominaria United. It has a few different options including getting rid of a creature or planeswalker in an opponent’s hand, tutoring any card into your hand from library, and reanimating a creature from any graveyard.

Thanks to the read ahead mechanic, this can (at worst) do any one of these immediately upon entry. It’s a decent, versatile card, but it isn’t the best value in terms of reanimation if you immediately read ahead to the third chapter.

#36. Patriarch’s Bidding

Patriarch's Bidding is a 5-mana sorcery that has each player choose a creature type, then everything of a chosen type in a graveyard returns to play. You'll need to protect your graveyard. This is an A+ in typal decks but has serious drawbacks outside of that strategy.

If you play this against a typal deck, you might as well concede.

#35. Tergrid, God of Fright

Here’s another 5-mana reanimation card, but this time it’s Tergrid, God of Fright, a god creature that lets you reanimate permanents that your opponents discard or sacrifice. It’s a great built-in two-for-one and works incredibly well in discard decks, earning itself the infamous “Game Changer” status.

#34. Artisan of Kozilek

Artisan of Kozilek is a monster of a creature at 9 mana. It comes in as a 10/9 with annihilator 2 and has an on-cast ability to return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. This isn’t anything crazy on a technical level, but a massive beater that brings a friend even if it’s countered is usually pretty good.

#33. Whip of Erebos

The good ol’ fashioned Whip of Erebos lets you tap it (and pay ) to reanimate a creature for a turn before exiling it. This black artifact also gives all your creatures lifelink.

This isn’t the most powerful god artifact but it’s certainly good, and the reanimation ability can provide some generic value in non-sacrifice or reanimation strategies.

#32. Guardian Scalelord

With backup, Guardian Scalelord adds the evasion of flying to give you a chance at a safe attack. Another important pair of words on this card is “nonland permanent” and I'm sure you know of great artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers that cost less than 3 and want a second chance.

#31. Recommission

Recommission is seeing heavy play in Standard decks like Jeskai Oculus. Its main application is to bring back Abhorrent Oculus, but it also gets Haughty Djinn and other useful creatures. Plus, you get a little bonus, as a 6/6 Oculus is a faster clock than a 5/5.

#30. Unearth

Unearth is a classic reanimation spell for creatures with a mana value under 4, giving you a great tempo advantage. It also has cycling, so it can be useful even if you don’t have an appealing target.

#29. Dread Return

Dread Return is a 4-mana sorcery that reanimates a single creature from your graveyard. It also has flashback for the cost of sacrificing three creatures, which probably isn’t that much of a cost in the first place.

This card is decent overall. It’s nothing too crazy, especially compared with what’s coming, but it's better than everything before it on the list.

#28. Sevinne’s Reclamation

One of the best flashback cards in the game, Sevinne's Reclamation doesn’t restrict you to creatures specifically, but it restricts you to permanents with a mana value of 3 or less. It also has flashback and reanimates two targets when cast from a graveyard.

This is great in white and Selesnya () enchantment decks that don’t have access to the vast majority of reanimation but have a few critical pieces to reanimate if needed.

#27. From the Rubble

Repeated reuse of your creatures and no additional cost: These are excellent traits for reanimation. Yes, it's overpriced for the first one, but controlling From the Rubble for two turns is worth it if you've built your deck around a short list of creature types.

#26. Coalstoke Gearhulk

With Coalstoke Gearhulk you’re getting a nice, big body, and getting to reanimate up to a 4-drop until the end of turn. The reanimated creature also gets to attack, and this synergizes with efficient creatures, creatures with additional downsides when cast, or simply cards that have good enter effects. You can also target a creature in an opponent's graveyard and get a swing before exiling it for good.

#25. Sheoldred, Whispering One

The first iteration of Sheoldred, Sheoldred, Whispering One reanimates something from your graveyard on your upkeep and forces opponents to sacrifice a creature on their upkeep. That’s a very powerful mechanic overall, and it holds up despite the hefty mana value on this card. Reanimation targets that then continue reanimating other cards are quite strong for these strategies.

#24. Emry, Lurker of the Loch

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is the queen of reanimating artifacts, and even costs less for the artifacts you already control. It can also fill your own graveyard with its ETB ability, helping to ensure that you have something to cast the next turn.

