Cemetery Recruitment MTG Card
2016-07-22 - Number 83
2020-07-17 - Number 217
2022-12-02 - Number 385
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
Key Takeaways
- Cemetery Recruitment offers card advantage and strategic creature recovery, especially advantageous with Zombies.
- It requires careful graveyard management and a deck with black mana or mana-fixing capabilities.
- This instant provides utility, meta relevance, and combines well with graveyard-centric combos.
Text of card
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. If it's a Zombie card, draw a card.
"There's a smoothness to my magic here that I don't find on any other plane."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Cemetery Recruitment stands out as it provides the ability to return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand, which becomes even more potent if you happen to bring back a Zombie, drawing you an additional card. This ensures you maintain a steady flow of resources and keeps your hand fueled for future turns.
Resource Acceleration: While not directly accelerating your resources in terms of mana, Cemetery Recruitment excels in resource utility. By recuperating a creature, it effectively reduces the need for further spells to rebuild board presence, conserving your mana for other strategic plays.
Instant Speed: Boasting the flexibility of being an instant, Cemetery Recruitment can be cast at the end of your opponent’s turn, allowing you to maximize efficiency during your own turns and keeping mana available for immediate responses or bluffs during your opponent’s turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For Cemetery Recruitment to be fully utilized, you often need to have a creature card in your graveyard which means you must have already experienced some loss of board presence or have self-discard mechanisms in place, potentially putting you at a disadvantage.
Specific Mana Cost: This card specifically requires one black mana to cast, making it exclusively useful in decks that run Swamps or have mana fixing capabilities. Deck builders without access to black mana or who run multicolored decks might find this requirement restrictive.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With Cemetery Recruitment costing two mana to return just one creature card from your graveyard to your hand, it might lag in efficiency compared to other options. Many players may favor cards with lower mana costs or those that offer additional benefits aside from simple recursion.
Reasons to Include Cemetery Recruitment in Your Collection
Versatility: Cemetery Recruitment stands out for its ability to seamlessly integrate into different deck archetypes. As a low-cost spell, it can be a key component in black-based aggro decks seeking to maintain momentum or in control decks as a means of recurring key creatures.
Combo Potential: This card shines when paired with strategies focusing on graveyard synergy. Its ability to return a creature, especially those with enter-the-battlefield effects, can lead to powerful combo plays and recurring value throughout the game.
Meta-Relevance: With the ever-present focus on graveyard tactics across multiple formats, Cemetery Recruitment remains a relevant choice. In environments where important creatures are frequently targeted, being able to bring them back to hand is a significant tactical advantage.
How to beat
Cemetery Recruitment stands out in MTG for its dual utility, being both a reanimation spell and a means to draw a card. This functional mix provides players with the advantage of retrieving a creature from their graveyard while maintaining card advantage. However, like many cards with upsides, there are ways to outplay it. Key to overcoming Cemetery Recruitment is maintaining graveyard control. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt can exile graveyards, rendering the recovery aspect useless. Spell counters like Counterspell can also intercept Cemetery Recruitment before it resolves, ensuring your opponent doesn’t get the chance to capitalize on its benefits.
Interaction with the graveyard is a central theme in many MTG decks, and cards like Leyline of the Void can provide a passive counter to any reanimation strategies. Directly removing Cemetery Recruitment’s targets with instant-speed removal such as Path to Exile before the spell resolves can also be a strong play. Moreover, graveyard hate cards are typically low-cost, making this strategy a cost-effective way to disrupt opponents who rely heavily on Cemetery Recruitment for momentum.
Ultimately, by focusing on proactive graveyard control and having answers ready for key spells, one can effectively neutralize the impact of Cemetery Recruitment on the game.
Cards like Cemetery Recruitment
Cemetery Recruitment stands out in the roster of creature revival spells in Magic: The Gathering. It echoes the functionality of cards like Raise Dead, which also targets a creature card in your graveyard to put into your hand. Cemetery Recruitment, however, offers an additional upside for players running decks that revolve around Zombies, as it draws a card if the returned creature is a Zombie.
Ghoulcaller’s Chant is another contender in the realm of undead retrieval. While it can potentially return two Zombie cards from the graveyard to your hand, it lacks the card draw aspect that Cemetery Recruitment could provide. Unearth, though not a direct retrieval to hand, offers a different kind of value by bringing creatures directly onto the battlefield with haste and is available at a lower mana cost, but it exiles the creature at the end of the turn.
Drawing comparisons across various options, Cemetery Recruitment can be a key spell in Zombie-themed decks in Magic: The Gathering, rewarding those who match it with their deck’s synergy. Its potential to provide card advantage alongside graveyard recursion makes it a noteworthy spell for players who appreciate strategist card comprehension and deck coherence.
Cards similar to Cemetery Recruitment by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Cemetery Recruitment MTG card by a specific set like Eldritch Moon and Jumpstart, 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 Cemetery Recruitment and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Cemetery Recruitment Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2016-07-22 and 2022-12-02. Illustrated by Kieran Yanner.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2016-07-22 | Eldritch Moon | EMN | 83 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Kieran Yanner | |
| 2 | 2020-07-17 | Jumpstart | JMP | 217 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Kieran Yanner | |
| 3 | 2022-12-02 | Jumpstart 2022 | J22 | 385 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Kieran Yanner |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Cemetery Recruitment has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Cemetery Recruitment card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2016-07-13 | If you target a Zombie card in your graveyard, drawing a card is an additional bonus. It doesn’t replace returning the Zombie card to your hand. |
