Recuperate
Instant
Choose one —
• You gain 6 life.
• Prevent the next 6 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Scourge
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #29974
Recuperate costs four mana to gain 4 life and draw a card — passable rate in a vacuum, but white has strictly better options at every point on that curve. It sees fringe play in Pauper life-gain shells where the card pool is constrained, and almost nowhere else.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Recuperate is a Pauper card first and everything else second. In that format, the combination of life gain and card draw on a single spell has real value in white-based lifegain decks that want to stabilize and refuel simultaneously. In Commander, four mana for 4 life and one card is well below the threshold — Soul's Attendant and Esper Sentinel generate more value for a fraction of the cost, and Recuperate offers no enters-the-battlefield trigger, no repeat use, and no synergy hook to justify the slot. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters; the card simply doesn't compete at those power levels.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Recuperate sits firmly in bulk territory and is unlikely to move in either direction. It's a casual-acquisition card — fine to pick up as a placeholder, but not worth seeking out.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.