Necromancer's Magemark MTG Card


Necromancer's Magemark - Guildpact
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant
Released2006-02-03
Set symbol
Set nameGuildpact
Set codeGPT
Number53
Frame2003
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byBrandon Kitkouski

Key Takeaways

  1. Enhances creatures, tipping the scales with steady power gains and graveyard strategies.
  2. Requires specific mana and creature card discard, limiting play to certain deck types.
  3. Similar auras offer distinct advantages, but Magemark stands out with its graveyard synergy.

Text of card

Enchant creature Creatures you control that are enchanted get +1/+1. If a creature you control that's enchanted would be put into a graveyard, return it to its owner's hand instead.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Necromancer’s Magemark gives your creatures a recurring benefit, improving the value you get out of every creature spell you cast. This enchantment can quickly shift the momentum of a game by empowering a wide board of creatures for a persistent advantage.

Resource Acceleration: By enhancing your creatures’ abilities, Necromancer’s Magemark potentially accelerates your game plan, letting you leverage boosted creatures for more aggressive and impactful plays. The keyword here isn’t direct mana generation but instead enhancing the resources already on the battlefield.

Instant Speed: While Necromancer’s Magemark itself is not an instant, the creatures you target with Graft benefit from instant speed interactions. This enhancement allows you to be more flexible during combat or in response to your opponent’s actions, pivoting your strategy on the fly.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Necromancer’s Magemark necessitates that you have a creature card to discard, potentially leaving you at a disadvantage if your hand is devoid of usable creature cards or if you’re conserving key creatures for later play.

Specific Mana Cost: The requirement for one black mana restricts this enchantment’s versatility, confining it to decks that are either mono-black or comfortable running a substantial quantity of black mana sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total cost of three mana, one being specifically black, Necromancer’s Magemark can be seen as an investment that doesn’t offer immediate board presence or impact, making it less attractive compared to other options in the same mana range that could be more proactive or provide more immediate value to your game strategy.


Reasons to Include Necromancer’s Magemark in Your Collection

Versatility: Necromancer’s Magemark is a staple in any deck looking to utilize creature-based strategies. With its ability to give creatures you control a small power boost and graveyard recursion, it’s a card that can be slotted into various decks, from aggressive to grindy control builds.

Combo Potential: This enchantment can work wonders in tandem with sacrifice and graveyard mechanics. The extra punch it gives to your creatures can turn them into more impactful combos, particularly when you’re bringing them back for a second round of combat or effects.

Meta-Relevance: As metas evolve with a focus on creature-based strategies or graveyard synergy, Necromancer’s Magemark becomes increasingly valuable. Its utility shines against control archetypes, making your threats persistent and hard to clear completely.


How to beat

Necromancer’s Magemark, known in the Magic: The Gathering community for its creature enhancement abilities, can be a challenge to deal with once it’s effectively buffing an opponent’s graveyard-sourced creatures. This black enchantment offers a boost and resilience to creatures that were summoned from the yard, making them tougher in combat.

To outmaneuver Necromancer’s Magemark, players should look at reliable removal spells or enchantment destruction cards. Handling the creatures it empowers is not enough; eliminating the source—Necromancer’s Magemark itself—is key. Consider cards like Disenchant or Naturalize that can directly target enchantments. Alternatively, graveyard hate cards like Relic of Progenitus or Leyline of the Void can prevent creatures from reaching the battlefield from the graveyard in the first place, negating the Magemark’s benefit. Control decks that can counter enchantments as they are cast or sweep the board before the creatures pose a threat can also be effective strategies against this persistent enchantment.

Playing around Necromancer’s Magemark requires a blend of preemptive and reactive tactics. Ensuring you have answers to both enchantment and graveyard strategies in your deck will help keep the playing field level and prevent Necromancer’s Magemark from becoming a dominating force on the battlefield.


Cards like Necromancer's Magemark

Necromancer’s Magemark is an intriguing card within the aura subsection of Magic: The Gathering. It shares common ground with other cards that enhance creatures, such as the Ancestral Mask, which also pumps a creature based on certain conditions — namely, the enchantments in play. Yet, Necromancer’s Magemark forges its own path with the unique ability to grant a subtle form of resilience to the user’s creatures by allowing them to return from the grave.

When you look at Spectra Ward, you find another aura that gives a creature a substantial boost, this time by granting protection from all colors. Although Spectra Ward doesn’t provide the recursive aspect of Necromancer’s Magemark, it excels by making a creature almost impervious to harm. Then there is the card Ethereal Armor, which bolsters a creature’s power and toughness for each enchantment you control and bestows first strike, a key tactical advantage. While Ethereal Armor can lead to a significant power increase, it lacks the defensive mechanism that Necromancer’s Magemark provides.

Overall, Necromancer’s Magemark has a distinct position among creature-enhancing auras in Magic: The Gathering. With its blend of offense and defense, it potentially offers a strategic advantage in prolonging board presence and maintaining pressure on your opponent.

Ancestral Mask - MTG Card versions
Spectra Ward - MTG Card versions
Ethereal Armor - MTG Card versions
Ancestral Mask - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Spectra Ward - Magic 2015 (M15)
Ethereal Armor - Return to Ravnica (RTR)

Cards similar to Necromancer's Magemark by color, type and mana cost

Gloom - MTG Card versions
Season of the Witch - MTG Card versions
Tourach's Gate - MTG Card versions
Withering Wisps - MTG Card versions
Funeral March - MTG Card versions
Casting of Bones - MTG Card versions
Blanket of Night - MTG Card versions
Necropotence - MTG Card versions
Hecatomb - MTG Card versions
Megrim - MTG Card versions
Recurring Nightmare - MTG Card versions
Maggot Therapy - MTG Card versions
Murderous Betrayal - MTG Card versions
Noxious Field - MTG Card versions
Tainted Well - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Arena - MTG Card versions
Gravestorm - MTG Card versions
Mortiphobia - MTG Card versions
Demonic Embrace - MTG Card versions
Warped Devotion - MTG Card versions
Gloom - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Season of the Witch - The Dark (DRK)
Tourach's Gate - Fallen Empires (FEM)
Withering Wisps - Masters Edition II (ME2)
Funeral March - Homelands (HML)
Casting of Bones - Alliances (ALL)
Blanket of Night - Visions (VIS)
Necropotence - Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales (WOT)
Hecatomb - Masters Edition (ME1)
Megrim - Stronghold (STH)
Recurring Nightmare - Exodus (EXO)
Maggot Therapy - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Murderous Betrayal - Nemesis (NEM)
Noxious Field - Prophecy (PCY)
Tainted Well - Invasion (INV)
Phyrexian Arena - Phyrexia: All Will Be One (ONE)
Gravestorm - Hachette UK (PHUK)
Mortiphobia - Torment (TOR)
Demonic Embrace - Core Set 2021 (M21)
Warped Devotion - Eighth Edition (8ED)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Necromancer's Magemark MTG card by a specific set like Guildpact, 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 Necromancer's Magemark and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Necromancer's Magemark has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2006-02-01 Necromancer’s Magemark returns only the creatures. The Auras attached to those creatures fall off and are put in their owner’s graveyard.
2006-02-01 Necromancer’s Magemark’s effect prevents the creature from ever reaching a graveyard, so abilities such as Haunt never trigger.

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