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Animate Dead

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant creature card in a graveyard
When this Aura enters, if it's on the battlefield, it loses "enchant creature card in a graveyard" and gains "enchant creature put onto the battlefield with this Aura." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield under your control and attach this Aura to it. When this Aura leaves the battlefield, that creature's controller sacrifices it.
Enchanted creature gets -1/-0.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Summer Magic / Edgar
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#226
Buy on TCGplayer
Animate Dead card art
Animate Dead puts a creature from any graveyard onto the battlefield for two mana — that's one of the best rates reanimation has ever seen. The cost is the enchantment clause and the -1/-0 penalty, both of which matter a lot less than the tempo you gain; Killian, Decisive Mentor even reduces that two-mana cost further, making it nearly free. Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward aside, almost any deck with black that wants to recur fatties should be running this.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Killian, Decisive Mentor

Killian, Decisive Mentor

75.6% of decks · synergy 0.65

Killian, Decisive Mentor halves the cost of Animate Dead, making it a one-mana reanimation spell — that efficiency enables explosive early turns where you rebuy a value creature before most decks have established a board.

02
The Master of Keys

The Master of Keys

67.1% of decks · synergy 0.58

The Master of Keys mills cards into graveyards as a core function, and Animate Dead turns that self-mill into immediate board presence without needing to jump through additional hoops.

03
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist

Mirko, Obsessive Theorist

63.2% of decks · synergy 0.52

Mirko, Obsessive Theorist fills opponent graveyards with high-value creatures, and Animate Dead lets you steal those targets directly — it's both disruption and acceleration in one card.

04
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

60.2% of decks · synergy 0.51

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger escapes from the graveyard on its own, but Animate Dead gets it onto the battlefield from the command zone or a discard pile before you've assembled the escape cost, threatening the discard trigger immediately.

05
Celes, Rune Knight

Celes, Rune Knight

56.6% of decks · synergy 0.49

Celes, Rune Knight cares about enchantments, and Animate Dead is a permanent enchantment that checks both boxes — it contributes to her synergy count while doing the core reanimation work the deck needs.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Animate Dead is a Commander staple first and foremost — two mana to reanimate any creature in any graveyard is the kind of rate that defines an archetype, and every black reanimator or aristocrats deck has a legitimate reason to run it. In Legacy, it anchors dedicated reanimator combo shells that aim to cheat Griselbrand or Atraxa into play as early as turn one, and it remains legal and actively played there. Vintage allows it as well, though the format's speed means it occupies a narrower role. Modern, Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper are all off the table, so if your playgroup skews toward those formats, look elsewhere — but for Commander and the older eternal formats, Animate Dead is exactly as good as its reputation.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

14,735 decks
Animate DeadWorldgorger Dragon

Animate DeadWorldgorger Dragon

Infinite colored mana; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
8,695 decks
Leonin Relic-WarderAnimate Dead

Leonin Relic-WarderAnimate Dead

Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current price data isn't available for Animate Dead at this moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the latest — it has been reprinted multiple times and prices can vary significantly by printing. Given its combo utility and reprint history, it's worth picking up a copy in whatever version fits your budget rather than waiting.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.