Bone Harvest MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Enables top deck manipulation with graveyard resources, optimizing the return of key creatures.
  2. Instant speed adds versatility, allowing strategic reactionary plays in complex situations.
  3. Demands specific mana and a card discard, which slightly limits flexibility.

Text of card

Put any number of target creature cards from your graveyard on top of your library. Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

"Only fools believe they will face my armies but once." —Kaervek


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Bone Harvest offers a strategic edge by allowing you to reorganize the top cards of your graveyard. This can be a significant advantage, ensuring that your best resources are lined up for retrieval, keeping the momentum of your game plan consistent.

Resource Acceleration: While Bone Harvest does not directly generate mana or tokens, the ability to effectively recycle your key creatures accelerates your strategy. By ensuring that your graveyard works as a resource, you can potentially reanimate high-value targets faster, leading to an uptick in your board’s threat level.

Instant Speed: The power of instant speed cannot be overstated. Bone Harvest’s versatility at instant speed enables you to dynamically react to graveyard disruption, saving essential creatures from exile effects or simply setting up a surprise for your next turn. The ability to keep mana open until just the right moment adds a layer of unpredictability and tactical depth to your playstyle.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Bone Harvest necessitates the disposal of a card to utilize its ability, posing a challenge when your hand is already dwindling.

Specific Mana Cost: With a requirement for black mana, this might restrict Bone Harvest’s integration into a diversity of deck designs that do not favor or support black mana seamlessly.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Demanding three black mana, it’s possible to find alternative cards that permit graveyard manipulation or card recovery at a less taxing cost.


Reasons to Include Bone Harvest in Your Collection

Versatility: Bone Harvest offers strategic depth, allowing players to return creatures from the graveyard to their library. This makes it suitable for decks that rely on certain creatures or value recurring them.

Combo Potential: By manipulating your graveyard, Bone Harvest can set up future draws or work in tandem with library interaction mechanics, making it a potent card in the right combo-driven deck.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames where graveyard strategies are prevalent, Bone Harvest gains utility, acting both as a responsive play to graveyard disruption and as a proactive measure to safeguard key creatures.


How to beat

Bone Harvest in the world of Magic: The Gathering offers players a strategic advantage by subtly manipulating one’s own graveyard. This black card allows a player to shuffle any number of creature cards from their graveyard back into their deck, potentially recycling powerful creatures or setting up for future plays with orderly graveyard management. However, to successfully navigate against Bone Harvest, one must consider the timing and the calculated denial of graveyard-based strategies.

To counteract Bone Harvest, grave-hate cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void are potent tools that can exile cards before they can return. Being proactive is key; thus, using instant-speed removal to disrupt your opponent’s creatures before they get funneled back into the library through Bone Harvest is one strategy. This is where cards like Scavenging Ooze, with its ability to eat up creatures in the graveyard, come into play—literally—offering a solid response to your opponent’s attempts at retrieving their fallen minions.

In essence, understanding both the power and limitations of Bone Harvest can provide insight into building a robust defense against graveyard-based threats, ultimately turning your opponent’s tactical maneuver into a fruitless endeavor.


Cards like Bone Harvest

Bone Harvest stands as an interesting member of the black card recursion arsenal in Magic: The Gathering. It functions akin to cards such as Disturbed Burial, allowing players to return creatures from the graveyard to their hand. Bone Harvest, though, differentiates itself with its instant speed and the ability to put any number of creature cards on top of your library, potentially setting up draws for multiple turns.

When stacked up against another related card, Recover, we notice a trade-off. Recover brings back only a single creature and draws you a card, all at sorcery speed. The extra card draw is great, but it lacks the instant flexibility and multi-target capability of Bone Harvest. However, Grim Discovery is not to be overlooked either. It can return a creature, like Recover, but also offers the added benefit of retrieving a land card from your graveyard.

In sum, Bone Harvest’s strength lies in its discreet graveyard manipulation, allowing for strategic deck refilling at a moment’s notice. While not as straightforward as recuperating a creature to your hand, it is the potential for long-term play setup that gives Bone Harvest its unique edge within MTG’s roster of creature recovery spells.

Disturbed Burial - MTG Card versions
Recover - MTG Card versions
Grim Discovery - MTG Card versions
Disturbed Burial - Tempest (TMP)
Recover - Invasion (INV)
Grim Discovery - Zendikar (ZEN)

Cards similar to Bone Harvest by color, type and mana cost

Spoils of Evil - MTG Card versions
Dark Banishing - MTG Card versions
Carrion - MTG Card versions
Sick and Tired - MTG Card versions
Corpse Dance - MTG Card versions
Slay - MTG Card versions
Afflict - MTG Card versions
Dismember - MTG Card versions
Body Count - MTG Card versions
Reaping the Graves - MTG Card versions
Execute - MTG Card versions
Kill! Destroy! - MTG Card versions
Sudden Death - MTG Card versions
Footbottom Feast - MTG Card versions
Fevered Strength - MTG Card versions
Hideous End - MTG Card versions
Corpse Lunge - MTG Card versions
Necrobite - MTG Card versions
Murder - MTG Card versions
Drag Down - MTG Card versions
Spoils of Evil - Ice Age (ICE)
Dark Banishing - Duel Decks Anthology: Divine vs. Demonic (DVD)
Carrion - Mirage (MIR)
Sick and Tired - Urza's Legacy (ULG)
Corpse Dance - World Championship Decks 1999 (WC99)
Slay - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Afflict - Odyssey (ODY)
Dismember - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Body Count - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Reaping the Graves - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Execute - Ninth Edition (9ED)
Kill! Destroy! - Unhinged (UNH)
Sudden Death - Time Spiral (TSP)
Footbottom Feast - Commander 2011 (CMD)
Fevered Strength - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Hideous End - The List (PLST)
Corpse Lunge - Innistrad (ISD)
Necrobite - Avacyn Restored (AVR)
Murder - Murders at Karlov Manor (MKM)
Drag Down - Modern Masters (MMA)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Bone Harvest MTG card by a specific set like Mirage and Beatdown Box Set, 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 Bone Harvest and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Bone Harvest Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1996-10-08 and 2000-10-01. Illustrated by Greg Simanson.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11996-10-08MirageMIR 1081997normalblackGreg Simanson
22000-10-01Beatdown Box SetBTD 191997normalwhiteGreg Simanson

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Bone Harvest has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2004-10-04 You have to show which creature cards you put on top of your library, but not the order you put them there.

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