The 29 Best Reanimator Commanders in Magic Ranked

Olivia, Crimson Bride | Illustration by Anna Steinbauer

A creature dying in Magic is far less permanent than it sounds. There are lots of ways to get your permanents back from the graveyard. There are cards that shuffle them back into the deck or allow you to put them back into your hand. One of the most powerful methods of interacting with your graveyard is reanimation effects.

These effects can be seen on several cards, most famously Reanimate which helps give the archetype its name. These effects are powerful because they won’t only get a creature from your graveyard directly onto the battlefield, but they can often do so at a lower price than that creature’s original casting cost. This means you can intentionally dump your best creatures in the graveyard, then bring them back for a lower cost.

While Commander used to be a bit slower and more casual, it seems to be getting faster and faster. Reanimator decks are a good way to keep pace in a faster game since you can cheat out big threats early.

Let’s take a look at some of the best reanimator commanders that you can build a deck around so you can try out this archetype yourself!

What Are Reanimator Commanders in MTG?

Nethroi, Apex of Death | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Reanimator commanders are commanders that either have a reanimate ability on them or abilities that synergize well with reanimation. This could mean the card allows you to easily put more resources in your graveyard or gives you powerful effects for sacrificing your creatures since you know they’ll be coming back anyway.

I didn't consider commanders like Muldrotha, the Gravetide which allow you to cast creatures from your graveyard. I personally see a distinction between hard casting from the graveyard and reanimating a creature. Reanimate effects should have the potential to be cheaper than the actual creature itself, giving you an advantage for casting it from the graveyard. While Muldrotha is a great commander, I just don’t see it as part of this theme.

Honorable Mention: Stitcher Geralf

Stitcher Geralf isn’t really a reanimator commander, but I wanted to mention it because it seems very similar to Herbert West. If you don’t know, Herbert West is a character originally created by HP Lovecraft and later adapted for the cult film Re-Animator. While you could argue that Geralf is a Victor Frankenstein parallel, here’s his recent art from Crimson Vow, which looks suspiciously like some shots of Herbert West from the movie. So, while Geralf isn’t a reanimator commander, he’s possibly the right commander for fans of Re-Animator.

#29. Witch-king of Angmar

The Witch-king of Angmar doesn’t actually have any reanimation abilities, but it does work well with the strategy. Its activated ability allows you to discard creatures you’d like to reanimate into your graveyard and take them out later. Its triggered ability is just generally good and discourages opponents from attacking you while you establish a board state.

#28. Sheoldred

Sheoldred has a very powerful reanimate ability, but it can be somewhat difficult to get off. You’ll need to both transform it and ensure The True Scriptures sticks around a few turns. Including a Yawgmoth, Thran Physician can help tick your saga up faster, but it’s still a risky strategy. But you'll be in a very powerful position if you can reanimate all creatures to your side of the field.

#27. Braids, Arisen Nightmare

While Braids, Arisen Nightmare is slightly better suited to an aristocrats or sacrifice theme, it does work pretty well with reanimate effects too. Because you know that you have ways to get your creatures back, you can sacrifice them for Braids’s ability without worrying as much about it. This can help you get an advantage on the board if you bring your creatures back while your opponents are forced to lose theirs.

#26. Syrix, Carrier of the Flame

Syrix, Carrier of the Flame works well with a specific type of reanimating cards: phoenixes. Since Syrix is in Rakdos colors, you can include other reanimation spells to help speed up the return of your phoenixes and help trigger Syrix’s ability.

#25. Sauron, Lord of the Rings

Sauron, Lord of the Rings may be expensive, but it gives you a lot of value for its casting cost. You’ll be able to reanimate a creature, fill your graveyard some more, and get a free 5/5. Sauron is also an effective attacker. That said, this is a commander that lives and dies by what’s in the 99 since it’ll be a while until you can cast Sauron.

#24. Chainer, Nightmare Adept

Though Chainer, Nightmare Adept falls into the realm of just casting from the graveyard, I think its ability works well with other reanimate effects. Giving you easy ways to put cards from your hand into the graveyard is always helpful for a reanimator deck, and Chainer does that. Having its ability to hard cast from the graveyard is also a good backup if you aren’t able to cheat out something from your graveyard or if your reanimate spells are countered.

#23. Neyam Shai Murad

Neyam Shai Murad can be a very powerful reanimator commander, but it takes some specific planning to get it right. Since your opponent chooses permanents from your graveyard to reanimate, you’ll want to try and curate your graveyard so they have no choice but to give you something good. Alternatively, this commander is a great opportunity for making allies at the table. They let you hit them, you give them something they want from their graveyard, and they give you something you want back. It’s a win-win!

#22. Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg works well with reanimation strategies thanks to its triggered ability. When you reanimate a legendary creature, you won’t have to worry about it dying as much because you’ll still end up with another copy. This is good for creatures like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Syr Konrad, the Grim that you’ll want on the field more for their effects than as attackers.

