Cemetery Recruitment
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. If it's a Zombie card, draw a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Jumpstart 2022
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #11018
Cemetery Recruitment returns any creature from your graveyard to hand and replaces itself with a card draw — two effects on one card for two mana. It's not the most efficient recursion in black, but the cantrip means it never costs you a card, which is the whole argument for running it over a cheaper but blanker option; Liliana, Heretical Healer decks in particular value that because every card in hand is a potential discard outlet.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Liliana, Heretical Healer
Liliana, Heretical Healer runs a tight discard-and-recur loop, and Cemetery Recruitment feeds both sides — it refills the hand with a creature while drawing the next discard target.
Ghoulcaller Gisa
Ghoulcaller Gisa needs a steady supply of creatures to sacrifice for Zombie tokens, and Cemetery Recruitment keeps that pipeline open by pulling back a key creature and drawing into the next piece of the engine.
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord rewards stacking Zombies, and Cemetery Recruitment slots in as cheap, cantripping recursion that keeps the graveyard churning without costing a card in hand.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cemetery Recruitment is a Commander card through and through — graveyard recursion that cantrips is exactly the kind of two-for-one glue that shines in a 100-card singleton format where redundancy is hard to come by. In competitive Constructed formats like Modern or Pioneer, two mana to return one creature to hand is too slow when Unearth effects and reanimation spells do more for less. Pauper is the one non-Commander format where it sees occasional play, since common-slot recursion with upside is rarer there and the card does real work in self-mill shells. Legacy and Vintage have access to so much broken graveyard infrastructure that Cemetery Recruitment doesn't make the cut.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Cemetery Recruitment is deep bulk — it's a throwaway pickup in any trade binder or cheap single order. Bulk commons and uncommons with narrow applications rarely move off the floor, so don't expect the price to change meaningfully in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Liliana, Heretical Healer
- Ghoulcaller Gisa
- Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.