Drudge Spell MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Enchantment
Released	1995-10-01
Set symbol
Set name	Homelands
Set code	HML
Number	45
Frame	1993
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	NéNé Thomas

Key Takeaways

Offers strong card advantage by enabling creature recursion, giving players a sustainable board presence.
Instant speed casting of Drudge Spell provides strategic flexibility and surprise elements during gameplay.
Although powerful, Drudge Spell requires careful resource management due to specific mana and discard costs.

Text of card

oo B Remove from the game two target creatures in your graveyard to put a Skeleton token into play. Treat this token as a 1/1 black creature with "oo B Regenerate". If Drudge Spell leaves play, bury all Skeleton tokens.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Drudge Spell provides an effective way to recycle creatures from your graveyard to your hand. This not only maintains your hand size but could also tip the scales in your favor by steadily overwhelming your opponent with resilient threats over the course of the match.

Resource Acceleration: While Drudge Spell itself doesn’t directly produce additional mana or resources, the ability to re-use creatures can lead to indirect acceleration. Certain creatures have effects that generate additional mana or have cost-reducing abilities, which in turn can ramp up your play considerably.

Instant Speed: The real power of Drudge Spell lies in its ability to be cast at instant speed. This flexibility allows players to wait until the utmost strategic moment to revive their creatures, such as during the end step of an opponent’s turn, which maximizes surprise and tactical advantage on the battlefield.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Drudge Spell card necessitates players to discard another card as part of its casting cost, which can be restrictive, especially in tight game scenarios where each card in hand is valuable.

Specific Mana Cost: Drudge Spell’s requirement for a certain combination of mana types can be cumbersome for decks that aren’t strictly tailored to support such costs, potentially decreasing the card’s versatility across multiple deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value that’s on the higher end for the type of effect it provides, Drudge Spell faces tough competition from other cards that may offer similar or better effects for lower or more flexible mana costs.

Reasons to Include Drudge Spell Mtg Card in Your Collection

Versatility: Drudge Spell offers flexibility across various deck archetypes. Its ability to retrieve creatures from the graveyard makes it a valuable asset for decks focused on maintaining a board presence or recycling key creatures.

Combo Potential: This card seamlessly integrates into combos that revolve around sacrificing and resurrecting creatures. It opens up continuous loops which can be exploited for a strategic advantage in the game.

Meta-Relevance: Given that many current competitive formats lean towards graveyard strategies, having Drudge Spell in your collection could be instrumental in countering those plays or fortifying your own graveyard-based tactics.

How to beat

Drudge Spell is an intriguing card known for its resilience and utility in Magic: The Gathering. Facing this enchantment can be daunting as it allows players to bring creatures back from the graveyard with relative ease. It’s a strategy that hinges on the accumulation and recycling of creature cards, akin to how Embalm and Eternalize mechanics work. Nevertheless, Drudge Spell’s strength can be its downfall.

To dismantle a strategy centered around Drudge Spell, one must employ disruption tactics. Cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void are paramount, entirely negating the graveyard as a resource. These cards don’t just inhibit Drudge Spell but erase the graveyard’s relevance, suffocating strategies that rely heavily on it. Artifact and enchantment removal spells, like Disenchant or Naturalize, are also effective tools, offering a direct solution by destroying these persistent enchantments. Thus, keeping such answers in your sideboard can be critical for maintaining an edge against Drudge Spell-centric decks.

Ultimately, while Drudge Spell can be a formidable card to play against, understanding and preparing for it with specific counters gives players a chance to subvert its influence on the game, maintaining the tempo in their favor.

Cards like Drudge Spell

Drudge Spell is an intriguing component within the spectrum of graveyard retrieval effects in MTG. It shares common ground with cards such as Animate Dead, which also facilitates the return of creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. Yet, Drudge Spell offers a unique mechanic – it sacrifices itself to become a creature with power and toughness equal to the ratio of enchantments in the graveyard, potentially offering a significant threat on the board. Animate Dead, although it does not transform, brings a creature back with a minor debuff and a lower casting cost.

Graveyard Recursion is also featured in the card Zombify. Similar to Drudge Spell it returns a creature from your graveyard to play. However, Zombify allows for an outright return to the battlefield, bypassing the enchantment-to-creature transformation that Drudge Spell requires. This makes Zombify a straightforward choice for immediate impact, while Drudge Spell offers a longer-term power play that scales with the game’s progression.

When closely examining the fine points of each card, it’s evident that Drudge Spell’s versatility is a key differential, enhancing its strategic value amidst a variety of graveyard leveraging cards in MTG. It’s the combination of enchantment synergy and creature production that sets Drudge Spell in a unique position.

Cards similar to Drudge Spell by color, type and mana cost

Chains of Mephistopheles - MTG Card versions

Tribute to Horobi // Echo of Death's Wail - MTG Card versions

Aphemia, the Cacophony - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Drudge Spell MTG card by a specific set like Homelands, 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 Drudge Spell and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Drudge Spell has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Drudge Spell 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	The creatures in the graveyard are exiled during activation as a cost.
2004-10-04	The fact that Skeleton tokens are destroyed is an aspect of the enchantment and not of the tokens. Thus, only Skeleton tokens which are on the battlefield when it leaves the battlefield are destroyed. Ones which are going to appear due to use of the ability but which have not yet appeared are safe.
2004-10-04	This destroys all Skeleton tokens from all sources if it leaves the battlefield. It does not just destroy ones generated by this Drudge Spell or just ones you control.