Conjure in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Oracle of the Alpha | Illustration by Nino Vecia

People who play Cubes on MTG Arena will see conjure cards here and there, and it’s one of the most enticing aspects of playing digital-only formats like Alchemy and Historic as it offers truly unique possibilities.

Conjure is one of the most defining mechanics for MTG’s digital-only cards, or the famous Alchemy cards. Today, we’re taking a look at the ubiquitous conjure mechanic, its rules implications, how it came to be, and if we can play some of these digital cards in paper.

How Does Conjure Work?

Grave Studies | Illustration by Abz J Harding

Conjure is a mechanic created for MTG Arena digital-only cards. Most mainline MTG sets get an Alchemy counterpart on MTGA, and these cards often use the conjure mechanic.

When you conjure a card, you create a functional version of that card that doesn’t act as a token and can exist in zones other than the battlefield. That means a conjured card can go to the graveyard, get bounced to your hand, etc. Because of this, conjure effects play around with the zones in which they conjure cards.

To explain conjure better, let’s see some examples: You Line Up the Shot has three modes: You can draw a card, conjure a Plummet card into your hand, or conjure a Naturalize card into your hand. This is totally different from a modal card that simply has those effects, like Crushing Canopy, since you're creating a new card with an effect instead.

Another interesting example is Rusko, Clockmaker, a very popular casual Brawl commander. When Rusko enters the battlefield, you’ll conjure a Midnight Clock onto the battlefield. If you’re playing Rusko, Clockmaker in tabletop MTG, better have some sleeved copies of Midnight Clock], the same way you would have tokens for your token-makers.

The History of Conjure in MTG

Conjure was introduced in Jumpstart: Historic Horizons on MTG Arena in 2021. From then on, each new Alchemy set has had one or more conjure cards, or cards with conjuring-related mechanics. Sets like Alchemy: Innistrad, for example, had huge numbers of conjure cards.

The first set to physically print conjure cards was Mystery Booster 2, and Mystery Booster Commander followed that trend.

Are Conjure Cards Legal in Paper?

Conjure cards aren’t legal in paper or sanctioned tournaments. Any Alchemy cards, including those with conjure, have the acorn stamp that indicates they’re illegal in sanctioned formats. The only way to play with them in paper is with Rule 0 conversations in Commander or adding them to your personal Cube.

Does Conjure Create Tokens?

No. Conjure creates real copies of a card. Unlike tokens, which only exist on the battlefield, conjured cards can go into your hand, your graveyard, or even be shuffled back into your library.

What Happens When a Conjured Card Leaves Play?

A conjured card is treated like any other card, so the conjured card changes game zones like normal. If you conjure a card into your library, you can eventually draw it and cast it, and it can go to your graveyard, exile zone, or even hand.

Can You Play Conjure Cards in Mystery Booster Drafts?

You can, and that’s part of the Mystery Booster wackiness. You can play whatever you open there, from playtest cards to conjure cards. The way you’ll actually do it is up to you, but many players can proxy a card on the fly by writing over a basic land, using a reusable dry-erase token card, and more.

Do Conjured Cards Affect Color Identity?

Conjured cards don’t affect color identity. So, if a blue card like Thayan Evokers conjures a red card (Lightning Bolt), it’s still a blue card for color identity purposes. But you’ll have problems casting said red card without sources of red mana. That matters most in formats like Brawl, where you’ll have to follow color identity restrictions.

Paper Conjure Cards

• Ruby Collector
• Sigardian Evangel
• Case of the Lost Witness
• Emerald Collector
• Oracle of the Alpha
• Pearl Collector
• Pinchy McStingbutt
• Sanguine Brushstroke
• Overcooked
• Sapphire Collector
• Toralf's Disciple
• Jet Collector
• Rusko, Clockmaker
• Euru, Acorn Scrounger

Best Conjure Cards

#14. Lurker in the Deep

Lurker in the Deep is the Alchemy take on Duskmourn: House of Horror’s overlords. I’ll just mention this card and note how many complicated mechanics it has, from manifest to impeding, and of course conjure. In synthesis, you’ll seek a card, put it into your hand, conjure a duplicate, and manifest it onto the battlefield. I think I like it more for the creative aspect than its design elegance.

#13. Sliver Weftwinder

I’m putting Sliver Weftwinder here because I love slivers, and one of my first EDH decks was a 5c Sliver deck. I wish I could have used this card for my deck back then, no doubt, as it conjures slivers on entering and gives them warp , an excellent ability for enter effects.

#12. Calim, Djinn Emperor

Calim, Djinn Emperor was a control staple on MTG Arena because you can cycle it and add more copies of Calim into your deck, so it’s good in the early and late game. Your late game will become very strong when a good chunk of your deck is big fliers, and it’s often the only wincon needed.

