Animate Dead

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature card in a graveyard

When Animate Dead enters the battlefield, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with Animate Dead." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach Animate Dead to it. When Animate Dead leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.

Enchanted creature gets -1/-0.

Combos

• Animate Dead + Worldgorger Dragon
• Animate Dead + Blasting Station
• Animate Dead + Gray Merchant of Asphodel + Viscera Seer
• Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder + Mayhem Devil
• Animate Dead + Scourge of Valkas + Worldgorger Dragon
• Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward + Animate Dead

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Archon_Bel on Yawgmoth

3 weeks ago

Always nice to see another Yawgmoth user. I personally prefer Funeral Room / Awakening Hall due to the mass reanimate it can provide in the late game.

Regarding reanimation spells, I feel Victimize is a must have since it's amazing value in a deck like this. Chthonian Nightmare can also recur many of your creatures every turn.

I'm curious why you're not using any of the cheap reanimation enchantments like Animate Dead and Necromancy. I get your reasoning in using the instant revives for protection, but I like the option of being able to revive things on my own timing.

Spymaster's Vault gets you some great card selection potential with enough sacrifices.

Some favorite sac fodder providers I enjoy are Weaponcraft Enthusiast, Chittering Witch, and Sengir Autocrat. Like the Wriggling Grub, they provide the most bang for your buck.

Since you're running Vindictive Vampire, Phyresis might be a nice tech to include for her as a way of getting around either massive life totals or not having your undying combo out.

Lethal Scheme is another option for planeswalker removal, letting you squeeze a bit extra use out of your creatures and giving you extra card selection.

Not a suggestion, but I think it's fair to classify Nest of Scarabs as a boardwipe lol.

Spirits on Kaalia, Mirror Breaker EDH

1 month ago

matvone your deck isn't public, but I would make sure you have Leonin Relic-Warder + Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead or Necromancy + Impact Tremors. It doesn't work with Orcish Bowmasters or Dragon Tempest though, however it will pair within things like Corpse Knight or others I'm sure you might have if your running WGD primary. You probably are but thought I would mention :).

Spirits on Kaalia, Mirror Breaker EDH

1 month ago

matvone,

Agreed the Entomb + Animate Dead ({1}{B}{B}) is less mana intensive than the Buried Alive + Reanimate ({2}{B}{B}). It's much higher risk for sure, I thought about just using the Leonin Relic-Warder instead, but the extra mana slowed it down.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is a good pull out, along with Avacyn, Angel of Hope were both out from 2020-2024 but I decided to add a combat damage line back in, there both unnecessary angels in here.

Bogardan Hellkite lived in this deck forever, until the Orcish Bowmasters was printed, but it is a great alternative if the focus is the Worldgorger Dragon lines.

Red Dragon does the damage, but it doesn't have Flash so it's not really effective like Orcish Bowmasters or Bogardan Hellkite. Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter are also great for finding the Orcish Bowmasters with the combo.

Love Kaalia combo, very cool matvone.

Andramalech on Uncouterable Reanimator

2 months ago

Sliverguy420 didn't mention any removal despite saying you needed some- I recommend you include Unholy Heat, or potentially something like Krosan Grip so that you can stop the chaining decks like Storm from piling over you. Things like Force of Vigor help you for casting-for-free, and helping prioritize other slots of the deck. I don't know what budget you have at your disposal, but in terms of reanimating, I recommend you use a Sultai ({U}{B}{G}) shell to get the most out of your reanimating potential. Reanimate,Entomb,Animate Dead,Victimize are all considerable options for the prospect of bringing stuff back from the grave.

Don't forget that Graveyards are super easy to target, and having slots for your sideboard to counteract Graveyard removal are super important. Endurance would be a perfect inclusion for that role. Other cards that may help are Feldon's Cane, and Gaea's Blessing.

Best of luck with your deckbuilding, and don't forget that Life from the Loam also exists to help you snatch lands for casting on curve, while also filling your graveyard in order to have more reanimation targets.

Sliverguy420 on Uncouterable Reanimator

2 months ago

i think you've got too many expensive creatures and not enough removal. Animate Dead is also needed.

Crow_Umbra on Watch the Party Die [Primer]

2 months ago

Thank you capwner! The Reveillark/Karmic Guide loop is one of my old favorites since each piece can do so much work on its own. I took out Leonin Relic-Warder, because each time I'd have one of Animate Dead style auras, I felt like I was saving it for the combo, instead using it as intended.

As I continue working on the primer, I'm going to add a section about Bracket intention. I try to aim for 3 generally, but am eager to see how the Bracket criteria gets updated in April.

RobertButler23 on Beefy Budget Pox

4 months ago

Is Animate Dead really that necessary with Erebos's Titan?

multimedia on The Ooze makes it sticky

4 months ago

How's it going? Nice recent update, you've done a good job with cutting creatures. If you're worried about card prices then don't get Grim Tutor, not worth it, since for it's high price you could add many more budget friendly card upgrades.

Something to think about for some deck improvements is the mana curve and how it plays having such a heavy top end. The big creatures you want to reanimate are the top of the mana curve here and there's a lot of them, it's filled. Having many other 5 CMC or higher spells (there's 10 here) that aren't creatures can really bog down the mana curve making gameplay worse.

Grievous Wound, Demonic Covenant, Badlands Revival, Convert to Slime, Final Parting, The Cruelty of Gix, Deadbridge Chant, Breach the Multiverse none of these cards are really needed. Since creatures fill the top of the mana curve then focus on improving the beginning of the mana curve? Malevolent Rumble and Diresight are examples of cards at beginning of the mana curve that do a lot for their mana costs for reanimation strategy.

Consider more lower mana cost reanimation spells? If the plan is to cast Stickfingers turn 4 for two then give yourself more chances to reanimate a creature that same turn with more lower mana cost reanimation? You have Reanimate and Animate Dead, but that's really it for early game possible reanimation. Consider Life / Death and Soul Exchange?

A big advantage of green recursion spells here is getting back a reanimation spell to reanimate again. The problem is most of the recursion spells here can only get back a permanent, not a nonpermanent spell. Other than Animate Dead most reanimation here is coming from nonpermanent spells. Consider Regrowth and Dryad's Revival?

Opponent exile effects at your creatures can really ruin your day. Consider some protection against exile? Fine protection against exile here is creature sac since if you sac your creature in response to the exile then it instead goes to your graveyard to be reanimated again. Greater Good is powerful since it can be repeatable, not only is it creature sac, but draw and discard too. Lazotep Quarry is a land that can sac a creature to make a mana.

If you're having trouble with opponents attacking you then Grave Titan could really help. It puts a lot of defense onto the battlefield when it comes in.