Blood Beckoning MTG Card


Blood Beckoning - Zendikar Rising
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Abilities Kicker
Released2020-09-25
Set symbol
Set nameZendikar Rising
Set codeZNR
Number92
Frame2015
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byCristi Balanescu

Key Takeaways

  1. Blood Beckoning allows recovering multiple creatures, providing a potential game-changing card advantage.
  2. Requires at least another card to discard if casting with the kicker cost, which can be limiting.
  3. Versatility and combo potential make it a valuable addition to decks that utilize graveyard strategies.

Text of card

Kicker (You may pay an additional as you cast this spell.) Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. If this spell was kicked, instead return two target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Blood Beckoning, a tactical spell in any MTG player’s arsenal, grants the ability to retrieve not just one, but multiple creatures from your graveyard. This element of card recovery can swiftly tilt the balance of a game back into your favor, creating significant card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: While it does not directly produce mana, Blood Beckoning offers resource acceleration by giving you back key resources – creatures that have been lost earlier in the match. This enables a more efficient use of the cards you already have played, ultimately allowing for rapid progression of your board state.

Instant Speed: As a sorcery, Blood Beckoning integrates smoothly into your turn sequence, allowing you to strategically plan your graveyard retrieval at a pivotal moment without having to wait for an opponents’ turn or action to conclude.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Blood Beckoning can bring creatures back from your graveyard, it doesn’t offer this upside without some cost. Unlike other spells which can be cast freely, Blood Beckoning requires you to have at least another card in hand to discard if you choose the kicker cost. This aspect can be especially problematic when you’re in a tight spot with few cards left to play.

Specific Mana Cost: Blood Beckoning’s casting cost needs both black and generic mana which means you’ll need a reliable source of black mana. Players not running a deck heavily invested in black mana may find it tricky to keep the right amount of black mana available when it’s needed the most, potentially slowing down your game plan.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing three to four mana (if you utilize the kicker cost), Blood Beckoning may not be the optimal choice when considering speed and efficiency. There are cards in the game that can reanimate creatures for less mana or offer additional benefits beyond what Blood Beckoning provides. Therefore, the mana investment sometimes might not match the value of the action, especially in faster-paced games where every mana point counts.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Blood Beckoning offers a flexible approach for decks that aim to utilize the graveyard. It can be seamlessly incorporated into various strategies, bringing back key creatures that can turn the tides of the game.

Combo Potential: This card has synergy with archetypes that capitalize on creatures entering or leaving the battlefield, making it a potent enabler for various combo lines and recursive play patterns.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where attrition and resource advantage are paramount, Blood Beckoning shines by efficiently retrieving creatures, making it a relevant choice against control-heavy decks.


How to Beat Blood Beckoning

Blood Beckoning is a versatile card in the realm of Magic: The Gathering, offering players the ability to bring creatures back from their graveyard. To effectively counter this spell, it’s crucial to manage the graveyard as a resource. Cards like Scavenging Ooze become pivotal, as they can exile target cards from graveyards, preventing Blood Beckoning from having valid targets to return to a player’s hand.

Another strategy involves leveraging counterspells to negate the Blood Beckoning before it resolves. Mystic Confluence and Negate are prime examples of cards that can disrupt this strategy. If Blood Beckoning does resolve, cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can be powerful tools, exiling cards as they hit the graveyard and rendering the Beckoning’s ability moot.

Understanding that graveyard manipulation is key to Blood Beckoning’s effectiveness, incorporating cards that either accelerate the depletion of graveyards or hinder spells from reaching their destinations is essential in outmaneuvering opponents who rely on such tactics in their MTG gameplay.


Cards like Blood Beckoning

Blood Beckoning adds depth to the suite of recursion spells in Magic: The Gathering. It echoes aspects of cards like Raise Dead, which has been a classic method for retrieving creatures from the graveyard. Yet, Blood Beckoning offers a flexible kicker cost, affording players the potential to return more than one creature to their hand, as opposed to Raise Dead’s single target retrieval.