#11. Perforator Crocodile

Perforator Crocodile is a nice take on cards like Massacre Wurm. It’s a giant body that conjures a Stab Wound on each creature your opponents control. It's a strong card for casual Commander, and I’m guessing that’s why it got printed in paper.

#10. Expansive Reapplication

Expansive Reapplication combines many things I love about Magic: Mystic Snakes, X-counterspells like Syncopate, and just a tidbit of randomness. Here, we have a hard counterspell that can bring a random creature alongside it if we spend a lot of mana, so it’s more like a Cancel variant, but a very cool one.

#9. Call the Crash

One of the things WotC designers do best with conjure is appeal to nostalgia. With Call the Crash, we have a 6-mana sorcery with suspend 2, and when you cast it, bam! Two freaking Siege Rhinos. Yep, that’s 6 mana for two 4/5 and a life drain of 6.

#8. Limitless Rekindling

Limitless Rekindling is more nostalgia, but here we have a 5-mana red card similar to Mind's Desire. It only functions with instants and sorceries, and you don’t even choose which cards you conjure, but this can be powerful nonetheless.

#7. Toralf’s Disciple

If the format you’re playing doesn’t allow you to put Lightning Bolt in your deck, this card is the solution. Toralf's Disciple conjures a playset of Bolts into your deck with each attack, and if this card attacks twice in a game, you're going to feel like Thor with how many bolts you're throwing around. Best to mix this card with impulse draw and cantrips.

#6. Oracle of the Alpha

Oracle of the Alpha is a creature that conjures the Power Nine cards into your library. It’s a strange card because your deck gets nine more cards (powerful ones), and you’re not guaranteed to hit them. It also gets weaker as the game goes on as you don’t want to draw Mox Emerald on turn 8, though it gets better with wheel effects. It’s a mainstay of various Arena Cubes, and some players like to play it in paper with handy proxies of the P9 cards.

#5. Preponderant Pearl

Preponderant Pearl gives you a free Ponder, a tried-and-true blue cantrip. Getting two cheap noncreature spells in one card matters a lot for cards like Stormchaser's Talent and Cori-Steel Cutter. And when you deal damage with merfolks, you sacrifice this card and get a free fetch land.

#4. Ornate Imitations

Ornate Imitations makes me wish Alchemy was more popular and accessible so I could play it more often. You’ll cast it as an X-spell, and for each mana value ranging from 1 to X, you’ll conjure a random creature with that MV. It’s like playing Momir Vig. The moments this card generates are hilarious. Just look out for the dreaded 7 MV that can give you Phage the Untouchable.

#3. Dragonsoul Prodigy

Dragonsoul Prodigy lets you play an omen and get the dragon for free with haste for a turn. So, if I play Charring Bite, the 5-damage removal spell omen, I get to put a 5/4 flier that gains me 5 life into play with haste until the end of turn. This card sees play in Alchemy dragon decks.

#2. Indris, the Hydrostatic Surge

Indris, the Hydrostatic Surge is used as a finisher for spellslinger decks, conjuring Lightning Bolts with storm into your library. One or two “storm bolts” is worthwhile because you’ll play some cantrips, eventually draw one, and bury your opponent in a barrage of instants.

#1. Rusko, Clockmaker

Rusko, Clockmaker is a powerful Brawl commander with its free mana rock every time you cast it. The extra blue mana is key to provide Rusko some protection in the form of Spell Pierce, Dispel, and more. And if your opponent kills your Rusko, the extra mana makes recasting it a cinch.

Best Conjure Payoffs

Conjure is a strong value mechanic by itself, and there aren’t that many direct payoffs for it.

However, there are three cards in MTG that offer you benefits for conjuring: Third Little Pig, Thayan Evokers, and Crescendo Conductor.

Crescendo Conductor is one of the most interesting ones, because each time you conjure a card, you prepare Boltwave, so for an extra red, you’ll deal 3 damage to your opponent. Thayan Evokers is a nice card in a spellslinging deck, considering that you’ll get more copies of Lightning Bolt, an efficient and essential card in the archetype for damage and removal purposes.

Wrap Up

Izzet Polarizer | Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Alongside seek, conjure is one of Alchemy’s most fun mechanics, and it’s hard (almost impossible) to do right on paper. You can have your pile of Midnight Clocks in your sideboard when playing Rusko, Clockmaker, and that’s totally ok; you don’t need more than three or four unless you’re doing stupid combos.

As long as WotC keeps pumping out new Alchemy cards, we’ll definitely see more conjure, and some designs will keep crossing the bridge between digital-only and physical prints. Many players design Cubes to be played on Arena with conjure cards, and they're present in different Arena Cubes, but other players don’t like the randomness it brings, or they’d prefer MTG didn’t have any digital-only mechanics.

What’s your take on conjure? Have you ever had fun and novel experiences with the mechanic? Let me know in the comments section below, or over in our Draftsim Discord. Check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Thanks for reading, and catch you all next time!