Dutiful Return MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dutiful Return shines by returning up to two creature cards from your graveyard to your hand, setting the stage for a strategic comeback and providing a significant card advantage to outmaneuver your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: While Dutiful Return doesn’t directly accelerate your resources, the ability to retrieve key creatures can be pivotal in rebuilding your board presence and leveraging them for critical plays in subsequent turns.

Instant Speed: Although Dutiful Return is a sorcery and can’t be played at instant speed, the tactical advantage it confers when timed correctly can rival that of instant-speed spells by meticulously planning your graveyard retrieval to coincide with your game plan.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Although Dutiful Return allows you to bring creatures back from the graveyard, it does not do so without its own cost. This card does not have a direct discard requirement, but its inclusion in your hand means one less card available for other actions or strategic plays. Maintaining hand advantage is crucial, and playing Dutiful Return may sometimes conflict with that goal.

Specific Mana Cost: Dutiful Return has a black mana specific cost, which means it slots into decks that run Swamps or have access to black mana sources. If your deck doesn’t support black mana or is already strained on color requirements, including Dutiful Return might be challenging to justify, given the necessity to meet its color demands.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of four mana, two of which must be black, Dutiful Return’s effectiveness needs to be measured against other options available within the same mana range. Considering that some cheaper spells can recur creatures or provide greater value, the mana investment in Dutiful Return can sometimes be seen as steep for the effect it provides, making it less efficient in scenarios where mana economy is key to victory.

Reasons to Include Dutiful Return in Your Collection

Versatility: Dutiful Return offers flexibility across different deck types. This card allows players to bring back two creatures from the graveyard to their hand. It’s particularly useful in decks that capitalize on graveyard mechanics or require consistent creature recovery.

Combo Potential: The real strength of Dutiful Return lies in its ability to set up powerful combos. By retrieving combo pieces from the graveyard, players can re-establish board presence or reinitiate interrupted synergies. This reanimation spell could be a linchpin in recurring engine combos or in decks that sacrifice creatures for greater benefits.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta that’s heavy on removal and where creatures are often targets, Dutiful Return gains value. It can help players recover key creatures after a board wipe or targeted removals, keeping them resilient against control strategies that aim to deplete resources.

How to beat

Dutiful Return brings a unique dynamic into MTG as it allows players to retrieve not one, but two creatures from their graveyard to their hand. This kind of resurrection power can be a game-changer, especially in decks that focus on creature synergies. To effectively counter this card, it is crucial to strategize around graveyard disruption. There are multiple ways to achieve this, with cards that exile target cards from graveyards, like Scavenging Ooze or Rest in Peace, that can preemptively remove key creatures before your opponent has the chance to bring them back.

Another tactic is applying pressure with fast-paced aggro decks that minimize the time opponents have to stabilize and utilize their recursion strategies. One more approach is utilizing counterspells to negate Dutiful Return right as it’s cast, preventing any creatures from ever making a return trip. After all, an ounce of prevention in MTG often outweighs a pound of cure, making cards like Dutiful Return less menacing. By understanding how to mitigate its influence, players can navigate around an opponent’s planned comeback and maintain the upper hand.