Animate Dead card art

Animate Dead

Enchantment — Aura MV 2

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

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What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Price historyEvery 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

The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

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 15
Games played 0
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games, which is 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
Biollante 1 0 —
Dihada, Binder of Wills 1 0 —
Etrata, the Silencer 1 0 —
Glarb, Calamity's Augur 1 0 —
Gollum, Riddle Master 1 0 —
Karador, Ghost Chieftain 1 0 —
Kroxa and Kunoros 1 0 —
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Dimir 2 decks
  • Mardu 2 decks
  • Mono-Black 1 deck
  • Rakdos 1 deck
  • Sultai 1 deck
  • Orzhov 1 deck
  • Abzan 1 deck
  • Esper 1 deck

Animate Dead price history

The Secrets of Strixhaven Commander #207 printing, as Scryfall reports the TCGplayer market. Updated nightly.

Non-foil today$7.45▼ $0.23 (3.0%)
Low $6.84 · High $7.68Tracked since Sep 28, 2026
Every recorded price change
DateNon-foil
Oct 27, 2026$7.45
Oct 26, 2026$7.45
Oct 25, 2026$7.37
Oct 24, 2026$7.29
Oct 23, 2026$7.20
Oct 22, 2026$7.39
Oct 21, 2026$7.44
Oct 20, 2026$7.54
Oct 19, 2026$7.58
Oct 18, 2026$7.47
Oct 17, 2026$7.54
Oct 16, 2026$7.46
Oct 15, 2026$7.28
Oct 14, 2026$7.29
Oct 13, 2026$7.25
Oct 12, 2026$7.46
Oct 11, 2026$7.49
Oct 10, 2026$7.47
Oct 9, 2026$7.45
Oct 8, 2026$7.00
Oct 7, 2026$6.93
Oct 6, 2026$7.08
Oct 5, 2026$7.05
Oct 4, 2026$6.84
Oct 3, 2026$7.10
Oct 2, 2026$7.37
Oct 1, 2026$7.20
Sep 30, 2026$7.37
Sep 29, 2026$7.40
Sep 28, 2026$7.68

A row is recorded only on nights the price moved, so each price held until the row above it.

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 publishes none for some of them. Click a card's art to chart that version's price above.

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. It runs a name search across every version, which covers 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.

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