Losing your best creature in Magic: the Gathering can be a miserable experience. But what if it isn’t really gone? What if you could harness the dark powers of the undead to bring your powerful creatures back to life? Thanks to any number of cards with reanimate effects, you, too, can become the master of death and bring back your favorite creatures.
There are tons of great creatures to reanimate in Magic, many of them with impressive enter-the-battlefield effects. There are also some amazing combos you can come up with that involve bringing back specific creatures; we put together this list based on each card’s abilities based on their versatility in any situation.
10 Acidic Slime
When this gooey slime enters the battlefield, it can destroy any land, artifact, or enchantment in play. Being able to target just about any permanent that is giving you trouble is an amazingly flexible card. Even better, Acidic Slime has deathtouch, so it can block favorably, making it a great two-for-one. With a reliable reanimation method, you can quickly start picking off any card giving you trouble.
9 Massacre Wurm
Sometimes you need a mini board wipe and a way to make players lose a bunch of life. Particularly devastating against token decks that create a bunch of little creatures, Massacre Wurm can swing a game just by being cast. Bringing it back from the graveyard multiple times gives you either multiple -2/-2 triggers in a turn or a way to perform a mini board wipe every turn.
8 Plaguecrafter
Plaugecrafter is almost guaranteed to generate value for you every time it enters the battlefield. All players must either sacrifice a creature or planeswalker; if they can’t do either, they must discard a card. With a reliable way to bring it back, with, say, a Sun Titan, you can severely disrupt your opponents’ plans.
7 Serra's Emissary
There are few cards more imposing than a Serra’s Emissary. Being able to render an entire type of card completely ineffective towards you is so incredibly powerful. Casting Serra’s Emissary might put a huge target on you, but it is an easy way to coax out a removal spell so you can push through an even bigger threat.
Each time Serra's Emissary enters the battlefield, it allows you to change the card type you gain protection from, so you can gain protection from whatever you think might be the biggest threat to you at the time.
6 Ashen Rider
A classic reanimation target, Ashen Rider pulls double duty with its ability. When it enters the battlefield or dies, you get to exile a permanent. Sitting at a pricey eight mana, with a double white and black mana commitment, discarding it and reanimating it is a great way to start removing every card that’s giving you trouble.
5 Sun Titan
Sun Titan is an amazing card with a reanimation ability built into it. When Sun Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, you get to bring back any permanent to the battlefield. You can target everything from creatures to lands, and it's especially good with cheap cards that have a great sacrifice ability like Ratchet Bomb or even a land like Strip Mine to keep destroying all your opponents’ lands.
4 Eternal Witness
Eternal Witness, and its older sibling, Timeless Witness, can return any card from your graveyard to your hand. In a deck focused on creature reanimation, it can be difficult to get back some of the noncreature cards you have already cast during your game.
With a reliable reanimation sequence, you can repeatedly bring back Eternal Witness and always have access to all the cards you’ll ever need.
3 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
There is no better way to protect everything on your side of the battlefield than with Avacyn, Angel of Hope. An 8/8 flying, indestructible creature with vigilance is already a very strong reanimation target, but giving everything else you control indestructible can protect you from just about everything your opponents can throw at you.
2 Sheoldred, Whispering One
Another powerful creature with a reanimation ability built into it, Sheoldred, Whispering One takes a little bit of time to get going, but the longer it is in play, the more value it generates. At the beginning of each other player’s turn, they must sacrifice a creature they control. While at the beginning of your turn, you get to return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. If Sheoldred survives until your next turn, you have removed three creatures from the board and likely brought back another powerful attacker.
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Nothing can stop Elesh Norn, not even death. As one of the scariest creatures in Magic, Elesh Norn pumps up your team with +2/+2 and reduces all your opponents' creatures with -2/-2. Buffing your team with its ability can often time scale most of your creatures up past what is manageable. Much like Massacre Wurm, the -2/-2 is very likely to kill off a good number of your opponents' creatures while hamstringing everything else they have in play.