Beam Me Up in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Exploratory Mission | Illustration by Jason Pastrana

Star Trek introduces several new mechanics to Magic: The Gathering inspired by the best science-fiction franchise of all time (yeah, best of all time; that’s an objective fact!). And of course, beam me up is one of those mechanics!

Beam me up comes with some interesting rules questions. Can your opponent stop you from returning your creature? When can you cast these spells? And what happens if one gets countered? Let’s go through everything you need to know.

How Does Beam Me Up Work?

Energize | Illustration by Carlos C Diaz

In Magic, beam me up is an alternative casting cost that lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard by paying its beam me up cost and returning a creature you control to its owner’s hand. Once a spell you’ve cast for a beam me up cost leaves the stack, it’s exiled instead of going anywhere else. It’s like a hybrid of flashback and web-slinging.

Returning the creature is part of the cost to cast the spell, not part of its resolution. It’s already in its owner’s hand by the time your opponent gets an opportunity to respond.

You can bounce any creature you control, even if it’s tapped, stunned, has summoning sickness, etc. Tokens are eligible, but they cease to exist when they’re in your hand. And notice that the creature returns to their owner’s hand. If you beam up a creature you’ve assimilated, it goes back to its owner, not you.

The History of Beam Me Up in MTG

Beam me up was introduced in November 2026 as a new mechanic for the Star Trek MTG set. One of the first cards previewed with the mechanic was Open Communications, revealed during the early Star Trek previews in August 2026.

The mechanic brings to MTG one of Star Trek‘s hallmark technologies: teleportation. Whenever the crew encounters trouble (or just whenever they want to land on a planet and can’t be bothered to land a shuttle there, let alone a whole Galaxy-class ship…), they can teleport from and back to their ship.

I have to say WotC’s implementation is a bit… off, though. Using a bounce effect to translate beaming to MTG mechanics is super clear, but I’m not sure what casting nonpermanents from the graveyard has to do with Star Trek, if I’m being honest….

At any rate, beam me up is so iconic and tied to Star Trek that I’m 99.98% sure we’ll never see it again unless WotC prints more Star Trek cards.

When Can You Cast a Beam Me Up Card?

You can cast a card using beam me up whenever you’d normally be allowed to cast that type of spell, provided the card is in your graveyard, you can pay its alternative cost, and you control a creature you can return to its owner’s hand.

For a sorcery, that generally means during one of your main phases, while you have priority and the stack is empty. For an instant, you can generally cast it whenever you have priority, including during an opponent’s turn or in response to another spell or ability. The only cards that have the ability naturally are sorceries.

How Does Scotty, Miracle Worker Work?

Scotty, Miracle Worker can be a bit confusing, since at quick glance the rules text and the reminder text are contradictory. Scotty gives each card in your graveyard beam me up, so you’d think that you could beam up your creatures, enchantments, or artifacts, but you can’t!

The reminder text says: “Only instant and sorcery spells can be cast this way.” So while your other cards technically gain the ability, you can’t use it to cast them.

And there’s another wrinkle: Scotty, Miracle Worker only works during your main phases. You can’t use beam me up on an instant during your combat phase, or during your opponent’s turn.

What’s the Mana Value of a Spell Cast with Beam Me Up?

A spell’s mana value doesn’t change when you cast it using beam me up. It’s always determined by the mana cost printed in the upper-right corner of the card.

Is the Spell Still Exiled if It’s Countered?

Yes, it is, as long as you cast it by using beam me up. A spell cast using beam me up is exiled when it leaves the stack, regardless of whether it resolves successfully.

Normally, a countered spell goes to its owner’s graveyard. And if you cast Open Communications from your hand, that’s where it goes. But if you use beam me up, then it’s exiled instead whenever it leaves the stack for any reason (resolved, countered, fails to resolve because all its targets have become illegal… it still gets exiled).

Can You Fizzle Beam Me Up by Killing the Creature in Response?

No, you can’t! Returning a creature to its owner’s hand is part of the spell’s cost, not part of its resolution, so your opponent can’t remove your creature in response to putting the spell on the stack. There is a way to prevent a permanent from being beamed up: Marooned.

A creature enchanted by Marooned can’t be returned to pay a beam me up cost. But that’s a different scenario: In this case, Marooned prevents you from paying the cost to begin with (it’s the same as if you didn’t have enough mana).

Beam Me Up vs. Flashback

Beam me up is pretty much flashback with a mandatory bounce. They both let you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard by paying its alternative cost instead of its normal mana cost. And once that spell leaves the stack, it’s exiled.

The obvious difference is that beam me up requires you to return a creature you control to its owner’s hand, while flashback doesn’t.

Flashback is definitely more flexible (you can flash back a spell even when you have no creatures on the battlefield). But returning a creature isn’t always a drawback. If you have a creature with an excellent enters ability, bouncing it lets you reuse that ETB. Beam me up lets you pick up that creature and cast it again, potentially reusing the ability. A creature that returns to hand also removes its counters, which has niche interactions with finality counters, bounty counters, and the like.

Gallery and List of Beam Me Up Cards

• Adversary by Algorithm
• Boarding Action
• Energize
• Federation Resupply
• Final Frontier
• Open Communications
• Pattern Buffer Preservation
• Pure Energy
• There's Coffee in that Nebula
• Transporter Malfunction

There’s also Scotty, Miracle Worker, which doesn’t have its own beam me up casting cost but grants the ability to instants and sorceries in your graveyard.

Best Beam Me Up Cards

#5. Open Communications

None of the beam me up cards are terribly exciting, if we’re being honest… so let’s start with Open Communications. It’s definitely not a good spell if you’re looking to draw cards, but a deck built around self-bounce may get some mileage out of this blue sorcery.

#4. Final Frontier

Final Frontier searches your library for a basic land card or planet card, putting that land onto the battlefield tapped, and then you can repeat that for a beam me up cost of . Not the hottest ramp spell out there, but the ability to search for planet cards gives it a bit of flexibility.

#3. Federation Resupply

Federation Resupply costs and lets you tutor an aura, equipment, or spacecraft card, then do it again for . In Commander decks built around those permanent types, there’s a strong argument for giving it a slot.

#2. There’s Coffee in that Nebula

Best named card in the whole set, for sure, and maybe in all of 2026!

There's Coffee in that Nebula gives you a nice bit of card selection, although the restriction on which cards you can take is significant. You aren’t guaranteed to find something useful, particularly in a deck with many expensive spells or non-plains lands… but you wouldn’t be drinking this type of coffee with such a deck, right?

#1. Scotty, Miracle Worker

Scotty, Miracle Worker doesn’t have a beam me up cost of its own, but for 3 mana, you get a creature that can turn every instant and sorcery in your graveyard into a potential second spell. And crucially, it’s the only way to have an instant with beam me up, although with the big caveat that you can only use it during your main phase.

Players on Reddit’s cEDH community have discussed putting Scotty in Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh decks, a 0-mana commander, to reuse powerful instants and sorceries.

Wrap Up

Federation Resupply | Illustration by Ryan Valle

Beam me up is an interesting take of flashback: The rules are pretty straightforward once you understand that returning the creature is part of the casting cost. The cards themselves, though, are pretty meh in my opinion. Cool mechanic on mediocre cards.

What do you think of beam me up? Are you planning to build around Scotty, Miracle Worker, or is there another card that has caught your eye? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into Magic’s beam me up mechanic, and good luck out there!