How Are Black, White, and Green Different Regarding the Concepts of Rebirth and Renewal?
General forum
Posted on June 25, 2025, 8:59 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Black, white, and green all focus on the concepts of rebirth and renewal, but each color has their own distinct approach to those ideas, so I would like to discuss that subject, here.
How do black, white, and green differ in their approaches to rebirth and renewal, in terms of both flavor and mechanics? I have been playing MtG since the release of Eighth Edition in 2003, so I hope that I do not sound like an amateur by asking this question, but I am very interested to discuss this subject, and hear what everyone else has to say, on this matter.
What does everyone else say, about this? How do black, white, and green different in their approaches to the ideas of rebirth and renewal? I certainly am interested to receive your responses!
White returns small creatures, usually mana value 3 or less, from your graveyard to the battlefield. It can also occasionally return larger creatures for 4-5 mana. This is usually flavored as a burst of divine energy, renewed hope, or unexpected survival. Breath of Life, Return Triumphant, Miraculous Recovery, and Helping Hand are examples.
Black is the best at self-reanimation. It also had the most mana-efficient general-use reanimator spells, but generally needs to pay 4+ mana under current design patterns. These modern spells usually grant a significant bonus to or alongside the returned creature or can pull from any graveyard. It's also the best color at moving creature cards from graveyard to hand. The flavor here is blasphemous and/or unholy necromancy or sheer stubbornness and determination. Reanimate, Bloodsoaked Champion, Necromantic Selection, Return to Action, and Raise Dead are some examples here.
Green is the best color for returning any permanent or any card from your graveyard to your hand. It has almost no ability to return creatures directly to the battlefield, although it can return lands. Green recursion effects tend to be flavored as natural growth, historical significance, healing energy, or stockpiled supplies. Regrowth, Bygone Marvels, Elven Cache, and Reviving Melody are examples.
In combination, white-green doesn't have a lot of recursion, focusing instead on stamina, community, and life and health. Reborn Hope and Atzocan Seer are a couple of examples.
Black-green is known as one of the strongest color pairs for graveyard interaction. It can reliably return creatures to the battlefield and other cards to hand. Flavorwise, scavenging, fungal undeath, and physical resilience show up in addition to the other black and green flavors. Back for More, Golgari Findbroker, and Bloodbond March are examples here.
White-black also has a lot of creature reanimation, as well as artifacts and enchantments. The flavor is a little loose outside of its white and black components, but heretical rituals are a minor theme. Priest of Fell Rites, Graceful Restoration, and Immortal Servitude are examples.
June 26, 2025 12:46 a.m.
In terms of the flavour of each colours' mechanics:
Black doesn't care about the individuality or humanity of what it reanimates. The corpse is just a tool to use for the Black mage's goals. Black gets cheap reanimation effects because it doesn't care about bringing the person back to life, it just wants to get those bones moving. That's why a number of black's reanimation effects also make the creature a zombie when brought back from the graveyard or depict the creature being revived as a zombie in the artwork.
White's reanimation is framed either as the uplifting of the weak (characterized by generally limiting the reanimation target to things with a mana value of 2 or 3) or as some sort of grand miracle of revival that heals and gives a champion a second chance (See higher costed effects like Karmic Guide). It tries to convey a sense of faith that all will be well and people will endure.
Green generally returns cards back to the hand instead of the battlefield because it's framed more as a new member of a species taking the place of a dead one, like when a bear gets to take up the territory of another bear that has passed away. It's all about the cycle of nature continuing on. Even with cards like Reincarnation, the flavour is that one life was given up and a new one takes its place. Green doesn't care about a given individual, once a person's time is up then that's it. Their passing gives room for the growth of another.
June 26, 2025 7:40 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
All of these are excellent responses, so I thank everyone, for your answers!
legendofa, why would any player ever use Golgari Findbroker over Eternal Witness, when the former creature has a stricter casting cost and can return only permanents? I presume that its advantage is its higher power and toughness, making it better in combat?
June 26, 2025 8:27 p.m.
DemonDragonJ Yeah, that's pretty much it outside of Limited formats. I picked Findbroker as an example because it's a good representative of the philosophy, not because it's an especially efficient card.
Dr_Doomtrain says... #2
I personally see it this way -
Black as a color features necromantic power and decay. We see faster ways from the graveyard to the battlefield, but it's either at a cost or it's just a corpse. When we look at cards like Animate Dead, you have an enchantment literally animating the body, but if you nullify the magic moving it around, it goes back into the graveyard. A spell like Reanimate you exchange life force to put them back into play. You have Victimize where a profane ritual is being conducted and you must sacrifice a creature of yours to bring others back and they come back tapped like they're slowly getting back up.
White as a color features holy light and actual restorative power. White doesn't just bring back creatures, but also enchantments and artifacts. Brilliant Restoration returns all artifacts and enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield and we get flavor text describing healing the land. Your mechanical battlefield where magic and structures have been destroyed is now seeing all of that returned showing card art of a divine spirit dragon. You also see cards with this "rescue" theme like the creatures were on death's door, but someone intervened either delivering first aid or some quick healing spell. Moorland Rescuer dies and then you get back creatures with less power than it like it was saving weaker beings heroically in battle. Finally we see the spirit outlive the body with white
Green as a color is more true to the cycle of life. The easiest card type to recur in green is land. Crucible Of Worlds, Conduit Of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator we're playing lands straight from the graveyard into play. Basically any other card type we can get, but they go back to hand instead of onto the battlefield. You need to go through the process of casting these cards again like you need to cultivate them from the beginning again. Recollect is an example of this with a simple return target card from your graveyard to hand. The flavor text talks about bones of the past telling their tales like their knowledge can be used again.
June 26, 2025 12:06 a.m.