Thanks to being in white, you can also include token doublers like Mondrak, Glory Dominus to make even more copies of your dying creatures. While not part of the reanimator theme, it’s also worth mentioning that Ratadrabik goes infinite with Boromir, Warden of the Tower, allowing you to get infinite death triggers. If you’re including something like Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim in this deck, you’ll be able to win the game this way.

#21. Athreos, Shroud-Veiled

While I wouldn’t consider Athreos, Shroud-Veiled’s ability to be a true reanimate effect, I do think it synergizes well enough with the strategy to fit here. Similar to a reanimation deck, you can use Athreos’s ability to ensure an important permanent sticks around and take advantage of ETB effects multiple times. Athreos can also help protect the cards you cheat out, ensuring your reanimating efforts aren’t in vain.

#20. Kenrith, the Returned King

Kenrith, the Returned King has a lot of different tricks, reanimation being one of them. Kenrith’s reanimate ability isn’t as cheap as some spells, but it’s nice to have a consistent source of reanimation on hand. Since Kenrith is all five colors, you have access to all the best abilities that support reanimation strategies.

#19. Rona, Herald of Invasion / Rona, Tolarian Obliterator

Rona, Herald of Invasion can help you cycle through your deck while also filling  your graveyard with resources to reanimate. You can also help speed this along with similar Dimir creatures like Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator or Obsessive Stitcher.

Transforming Rona into Rona, Tolarian Obliterator allows your commander to stay useful after your graveyard has enough fuel in it. This side of the card is also very powerful, allowing you to cheat out cards from your opponents’ hands. This paired with the creatures you can cheat out with reanimate effects gives you the chance to get ahead of your opponents.

#18. Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator

Similar to Rona, Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator is a good tool for a reanimator deck thanks to its looting ability. What makes it even better is its ability to allow you to cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard. This means being able to reuse reanimation spells that you’ve already played or that were countered originally. Because Vohar is cheap, sacrificing it isn’t a big deal since you can easily get it back.

#17. Scion of the Ur-Dragon

When building a reanimator deck around Scion of the Ur-Dragon, you’ll be slightly limited to playing dragons as the bulk of your creatures. That said, dragons make up some of the more powerful creatures in the game, and coupled with this commander’s powerful ability, you won’t really feel like this is a downside. You can dump whatever dragon you want to reanimate in the graveyard easily, and Scion’s ability is repeatable so you can do it multiple times a turn if you’d like.

#16. Olivia, Crimson Bride

Olivia, Crimson Bride’s reanimate ability is high risk high reward since both Olivia and the reanimated creatures have to attack. That said, a free reanimation along with a combat trigger can be very powerful, especially in red where you can include some ways to have several combats a turn. You’ll want to run a few other legendary vampires to make it less of a risk that your reanimated creatures get exiled.

#15. Nethroi, Apex of Death

Nethroi, Apex of Death has a pretty good ability to reanimate creatures, and it can be relatively cheap depending on the mutate creatures you put in the 99. There aren’t too many creatures that exceed the mana value limit on Nethroi’s ability, but you can also include other reanimator spells for the few that do.

#14. Shorikai, Genesis Engine

While black is usually thought of as the main reanimator color, white also has a fair number of ways to reanimate creatures. Shorikai, Genesis Engine is a powerful commander for vehicle or artifact decks, but it works well as a reanimator commander. Its card draw is very helpful, and it allows you to discard creatures to later be reanimated.

Blue has good ways to mill yourself or just draw and discard cards. It also has Body Double, a sort of pseudo reanimation spell. White has great spells like Unfinished Business and Breath of Life that help you get back some of the cards you discard or ones that are removed.

#13. Slimefoot and Squee

Slimefoot and Squee gives you a pretty consistent way to reanimate your creatures. Its ability also allows you to consistently recast your commander without worrying about tax. It’s worth including some additional ways to make saprolings since you don’t want your commander to get stuck in the graveyard.

#12. Chainer, Dementia Master

Chainer, Dementia Master has a very powerful built-in reanimate effect. 3 mana and 3 life for any creature in a graveyard gives you a lot of options, especially later in the game. While you risk losing your creatures when Chainer dies, this also acts as graveyard hate if you’ve reanimated any of your opponents’ creatures.

#11. Teneb, the Harvester

Reanimator commanders like Teneb, the Harvester that can pull from any graveyard always give you a lot of options to play around with. As a 6/6 flier, it won’t be too difficult for Teneb to deal combat damage to at least one of your opponents, allowing you to reanimate a creature for a pretty cheap price. Both white and black have solid removal spells which you can use to fill your opponents’ graveyards with creatures you’d like to reanimate for yourself.

#10. Sedris, the Traitor King

Sedris, the Traitor King gives you an easy and inexpensive way to reanimate creatures from your graveyard. There are plenty of big creatures that only need one turn to have a serious impact on the game, but if you want your unearthed creatures to stick around you can also include cards like Obeka, Brute Chronologist and Sundial of the Infinite.

Thassa, Deep-Dwelling or Conjurer's Closet are other ways around the unearth issue, allowing you to keep your creatures and even have them go to the graveyard again when they die. Because the unearth ability your creatures gain is so cheap, you can get a lot back out in a single turn.

