Archetypes
Best Budget Graveyard Recursion & Reanimator Upgrades
A reanimator deck needs three things: a way to fill the graveyard, a way to get things back, and payoffs worth the effort. Here's a budget version of all three.
Cheap reanimation
These get a payoff onto the battlefield without paying its full mana cost, which is the entire point of the archetype and works fine well under Reanimate's price if you run enough copies.
Animate Dead ↗
Two mana for any creature card in any graveyard, with a small stat penalty and a removable aura as the tradeoff for the price. A real second copy of Reanimate's effect.
Raise Dead ↗
Only returns a creature to hand rather than the battlefield, but it costs pennies and gives back your recasting choice, which matters if the graveyard hand you the wrong target.
Cheap ways to fill the graveyard
Choosing what goes to the graveyard beats leaving it to random mill, and both of these do it for one mana.
Stitcher's Supplier ↗
Mills three on entry and three again when it dies, for one mana. Two separate chances at hitting a payoff from one cheap creature.
Faithless Looting ↗
Lets you choose what goes to the graveyard rather than leaving it to random mill, and comes back later off flashback for more value.
Cheap recursive creatures
A creature that comes back from the graveyard on its own gives the deck something to do before the big reanimation spell lands, and keeps working after graveyard hate takes the deck's other targets away.
Reassembling Skeleton ↗
Comes back from the graveyard for two mana, over and over, for the rest of the game. Cheap fuel for any sacrifice outlet and a body that never actually leaves for good.
Bone Dragon ↗
A flying body that returns itself from the graveyard by exiling seven other cards from it, which gives an otherwise-dead graveyard a second use once the good targets are gone.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's a cheap alternative to Reanimate for a budget deck?
Animate Dead, usually a few dollars and often less. It's the same reanimation effect with a small stat penalty and an aura that can be removed to send the creature back, which is a fair tradeoff for the lower price. Raise Dead is cheaper still if you're comfortable returning a creature to hand instead of the battlefield.
How do I fill the graveyard on a budget without random self-mill?
Faithless Looting and similar discard-two effects let you choose exactly what goes to the graveyard rather than leaving it to chance, and they're inexpensive commons and uncommons in most printings. That control is worth more than a pricier mill effect that fills the graveyard with whatever happens to be on top of your library.
Are recursive creatures worth running alongside reanimation spells?
Yes, and they're some of the cheapest cards in the whole archetype. A creature like Reassembling Skeleton that comes back on its own for a couple of mana gives the deck something to do every turn, independent of whether the big reanimation spell has landed yet.
Build the deck and see how often it hits.
TurnZero HQ's Deck Lab tracks your deck's real card counts as you build, so you can see whether your recursion package is deep enough before game night.
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