This card doesn’t directly reanimate artifacts; it lets you cast them. This is one of the only artifact-centric reanimation cards, so I’m allowing it on this list as a technicality.

#23. Splendid Reclamation

Splendid Reclamation is a 4-mana sorcery and a one-shot catch-call reanimation spell to bring back all your lands. They come into play tapped, but pairing this with some kind of mass land destruction leaves you with everything you had and your opponents with nothing.

Make sure to float mana before casting an Armageddon.

#22. Living Death

Living Death (no, not Living End) is a 5-mana sorcery that basically swaps the creatures in play with the creatures in graveyards. It’s a big swap that leaves sacrifice decks ahead. Just make sure to know what’s coming across the table!

#21. Shallow Grave

Shallow Grave allows you to get a creature from your grave into play with haste until the end of your turn. There’s a catch: It must be the top card from your library (yes, Mirage had nonsense restrictions like this). But for 2 mana, you can do worse than this card.

#20. Corpse Dance

Corpse Dance is a 3-mana Shallow Grave with buyback. With some mana left to spend, you can get a creature again and again, every turn. This can be very useful if you have cards like Spirited Companion or Ravenous Chupacabra, so you'll have guaranteed value every turn.

#19. Goryo’s Vengeance

Although very similar to other reanimation effects, Goryo's Vengeance is a little better in the sense that you choose the creature you want to return, although with the downside that it only works for legendary creatures. Awesome with Griselbrand, but it’s useless with cards like Archon of Cruelty or Woodfall Primus.

#18. Finale of Devastation

One of Magic's best green sorceries, Finale of Devastation is one of the few green reanimation spells on this list. It costs and allows you to tutor out creatures from your library and graveyard. It even gives them a massive buff if you paid or more for X.

#17. Victimize

Victimize is another 3-mana sorcery that requires you to sacrifice a creature in the process. In exchange you get two creature cards from your graveyard reanimated into play tapped. This is great value for just 3 mana.

Unfortunately you can’t reanimate the sacrificed creature thanks to the ordering of effects, and sacrificing a creature isn’t part of the actual cost of this card.

#16. Ramunap Excavator

Ramunap Excavator is a cheap creature that lets you play lands from the graveyard. It doesn’t “reanimate” them in the sense that it returns them. Like Emry, Lurker of the Loch, this is essentially a consistent source of land reanimation.

#15. Crucible of Worlds

Crucible of Worlds is just Ramunap Excavator that’s tougher to remove, so it’s better (usually).

#14. Daretti, Scrap Savant

Daretti, Scrap Savant is an infamous red planeswalker that loves messing around with artifacts. Its ultimate gives you an emblem which has you return artifacts from graveyard to the battlefield on the end step. That synergizes well with its other abilities, but it also offers great protection if you’re an artifact-based deck.

#13. Goblin Engineer

Goblin Engineer needs no introduction. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s among the strongest red ETB effects and a cheap, effective combo piece for reanimating artifacts for other combos. It does this well and efficiently, which makes it quite strong in Eternal formats.

#12. Persist

Persist is close to being an all-timer reanimation spell at 2 mana, but the -1/-1 counter matters and targeting only non-legendaries severely limits the types of targets you'd want to bring back. It's effective in formats that don't have Reanimate or Animate Dead, and can serve as a tertiary backup for those in something like Vintage Cube.

#11. Necromancy

Necromancy has a gigantic wall of text. All you really need to know is that it reanimates a creature. If you cast it at a time a sorcery couldn’t be cast, it’s sacrificed at the end step.

This is great generic creature reanimation at instant speed, and it works well in defensive situations or when the creature you’re reanimating is something with immediate impact like Griselbrand.

#10. Reveillark

Reveillark isn’t the most powerful reanimation card on rate, but it’s an effective combo piece in Commander. A lot of combo creatures have low power, and this is conveniently costed at 5 mana to work well in many different Birthing Pod combo lines.

#9. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed is a great reanimation piece thanks to how it functions in various combos that run Protean Hulk as an initiator. It works well specifically with Walking Ballista and other cards to infinitely ping enemies.

