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Dance of the 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." Put enchanted creature card onto the battlefield tapped 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/+1 and doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, that player may pay {1}{B}. If the player does, untap that creature.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Ice Age
Price
$16.86
EDHREC rank
#2263
Buy on TCGplayer
Dance of the Dead card art
Dance of the Dead reanimates a creature from any graveyard, slaps it into play tapped with a permanent +1/+1 bonus, and enchants it to hold the whole arrangement together — all for two mana. It's a cornerstone of black reanimator strategies and a key engine piece in commanders like Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward and The Master of Keys, where blinking or bouncing the enchantment resets the loop.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Master of Keys

The Master of Keys

38.4% of decks · synergy 0.36

The Master of Keys runs Dance of the Dead as a core loop piece — bouncing or flickering the enchantment lets you re-trigger the reanimation effect repeatedly, fueling whatever engine the deck is assembling that game. At a 38% inclusion rate, it's close to an auto-include.

02
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

28.2% of decks · synergy 0.26

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger escapes from the graveyard on its own, but Dance of the Dead provides a redundant path to get Kroxa onto the battlefield before you have the escape cost assembled, letting the discard and life-loss triggers fire ahead of schedule.

03
Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Lurrus of the Dream-Den

27.5% of decks · synergy 0.25

Lurrus of the Dream-Den's companion restriction caps permanent CMC at two, and Dance of the Dead fits cleanly under that ceiling — it's one of the few reanimation enchantments that qualifies, making it nearly mandatory in Lurrus builds that want a second creature back.

04
Anje Falkenrath

Anje Falkenrath

26.1% of decks · synergy 0.24

Anje Falkenrath decks load the graveyard fast with madness cycling, and Dance of the Dead converts that self-mill into a threat on the cheap — the two-mana cost lets you reanimate and still hold up interaction in the same turn.

05
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

23.7% of decks · synergy 0.20

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth can pay the two black pips in Dance of the Dead's cost with life instead of mana, making it effectively free in terms of mana investment and accelerating the deck's ability to chain threats out of the graveyard.

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

Commander is where Dance of the Dead does its best work — graveyards fill fast in multiplayer, targets are plentiful, and two-mana permanent reanimation is a genuine tempo swing at any table. The enchantment subtype matters here too, since it dodges artifact removal and plays into recursion loops with commanders that bounce or flicker enchantments. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but rarely sees competitive play; dedicated reanimator lists in those formats prefer instant-speed options or faster redundancy. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home for the same reasons as Commander, just with a smaller card pool and faster games where the two-mana entry point is even more relevant.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

6,185 decks
Dance of the DeadWorldgorger Dragon

Dance of the DeadWorldgorger Dragon

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

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
4,119 decks
Leonin Relic-WarderDance of the Dead

Leonin Relic-WarderDance of the Dead

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

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Animate Dead is the direct functional equivalent — same two-mana cost, nearly identical text, and usually available for under a dollar — making it the first card to pair alongside Dance of the Dead rather than replace it. Necromancy costs one more mana but adds instant-speed reanimation, which is a genuine upgrade in some contexts; if the budget concern is about the $16 price tag on Dance of the Dead specifically, Animate Dead covers the same role at a fraction of the cost with almost no practical downside.

Price Context

Current price

$16.86 mid tier

At $16.86, Dance of the Dead sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate inclusion, not so expensive that it's a barrier for most Commander players. It's a Reserved List card, so supply is fixed; the price reflects steady demand from reanimator and combo decks rather than any recent spike.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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