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Graveyard recursion in Magic: The Gathering has always been centered around establishing value engines around mechanics that let you get extra value out of your spells after they've already hit the bin. Flashback, Jump-start, Unearth, you name it! There's undoubtedly a plethora of mechanics out there that support using your graveyard as an invaluable resource.
But what if I told you there was a mechanic that took graveyard recursion, slapped a big ol' "pay up or lose me forever" sign on it, and then quietly fled the scene? Ladies and gentlemen, in today's Mechanics Overview Segment, we're digging into one of the frostiest, strangest, and most short-lived mechanics in Magic's long history: Recover.
What Is Recover?
Recover [cost] (When a creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay [cost]. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, exile this card.)
Let's say you've got a card with Recover in your graveyard. Whenever a creature you control dies, Recover automatically triggers, and you must make a choice:
- Pay The Recover Cost: Return the Recover card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Don't (Or Can't) Pay: The Recover card is exiled forever.
Notice that I mentioned "automatically triggers." Recover is a mandatory trigger; you don't get to say, "Eh, maybe later when I have more mana." As such, because this trigger will happen every single time one of your creatures dies, you have to be prepared at all times.
The History of Recover
Recover debuted in Coldsnap (2006), the belated third set of the Ice Age block.
The mechanic's roots trace back to quirky Ice Age cards like Death Spark and Krovikan Horror, which rewarded you for keeping careful track of graveyard order. Recover essentially tried to streamline that concept into a keyword: instead of fiddling with graveyard ordering, you'd just get a simple trigger when creatures died.
But, as you can probably imagine, even with this attempt, Recover was not too popular with the masses, and Coldsnap ended up being Recover's only outing.
Recover Rulings
Honestly, there's not really much to say, but I want to make sure to check all the boxes, so, just in case:
One Chance Only
Recover gives you precisely one shot at paying its Recover cost. When a creature dies, its trigger goes on the stack. When it resolves, you either pay the cost and return the card to your hand, or you don't (or can't), and it's exiled. That's it.
Multiple Triggers
If multiple creatures die at the same time, each one will trigger the Recover ability of cards in your graveyard. But since the first trigger you resolve either moves the card to your hand or exiles it, the other triggers fizzle. You can technically pay for the extras, but nothing happens because the card isn't there anymore.
No Self-Recover
A creature with Recover doesn't trigger its own ability when it dies. For example, Garza's Assassin doesn't get to recover itself when you sacrifice it for its ability, because the card has to already be in the graveyard when another creature dies.
Simultaneous Destruction
If a Recover card and another creature both hit the graveyard at the same time, the Recover ability won't trigger. The Recover card has to already be in the graveyard to "see" the other creature die.
Tokens DO Count
Yes, creature tokens do trigger Recover. Tokens technically do go to the graveyard before they vanish, so they're legitimate fuel for Recover triggers.
Exile Doesn't Count
If a creature is exiled from the battlefield, Recover won't trigger. Recover only cares about battlefield to graveyard. The same goes for discard: if you pitch a creature from your hand, no Recover for you.
Recovering The Seven Frozen Survivors
That's right; there are only seven Recover cards in the entire MTG multiverse:
Yea, slim pickings, I know. But I will say that if Recover has one saving grace, it's that these cards are dirt cheap. You can snag any of them for less than a dollar, often less than a quarter. Budget players, rejoice?
Can We Ever Recover?
Recover is one of those mechanics that sounded way cooler in theory, but collapsed under real gameplay. The idea of recycling spells when your creatures die is fun, thematic, and very "Magic." But in my humble opinion, forcing an immediate, mandatory choice, with a rather harsh penalty, I may add, made the mechanic more stressful than satisfying.
You may find yourself asking: "Do I leave mana open? Do I dare tap out? What if someone wipes the board right now?" And usually, the answer is, "Well, there goes my Recover card. Straight into exile." Because why would anybody hold up 4 mana to see if anyone would blow up their creature, spend said 4 mana to Recover Controvert, only to spend 4 mana again on a future turn to counter a spell? That's quite literally 12 mana (and a creature of yours dying) to counter two spells! That's outrageous!
Could Recover return someday? Maybe, but I'm not overly optimistic about that prospect. Mark Rosewater himself put Recover at a 7 on the Storm Scale, which, for the uninitiated, is Magic's informal ranking system for how likely a mechanic is to come back. A 1 means basically everGreen, while a 10 means the mechanic is dead and buried deeper than Banding. Sitting at a 7, Recover is in that awkward middle ground of not impossible, but definitely on thin ice (Ha, Coldsnap pun).
A cleaned-up version with less punishing rules might even thrive in Commander, where players adore graveyard strategies, recursion loops, and generating infinite mana. As it stands, though, Recover is probably going to stay right where Rosewater left it: frozen in time as yet another quirky relic of Coldsnap.
Now then, I think I've just about shoveled every last Snow-Covered detail of Recover out of the graveyard and onto the battlefield for you. As always, happy brewing, and may your Recover cards always know that they were exiled for a noble cause (I absolutely had to leave up mana for an end-step Anticipate, okay?). Until next time!
