Corpse Dance MTG Card


Corpse Dance provides card advantage through recurring graveyard creatures, exploiting their triggered abilities. Its instant speed grants unpredictability and strategic leverage, making it a formidable combat trick. While powerful, the card’s mana specificity and exile clause require careful deck and graveyard management.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeInstant
Abilities Buyback

Text of card

Buyback (You may pay an additional when you play this spell. If you do, put it into your hand instead of your graveyard as part of the spell's effect.) Put the top creature card from your graveyard into play. That creature is unaffected by summoning sickness this turn. Remove the creature from the game at end of turn.


Cards like Corpse Dance

The Corpse Dance card is a niche favorite for Magic: The Gathering players who appreciate its unique take on creature reanimation. Standing in comparison is another classic reanimate spell, Reanimate itself. While Corpse Dance requires a considerable activation setup and the top creature of the graveyard, Reanimate pulls any creature from any graveyard directly into play with no restrictions but at the cost of life points equivalent to the creature’s power.

Exhume is also a spell in the same thematic vein as Corpse Dance. Both bring creatures back from the graveyard to the battlefield, but Exhume does so for both players, which can be risky. Corpse Dance offers controlled recursion with buyback to reuse the effect but generally at a higher mana cost. Then there’s Animate Dead, which perpetually ties a resurrected creature to the battlefield but weakens it. Unlike Corpse Dance, it doesn’t benefit from the element of surprise since it doesn’t operate at instant speed.

Ultimately, Corpse Dance holds a particularly strategic role in MTG decks that capitalize on graveyard synergy and timing, offering repeatable effects that can significantly impact the state of the game.

Reanimate - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Animate Dead - MTG Card versions
Reanimate - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Animate Dead - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Corpse Dance by color, type and mana cost

Spoils of Evil - MTG Card versions
Dark Banishing - MTG Card versions
Carrion - MTG Card versions
Sick and Tired - MTG Card versions
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Kill! Destroy! - MTG Card versions
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Fevered Strength - MTG Card versions
Hideous End - MTG Card versions
Corpse Lunge - MTG Card versions
Necrobite - MTG Card versions
Murder - MTG Card versions
Drag Down - MTG Card versions
Spoils of Evil - MTG Card versions
Dark Banishing - MTG Card versions
Carrion - MTG Card versions
Sick and Tired - MTG Card versions
Bone Harvest - MTG Card versions
Slay - MTG Card versions
Afflict - MTG Card versions
Dismember - MTG Card versions
Body Count - MTG Card versions
Reaping the Graves - MTG Card versions
Execute - MTG Card versions
Kill! Destroy! - MTG Card versions
Sudden Death - MTG Card versions
Footbottom Feast - MTG Card versions
Fevered Strength - MTG Card versions
Hideous End - MTG Card versions
Corpse Lunge - MTG Card versions
Necrobite - MTG Card versions
Murder - MTG Card versions
Drag Down - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Corpse Dance excels in offering repeated card advantage by enabling you to recur creatures from your graveyard. This ability can be particularly potent in decks designed to exploit enter the battlefield or death-triggered abilities, ensuring you get more value out of each creature.

Resource Acceleration: The card stimulates resource acceleration by bringing back high-impact creatures that can tip the scales in your favor. Whether it’s ramping with additional land search creatures or generating tokens, Corpse Dance makes sure your graveyard becomes an extension of your hand and mana base.

Instant Speed: One of Corpse Dance’s most strategic benefits is its instant speed, allowing for surprise blocks, unexpected value generation, or just the right timing to disrupt an opponent’s plans. This flexibility ensures you can always be a threat, even with an empty board.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Corpse Dance requires a commitment to not only using up mana but also ensuring you have the right creatures in your graveyard to make the most of its effect. In that sense, it can demand precise timing and graveyard management, which might not align with your strategy if you’re caught in a position where reanimation isn’t beneficial or possible.

Specific Mana Cost: Corpse Dance’s casting cost demands two generic and one black mana, which constrains its inclusion exclusively to black-inclusive decks or those with sufficient mana fixing. This can be a limitation in multicolored decks where black mana may not be as readily available.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total cost of three mana for its base effect, Corpse Dance might be seen as a costly investment, especially since it only brings back a creature until the end of turn with haste and then exiles it unless you’ve spent the buyback cost. There are other reanimation spells in the card pool that offer more permanent solutions or come with a lower initial investment, potentially providing more strategic flexibility.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Corpse Dance is a versatile card, fitting into any deck that takes advantage of the graveyard. It can be a game-changer in strategies that revolve around reanimation or sacrifice.

Combo Potential: This card boasts significant combo potential, pairing excellently with creatures that have enter-the-battlefield or leave-the-battlefield effects. This can repeatedly generate value or game-winning plays.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where graveyard strategies are prevalent, Corpse Dance rises in importance. It allows you to keep pace with and potentially outmaneuver decks that rely on their graveyard as a resource.


How to Beat Corpse Dance

Corpse Dance is a unique instant in the intricate world of MTG, with the formidable ability to return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield with haste. This key feature allows players to unexpectedly bring back powerful creatures for a surprise attack or a crucial block. The twist, however, is that at the beginning of the next end step, the resurrected creature is exiled. Understanding this card’s mechanics is the first step in countering its effects.

To effectively contend with Corpse Dance, graveyard manipulation strategies should be at the forefront. One can employ cards like Bojuka Bog or Relic of Progenitus to remove the opponent’s graveyard resources, thereby neutralizing Corpse Dance’s potential. Additionally, instant-speed removal such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares can exile the creature before the end step triggers, bypassing the temporary advantage Corpse Dance offers.

In essence, staying one step ahead of the resurrection play by strategically managing the graveyard and having exile-ready removal cards at the ready can sway the matchup in your favor, diminishing the impact of Corpse Dance on the game’s outcome.


BurnMana Recommendations

Perfecting your MTG deck requires an understanding of the delicate interplay between each card. Corpse Dance is a powerful asset in any black-centric strategy. It leverages your graveyard, breathes life into your game plan, and provides the surprise factor at instant speed. If you appreciate strategic depth and the thrill of reanimation tactics, it’s a card that beckons closer inspection. Explore its capabilities and compare it with similar reanimation spells to find the perfect fit for your deck. Discovering the intricate synergies and battlefield advantages of Corpse Dance could very well be the next step in your MTG journey. Learn more about enhancing your deck with this dynamic card and others like it to keep your opponents guessing and your win rate climbing.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Corpse Dance MTG card by a specific set like Tempest and World Championship Decks 1999, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Corpse Dance and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Corpse Dance Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 1997-10-14 and 2015-05-06. Illustrated by Brian Snõddy.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11997-10-14TempestTMP 1161997NormalBlackBrian Snõddy
21999-08-04World Championship Decks 1999WC99 js1161997NormalGoldBrian Snõddy
32015-05-06Tempest RemasteredTPR 892015NormalBlackBrian Snõddy

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Corpse Dance has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Corpse Dance card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2004-10-04 Corpse Dance only exiles the card if the card is still on the battlefield at the beginning of the end step.
2008-04-01 The effect only grants Haste until the end of the current turn. If the creature somehow manages to stick around until a later turn, it will no longer have Haste.