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Corpse Dance

Instant

Buyback {2} (You may pay an additional {2} as you cast this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Return the top creature card of your graveyard to the battlefield. That creature gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
World Championship Decks 1999
Price
$10.99
EDHREC rank
#11601
Buy on TCGplayer
Corpse Dance card art
Corpse Dance reanimates any creature from your graveyard at instant speed for two mana, then exiles it at end of turn — a tempo bomb that wins games on the spot in any deck that generates a meaningful top-of-grave target. The buyback rider is the real text: pay three extra mana and you're doing it every turn until the table answers it, which they often can't. Scholar of the Ages can loop it back regardless, but the buyback line makes that redundant.

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

In Commander, Corpse Dance is a legitimate threat — buyback reanimation at instant speed turns any death trigger or mill engine into a repeatable win condition, and the format's slower pace means you'll often have the five mana open to activate it with buyback. Legacy is where it historically earned respect, anchoring combo lines with Recurring Nightmare and high-value sacrifice outlets, though the format has since outpaced the strategy with faster disruption. Vintage is legal but almost never played there; the format's density makes a five-mana sorcery-rate play irrelevant even at instant speed. Modern, Pioneer, and Standard are all off the table. Oathbreaker is a comfortable home if the signature spell slot is occupied by something compatible — the two-mana floor makes it castable early before buyback becomes realistic.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

454 decks
Burnt OfferingCorpse DanceScholar of the Ages

Burnt OfferingCorpse DanceScholar of the Ages

Infinite black mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite red mana; Infinite storm count; Return all instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand; Infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
449 decks
Scholar of the AgesSacrificeCorpse Dance

Scholar of the AgesSacrificeCorpse Dance

Infinite black mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count; Return all instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Footsteps of the Goryo hits the same instant-speed reanimation note for under a dollar, though it always exiles at end of turn with no buyback option, capping it as a one-shot rather than a win condition. Apprentice Necromancer costs more mana and requires a tap activation, but its repeatable enters-the-battlefield trigger each turn makes it a reasonable stand-in if you're running a creature-heavy reanimator shell and can't afford Corpse Dance's buyback ceiling.

Price Context

Current price

$10.99 mid tier

At $10.99, Corpse Dance sits in mid-tier territory — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it belongs in any reanimator deck that can use it. It's a reserved list card, which puts a hard floor under the price and makes buying at current levels the rational move for anyone who plans to play it long-term.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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