#9. Obeka, Brute Chronologist

Obeka, Brute Chronologist works well with both true reanimation and temporary reanimate effects. By ending the turn, cards like Cauldron Dance or effects like unearth that allow you to temporarily put a card from the graveyard onto the battlefield will miss their sacrifice triggers. This means you’ll be able to keep cards around longer, and sometimes cheaper, than if you had truly reanimated them.

#8. Firja, Judge of Valor

Firja, Judge of Valor doesn’t have a splashy reanimate effect, but it does allow you to have a very consistent game. Its ability allows you to pick and choose what cards you want in your hand and which to put in your graveyard for later use. This lets you move through the cards in your library more quickly and avoid dead draws, making it more likely you’ll have a good move for your next turn.

#7. Sauron, the Dark Lord

Sauron, the Dark Lord is a very powerful creature to have on the field. It has one of the most restrictive ward costs and also generates a lot of value for you with all its triggered abilities. You’ll want to build in ways to have the Ring tempt you so you can wheel consistently and put a lot of resources into your graveyard to reanimate.

#6. Imotekh the Stormlord

Imotekh the Stormlord is a bit more selective about the types of creatures you’ll want to reanimate. That said, there are a lot of good artifact creatures that you can include in this build while getting some serious benefits from this commander. The extra token creatures work well with cards like Lich-Knights' Conquest that require you to sacrifice a creature to bring another back.

#5. Liliana, Heretical Healer / Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

Like most flip walkers, Liliana, Heretical Healer isn’t really the side that’s important here. It’s worth noting that it’s pretty easy to transform compared to some other flip walkers, especially if you include some ways to sacrifice creatures. The real reanimator goodness comes from Liliana, Defiant Necromancer.

You can pump it up by forcing everyone to discard, an effect that won’t be as bad for you since you’re using your graveyard as a resource. Then you can use Liliana’s -X ability to reanimate creatures when you can. You’ll also want to build in other ways to reanimate creatures, as Liliana can be a little slow on its own. Its ultimate ability can also be very powerful, allowing you to use your creatures as recklessly as you want, knowing they’ll always come back.

#4. Old Stickfingers

Apart from being a great Halloween themed commander with an appropriately goofy name, Old Stickfingers is a very powerful reanimator commander. Because Old Stickfingers’s cast trigger guarantees a certain number of creatures are put into your graveyard, you can pump a lot of mana into it knowing you can’t whiff. This gives you a ton of resources to work with in the graveyard while also making your commander powerful in the meantime.

#3. Kroxa and Kunoros

Kroxa and Kunoros’s reanimation ability is a fun reference to Theros Beyond Death’s escape mechanic. Being able to reanimate creatures from your graveyard on a somewhat consistent basis is always a huge plus for this type of deck, and this commander is strong enough to attack and likely survive. There are also good protective spells in white, and good combat tricks across Mardu that can help keep this card alive when it attacks.

#2. Raffine, Scheming Seer

Conniving with Raffine, Scheming Seer is a great way to fill your graveyard with creatures to reanimate. This both buffs whatever creature connived and gives you a chance to filter through cards in your hand and deck. Raffine is nice and cheap, and it also has a bit of built-in protection which are all good qualities for a commander.

#1. Sefris of the Hidden Ways

Sefris of the Hidden Ways at first glance doesn’t seem like a very good commander. It relies on the somewhat specific dungeon mechanic that was mostly present in a single set. However, because Sefris’s abilities work so well together, you don’t really need to worry about having other dungeon cards. If you have ways to loot and mill yourself, you’ll easily be filling your graveyard with creatures. This in turn lets you venture into the dungeon, (I recommend Tomb of Annihilation because it’s the shortest), and reanimate your creatures while also getting whatever benefits the dungeons have.

Best Reanimator Commander Payoffs

One thing all good reanimator decks want are ways to get creatures into their graveyards. Looting cards like Obsessive Stitcher are a good way to do this because you can pick and choose which cards to put there from your hand. Entomb and similar cards are also a good option, so you don’t have to wait to draw a specific card. Dredge and self-mill cards are another good way to get the most out of these commanders.

Cards like Syr Konrad, the Grim and Sefris of the Hidden Ways are also solid inclusions. Since you’ll be dumping your own creatures into the graveyard on purpose, you might as well also benefit from it in other ways.

You’ll want to supplement any reanimator commander’s natural affinity for reanimation with spells like Reanimate and Unburial Rites to give yourself more ways to cheat out the creatures in your graveyard.

Commanding Conclusion

Raffine, Scheming Seer | Illustration by Johannes Voss

Reanimator decks can be very good at getting big threats for less mana. There’s also something oddly satisfying about filling up your own graveyard and pulling big creatures out of it. I also enjoy that it allows you to view the graveyard almost like a second hand that you can explore for options.

What is your favorite reanimator commander? Are there any you think I missed that should be included here? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter/X.

Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next time!