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Moxonomy

Cruel Revival

Instant4 generic manaBlack mana

Tribal removal built so the deck it serves never has to choose between killing a threat and rebuilding its board. Five mana for regeneration-proof destruction is a steep rate on its own; spend it in a graveyard-fed Zombie shell and the spell pays a second time, recurring a fallen body the moment the first one trades. The non-Zombie restriction is the structural clue that this was never meant as generic removal: it cannot point at your own undead, which keeps the spell honest in mirror-adjacent matchups while quietly guaranteeing that the creature you destroy and the one you reclaim are never the same kind of thing. The two halves cover opposite ends of attrition: the destroy clause answers the opponent's best threat at instant speed, and the return clause refills your hand with the engine pieces (recursive sacrifice fodder, the lord, the value creature) that a grindy Zombie deck wants back. Read as a creature-tribe payoff rather than a removal spell, the inflated cost makes sense; you are buying a two-for-one stapled to a tribal commitment, and the card only reaches its rate inside the archetype it was printed to reward.

Cruel Revival (scd)
SCD · #73uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.20
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

Destroy target non-Zombie creature. It can't be regenerated. Return up to one target Zombie card from your graveyard to your hand.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
Legal
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
Legal
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
Legal
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

5 sets
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