Retrace in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on September 7, 2026

Decaying Time Loop | Illustration by Alexander Gering

Have you ever found yourself wishing you could access a spell in your graveyard so you could run it back and win the game? Maybe you don’t like flashback as a mechanic since you can only use the spells once? Well, if that’s the case, retrace is the mechanic for you.

And lucky for you, that’s exactly what I’m here to talk about today. Let’s get into it!

How Does Retrace Work?

Spitting Image | Illustration by Jim Nelson

Retrace is an alternate casting cost that allows you to cast a spell from your graveyard by discarding a land in addition to its normal costs. It’s a typical flood assurance mechanic that lets you convert unneeded lands into extra spells.

Unlike other cast-from-graveyard mechanics like flashback and jump-start, retrace spells don’t exile themselves after resolution. They simply resolve and go back to the graveyard, where they can be retraced once again.

The History of Retrace

We can retrace the origins of this mechanic back to 2008’s Eventide, where it appeared on 12 cards across all colors, including hybrid gold cards like Worm Harvest. These cards are largely quite weak by today’s standards, though there’s still an occasional use for Flame Jab, Waves of Aggression, and Spitting Image.

Retrace remained dormant for about a decade, reappearing in Commander 2018 on Reality Scramble, then again on two cards from Modern Horizons. It’s since been used sporadically in supplementary products, though it has yet to reappear in a Standard set.

Does Retrace Exile?

No, retrace doesn’t exile. When you retrace a card to cast it from your graveyard it does temporarily leave your graveyard since it needs to move to the stack to resolve, but it goes right back to the graveyard once it does, or if it gets countered.

That’s why the mechanic is so powerful. It allows one card to be played many times on any given turn that it would best be useful.

How Many Times Can You Retrace?

The only limit to how many times you can retrace is if you can pay the resources to do so. If you don’t have a land to discard then you can’t retrace, and the same is true if you don't have the proper mana. But otherwise you’re able to retrace as many times as you want or need.

Can You Spend One Card for Multiple Retrace Abilities?

No, one card can only pay for one use of retrace. As with all additional costs, each payment is specific to each card. When you pay the cost for one, you still have to pay the cost for another, meaning you’d have to discard a land each time you want to cast a spell using retrace.

Do You Have to Pay the Mana Cost to Retrace?

Yes, you have to pay all additional costs for the spell you’re retracing on top of discarding the land. That means mana costs as well as additional costs like sacrificing a creature for Deadly Dispute or discarding a card for Thrill of Possibility.

Does Retrace Count as Casting?

Retrace does count as casting. It’s not the activation of an ability, it’s a keyword ability that allows you to cast the card from your graveyard. It acts as a normal spell in all instances of it being retraced. It goes on the stack like normal and resolves like normal, returning to the graveyard whenever it’s done.

Retrace vs. Buyback

Retrace and buyback both let you reuse the same spell multiple times, but they work in fundamentally different ways.

Buyback asks that you pay the additional cost as you cast the card from your hand to put the card back in your hand after it resolves. Capsize is a particularly well-known buyback card, and a good example of how strong the mechanic can be in the right situation.

Retrace only matters in the graveyard, and the card returns there after it’s done. It also always has the cost of discarding a card, whereas buyback costs can vary. Retrace is much more viable in decks that care about cards being in the graveyard, or in decks with cards that synergize with the repeatable casting of a particular retrace card.

Retrace vs. Flashback

Retrace and flashback are also very similar to each other. Flashback allows you to pay an alternate casting cost rather than an additional one, and it exiles the card that you cast from the graveyard. It’s a lot less powerful than retrace because you can’t keep reusing the same card over and over. It’s a one-and-done thing, and we get to see flashback much more often than we do retrace thanks to the lower general power level.

Retrace vs. Jump-Start

Retrace and jump-start are very similar: Both cast from the graveyard, and both ask you to pay an additional cost (discard in both cases).

The first major difference is that jump-start doesn’t ask for any specific card type. This is exceptionally powerful in decks that want ways to discard cards extra quickly while still getting value out of the discard. By using the discard to power itself, you’re getting to cast a spell and set up for future turns all at once.

The second difference is that jump-start exiles the card after casting. Jump-start spells are limited to two shots each, which makes sure that it isn’t too strong or oppressive in any format.

Retrace Card Gallery

Retrace Cards

• Cenn's Enlistment
• Glamerdye
• Oona's Grace
• Raven's Crime
• Syphon Life
• Decaying Time Loop
• Embrace the Unknown
• Flame Jab
• Reality Scramble
• Throes of Chaos
• Formless Genesis
• Monstrify
• Savage Conception
• Call the Skybreaker
• Worm Harvest
• Waves of Aggression
• Spitting Image

Cards That Grant Retrace

• Deeproot Historian
• Six
• Wrenn and Six

Best Retrace Cards

#5. Waves of Aggression

Waves of Aggression is wild in any deck that can afford to pay its cost over and over. This card can dish out serious damage in the right Commander deck by letting you get in two or three combat phases each turn. You’re sure to take somebody down with big enough creatures.

This card is often cited in conversations about changing hybrid mana rules in Commander, since loosening restrictions on hybrid color identities would grant mono-white decks an extra turn spell.

#4. Decaying Time Loop

You’re going down on cards every time you cast Decaying Time Loop, but decks that want this sort of effect can really appreciate a wheel that they can keep casting turn after turn.

#3. Embrace the Unknown

This is some clunky card draw anywhere outside a paradox-style “cast from other zones” deck like Prosper, Tome-Bound or Nico Minoru, Runaway. Embrace the Unknown is especially good with the full paradox effects, since it casts a spell from the graveyard and sets up two more cards to play from exile.

#2. Six

Wrenn’s not here for this one, but Six puts on a pretty good solo act. This is a really scary treefolk to fall behind, since it draws the lands on attacks to pitch to retrace, and it lets you retrace a huge chunk of your graveyard. Self-mill, card advantage, and recursion on a 3-drop? That’s the Modern Horizons experience.

#1. Wrenn and Six

You’re surely familiar with Wrenn and Six if you play Modern or got lucky with a Double Masters 2022 product. It’s a powerful planeswalker that allows you to give retrace to cards that don’t have it, allowing for wild combos.

But it’s mainly a solid recursion engine for fetch lands or other land-based decks, and it’s super cheap to cast as well. It's a bit misleading to call this the best retrace card since that part's hiding behind a hard-to-achieve emblem, but Wrenn and Six is definitely the best card with retrace, if you want to view it that way.

Time to Retrace Your Steps

Reality Scramble | Illustration by Simon Dominic

I thoroughly enjoy retrace and wish we could see it more, but I also understand that it’s a very strong mechanic that doesn’t leave a lot of room for design space. It allows for unique interactions in a game and promotes interesting deckbuilding, but I doubt we’ll see it return outside the one or two stray cards we get in Commander precons.

What do you think? Is there still something you don’t get about retrace? If so, feel free to start up a discussion in the comments below or join the Draftsim Discord. Check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

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