Moving to the broader context, we can compare it to Fortuitous Find. This spell also allows players to salvage creatures, with the added benefit of recovering an artifact. Despite the higher casting cost, the dual-recovery option presents an incentive for inclusion in artifact-heavy decks. Then, Call to the Netherworld features a lower cost but it is limited by targeting only black creatures and requiring a discard, which Blood Beckoning avoids.

In summation, Blood Beckoning stands out with its kicker versatility, making it a viable choice for various strategies. It holds a unique position within the lifecycle of MTG recursion spells, balancing cost with recuperative agility.

Raise Dead - MTG Card versions
Fortuitous Find - MTG Card versions
Call to the Netherworld - MTG Card versions
Raise Dead - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Fortuitous Find - Kaladesh (KLD)
Call to the Netherworld - Time Spiral (TSP)

Cards similar to Blood Beckoning by color, type and mana cost

Raise Dead - MTG Card versions
Mind Twist - MTG Card versions
Contract from Below - MTG Card versions
Spoils of War - MTG Card versions
Tendrils of Despair - MTG Card versions
Mind Peel - MTG Card versions
Bloodcurdling Scream - MTG Card versions
Organ Harvest - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Unearth - MTG Card versions
Bubbling Muck - MTG Card versions
Chorus of Woe - MTG Card versions
Reanimate - MTG Card versions
Soul Strings - MTG Card versions
Skull Fracture - MTG Card versions
Tombfire - MTG Card versions
Innocent Blood - MTG Card versions
Restless Dreams - MTG Card versions
Cabal Therapy - MTG Card versions
Confront the Past - MTG Card versions
Raise Dead - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Mind Twist - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Contract from Below - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
Spoils of War - Ice Age (ICE)
Tendrils of Despair - Weatherlight (WTH)
Mind Peel - Stronghold (STH)
Bloodcurdling Scream - Portal Second Age (P02)
Organ Harvest - Unglued (UGL)
Duress - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Unearth - Historic Anthology 7 (HA7)
Bubbling Muck - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Chorus of Woe - Starter 1999 (S99)
Reanimate - Jumpstart (JMP)
Soul Strings - Prophecy (PCY)
Skull Fracture - Odyssey (ODY)
Tombfire - Odyssey (ODY)
Innocent Blood - The List (PLST)
Restless Dreams - Torment (TOR)
Cabal Therapy - Premium Deck Series: Graveborn (PD3)
Confront the Past - Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos (PSTX)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Blood Beckoning MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar Rising, 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 Blood Beckoning and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Blood Beckoning has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-09-25 An ability that triggers when a player casts a kicked spell resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger, but after targets have been chosen for that spell. It resolves even if that spell is countered.
2020-09-25 If you copy a kicked spell, the copy is also kicked. If a card or token enters the battlefield as a copy of a permanent that’s already on the battlefield, the new permanent isn’t kicked, even if the original was.
2020-09-25 If you put a permanent with a kicker ability onto the battlefield without casting it, you can’t kick it.
2020-09-25 Kicker represents an optional additional cost that you may choose to pay as you cast the spell. A spell cast with that additional cost paid is “kicked.”
2020-09-25 Some instant or sorcery spells require alternative or additional targets if they’re kicked. You ignore these targeting requirements if those spells aren’t kicked, and you can’t kick those spells unless you can choose the appropriate targets. On the other hand, you can kick a permanent spell even if you won’t be able to choose targets for an enters-the-battlefield ability of that permanent once the spell resolves.
2020-09-25 To determine a spell’s total cost, start with the mana cost (or an alternative cost if another card’s effect allows you to pay one instead), add any cost increases (such as kicker), then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell is determined only by its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast the spell was.
2020-09-25 You can’t pay a kicker cost more than once.

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