#8. Underworld Breach

Underworld Breach is… another combo piece. This is typically reserved for getting enough mana to conduct a combo with Brain Freeze by reanimating Lion's Eye Diamond, and it does that very cheaply and quickly.

#7. Sun Titan

Sun Titan, one of the best giants in MTG and among the very best white creatures, is similar to Reveillark in certain combos, but it offers better generic reanimation for white decks. It’s as great a staple in mono-white hatebears/stax decks as a way to replenish your board and return the right stax piece for the problem when played.

#6. Eerie Ultimatum

Here’s one amazing Abzan card, Eerie Ultimatum. It’s a whopping 7-mana sorcery with a lot of different pips, but its effect of returning any number of permanents with different names from your graveyard to the battlefield is unparalleled.

This ultimatum can obviously have easy combo potential with graveyard decks, especially with effects from cards like Entomb, but it works well in essentially any permanent-based deck.

#5. Malakir Rebirth

Malakir Rebirth is one of many “scam” cards with this effect, but the fact that it’s an MDFC land completely changes its dynamic. It’s a great combat trick and way to protect single creatures from removal, working as an in-the-moment reanimation card.

#4. Dance of the Dead

This giant wall of text means that Dance of the Dead is actually an Animate Dead card that gets creatures from any graveyard with a +1/+1 bonus. There’s a little side-effect that you must pay to untap that creature. That’s a minor drawback: Most of the time, the Reanimate value is in the huge bonus you get from the enters effect or the creature’s passive abilities.

#3. Animate Dead

Animate Dead has animate in its name, and it’s one of the best and oldest reanimation spells. One of Magic's best black enchantments and best black ETB cards, it’s a solid value that’s easy to understand and build around and it even works well in generic decks that lack a reanimation or graveyard focus.

#2. Karmic Guide

Karmic Guide makes up for what it lacks in generic reanimation potential with its incredible functionality in combos. It comes in at that crucial 5-mana slot for Birthing Pod combos, and it doesn’t have any limits in what it can reanimate. Echo‘s barely a downside here, since reanimation decks and flicker decks can work around it easily.

#1. Reanimate

I can’t think of a more deserving card than Reanimate itself. It’s simple: One mana to reanimate a creature with the only actual drawback being the life lost in the process. That life can occasionally mean something, but it’s always worth the exchange if you’re reanimating something incredibly game-altering.

Best Reanimation Payoffs

The best way to get a payoff for reanimation is reanimating something incredibly powerful and ahead of when it should normally enter play. Reanimating is all about getting more out of the spell than what you put into it.

In the common example of Griselbrand reanimator decks, big Griz fulfills both tasks. It’s a massive creature that comes out on turns 1 to 3 on average, and it brings immediate and assured value in drawing you seven cards. If it didn’t draw cards or have an impact once entering play then you’re just getting a big body for cheap. Atraxa, Grand Unifier has usurped Griselbrand as the reanimation creature of choice in many decks and formats.

How Do Reanimation Cards Work?

Reanimation cards return cards from the graveyard to the battlefield. When these explicitly say “return” it means that it’s moving those cards from zone to zone. Nothing is being cast.

There are a few cards that don’t follow this “return” clause in my rankings, but they’re included because they still have the sentiment of reanimation.

Does Reanimating Count as Casting?

No, reanimating doesn’t count as casting because reanimation cards return permanents from the graveyard to the battlefield. They don’t make them castable or playable.

Can You Return Tokens from the Graveyard?

No, you can’t return tokens from the graveyard because tokens stop existing once they hit the graveyard. There's no window between when a token enters the graveyard and when it leaves the game where you could reanimate one.

Does Returning from the Graveyard Count as Casting?

No, cards that return others from the graveyard don’t cast them or make them free, unless explicitly stated.

Wrap Up

Malakir Rebirth | Illustration by Marta Nael

I enjoyed researching this and was surprised to see a few cards I had basically forgotten about. Hopefully I’m not alone to have my interest in them reanimated!

What did you think of my rankings? Did you agree with my placements, or do you have some suggestions? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

Until next time, stay safe and stay healthy!