Cruel Revival
Instant
Destroy target non-Zombie creature. It can't be regenerated. Return up to one target Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Starter Commander Decks
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #15223
Cruel Revival destroys a non-Zombie and puts a Zombie from your graveyard into your hand — two relevant actions for one five-mana spell. It's narrow enough that only dedicated Zombie tribal builds should run it, but in those shells, especially Gisa and Geralf, it pulls double duty as removal and recursion.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gisa and Geralf
Gisa and Geralf mills your library into fuel and casts Zombies from the graveyard, so Cruel Revival's recursion clause is never dead — it grabs back whatever payoff got answered, while clearing a blocker that's slowing your board down.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cruel Revival is a Commander card through and through — five mana is too slow for Legacy, Vintage, or Modern, where cheaper interaction dominates and graveyards are contested more violently. Pauper is the one non-Commander format where it's legal and marginally viable, since the card pool is shallow enough that "destroy target non-Zombie" plus "return a Zombie" on one card has more relative weight. In Commander, Zombie tribal is the only real home: outside that tribe, the recursion clause is often blank, making Cruel Revival a worse Murder with upside you can't use.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Cruel Revival is firmly bulk — the kind of card you pick out of a dollar box without thinking twice. That price is stable; there's no competitive demand pulling it up, and Zombie tribal players who want it already have it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.