Helping Hand
Sorcery
Return target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #6186
Helping Hand returns a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped — a reanimation effect stapled to an instant for one white mana, which is a genuinely strong rate. The ceiling is putting back something like Eternal Witness or Polukranos Reborn at end of turn and untapping with it immediately; the floor is tempo loss from the tapped clause, which matters less than it sounds.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Polukranos Reborn
Polukranos Reborn decks want Helping Hand as a low-cost way to rebuy Polukranos itself or any large threat that hit the graveyard through fight effects and self-mill — the reanimation synergy is direct and cheap.
Abigale, Eloquent First-Year
Abigale, Eloquent First-Year cares about spells and value creatures cycling through the graveyard, and Helping Hand provides a one-mana instant-speed way to recover a key piece without skipping a beat on tempo.
Amalia Benavides Aguirre
Amalia Benavides Aguirre decks run a high density of creatures and life-gain synergies, so Helping Hand pulling back a critical combo piece at instant speed fits cleanly into the engine's recovery plan.
Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar
Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar rewards keeping mana up on opponents' turns, making Helping Hand a natural fit — it's a one-mana instant you can hold through combat and cash in whenever a creature needs rescuing from the yard.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Helping Hand is a role-player in white reanimation strategies and creature-heavy midrange decks — one mana at instant speed is a legitimately good rate, and the tapped drawback rarely matters when you're sniping end steps. In Pioneer and Modern, the competition is stiffer: Unearth effects and more efficient reanimation tools crowd the space, and the tapped clause is a real liability when the game demands immediate threat pressure. Standard is where Helping Hand sees the most natural home right now, as one-mana reanimation at instant speed has fewer rivals and white creature decks can exploit it repeatedly. Legacy and Vintage have no use for it — the bar for a one-mana spell in those formats is essentially "wins the game," and Helping Hand doesn't clear that.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Eternal WitnessPhyrexian AltarHelping Hand
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite storm count; Infinite magecraft triggers
View combo details →Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Helping Hand isn't currently available, which likely means it's a recent or low-supply release still settling. Check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for current market price before picking up copies.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.