Animate Dead card art

Animate Dead

Enchantment — Aura MV 2

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

Buy on TCGplayer Track your own decks
Jump to section ▾
What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Every version

What it does

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." Return enchanted creature card to the battlefield 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/-0.

Combos with Animate Dead

Lines this card is part of — what it needs alongside it, and what the two of them do. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

  • Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward Infinite
    • Infinite blinking
    • Infinite creature tokens
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    • Infinite blinking of nonland permanents
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Kederekt Leviathan Infinite
    • Return all nonland permanents to owner's hand each turn
    • Lock
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Worldgorger Dragon Infinite
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite colored mana
    • Infinite colorless mana
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Leonin Relic-Warder Infinite
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Kodama of the East Tree Cloudstone Curio Infinite
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Archon of Falling Stars Viscera Seer Infinite
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    • Infinite scry 1
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Sun Titan Karmic Guide Ashnod's Altar Infinite
    • Infinite colorless mana
    • Infinite death triggers
    • Infinite creature ETB
    • Infinite creature LTB
    • Infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →
  • Renegade Rallier Body Launderer Ashnod's Altar Infinite
    • Infinite self-discard triggers
    • Near-infinite colorless mana
    • Near-infinite death triggers
    • Near-infinite creature ETB
    • Near-infinite creature LTB
    • Near-infinite creature sacrifice triggers
    • Infinite draw triggers
    • Infinite looting
    See the steps on Commander Spellbook →

Showing the 8 shortest and most explosive. This card appears in more than these — follow any of them through to Commander Spellbook to browse the rest.

Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.

Rulings

5 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2016-06-08

    If the creature put onto the battlefield has protection from black—or if the creature can't legally be enchanted by Animate Dead for another reason—Animate Dead won't be able to attach to it. It will be put into the graveyard as a state-based action, causing its delayed triggered ability to trigger. When the trigger resolves, if the creature's still on the battlefield, its controller will sacrifice it.

  • 2016-06-08

    Animate Dead is an Aura, albeit with an unusual enchant ability. You target a creature card in a graveyard when you cast it. It enters the battlefield attached to that card. Then it returns that card to the battlefield, and attaches itself to the card again (since the card is a new object on the battlefield). Animate Dead itself never moves into a graveyard during this process.

  • 2016-06-08

    If Animate Dead isn't on the battlefield as its triggered ability resolves, none of its effects happen. The creature card won't be returned to the battlefield.

  • 2016-06-08

    Once the creature is returned to the battlefield, Animate Dead can't be attached to anything other than it (unless Animate Dead somehow manages to put a different creature onto the battlefield). Attempting to move Animate Dead to another creature won't work.

  • 2016-06-08

    Abilities such as shroud and protection function only on the battlefield unless otherwise specified. A creature card with shroud may be targeted by Animate Dead, and Animate Dead will become attached to the creature that enters the battlefield.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Animate Dead, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 7
Games played 0
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games — not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Commander Decks Games Win rate
Gollum, Riddle Master 1 0 —
Kroxa and Kunoros 1 0 —
The Lord of Pain 1 0 —
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller 1 0 —
Zurgo Stormrender 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Mardu 2 decks
  • Mono-Black 1 deck
  • Rakdos 1 deck
  • Orzhov 1 deck

Every version of Animate Dead

23 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Animate Dead — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.

Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.