Cheerful Osteomancer // Raise Dead is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
This creature enters prepared. (While it's prepared, you may cast a copy of its spell. Doing so unprepares it.) Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Complete guide
Cheerful Osteomancer brings a unique flexibility to the battlefield through the new Prepare mechanic. This Orc Warlock doesn't just provide a body; it carries a ghostly copy of Raise Dead in exile, ready to be cast whenever you need to recover a fallen ally.
What it Does
Cheerful Osteomancer is a creature with the 'Prepare' mechanic. When it enters the battlefield, it becomes prepared, which means you create a copy of its associated spell, Raise Dead, in exile. As long as the Osteomancer remains on the battlefield and prepared, you can cast that copy of Raise Dead from exile for its mana cost of {B}. Casting the spell 'unprepares' the Osteomancer, and the copy is used up.
How it Resolves Step by Step
1. Cast Cheerful Osteomancer as a creature. 2. As it enters the battlefield, it enters prepared. This creates a copy of Raise Dead in exile. 3. At any time you could cast a sorcery, pay {B} to cast the Raise Dead copy from exile, targeting a creature card in your graveyard. 4. Once you begin casting the spell, the Osteomancer stops being prepared and the copy moves to the stack. 5. The spell resolves, returning the creature card to your hand, and the copy then ceases to exist.
Common Mistakes
A common point of confusion is thinking the Osteomancer is a sorcery card in the graveyard; it is actually a creature card in all zones except the stack (when cast as Raise Dead). Additionally, if the Osteomancer leaves the battlefield, you lose the ability to cast the copy of Raise Dead. Note that being 'prepared' is not a copiable value, so if you copy the Osteomancer with another spell, the copy will not automatically be prepared unless its own ability triggers to make it so.
When to Play it
Play Cheerful Osteomancer when you need to establish a board presence while securing a safety net for your graveyard. It is particularly effective in mid-range decks where the 4-mana body can block or attack, and the 1-mana Raise Dead can be held until a high-value threat needs to be retrieved.
Interaction examples
Solemn SimulacrumIf your Solemn Simulacrum dies in combat and you draw a card, you can later cast the copy of Raise Dead generated by Cheerful Osteomancer. For just {B}, you return the Simulacrum to your hand to cast it again, effectively looping your land search and card draw triggers.
Roaming ThroneIf you have Roaming Throne on the battlefield naming 'Orc' or 'Warlock', and an effect causes Cheerful Osteomancer to become prepared via a triggered ability, that ability triggers an additional time. However, a creature cannot be prepared more than once simultaneously; the second trigger will resolve but will not result in a second copy of Raise Dead.
With only Cheerful Osteomancer on board, you have a 4-mana creature. When your opponent destroys another creature you control, you can immediately use the prepared copy of Raise Dead in exile to bring that creature back to your hand, ensuring you never run out of threats.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Cheerful Osteomancer // Raise Dead
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
As an effect causes a creature with a prepare spell to become prepared (including effects that state that a creature "enters prepared"), that creature's controller creates a copy of that creature's prepare spell in exile. That copy remains in exile for as long as that permanent is on the battlefield and is prepared. That creature's controller may cast that copy as long as it remains in exile. As they cast it, that creature stops being prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
While copies of spells in zones other than the stack cease to exist when state-based actions are checked, this does not apply to copies of prepare spells in exile that were created as a creature became prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
Casting a copy of a prepare spell from exile isn't casting it for an alternative cost. Effects that allow you to cast a spell for an alternative cost or without paying its mana cost may allow you to apply those to a copy of a prepare spell cast from exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
Preparation cards can only be cast with their base characteristics.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
Only the current controller of a prepared creature can cast the copy of its prepare spell in exile. It doesn't matter who owns that creature or who controlled it when it became prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #6· Wizards of the Coast
A preparation card is a creature card in every zone. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Emeritus of Ideation is a blue creature whose mana value is 5. It can't be the target of Zealous Lorecaster's triggered ability ("When this creature enters, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.").
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #7· Wizards of the Coast
Being prepared isn't a copiable value. If a permanent becomes a copy of a prepared creature, it won't be prepared. That permanent will have the alternative characteristics, though, and some other effect could cause it to become prepared later.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #8· Wizards of the Coast
If an effect instructs you to choose a card name, you may choose the alternative prepare spell's name. Consider only the alternative characteristics to determine whether that is an appropriate name to choose.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #9· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepared creature loses all abilities, it won't stop being prepared, and nothing will happen to its alternative characteristics or to the copy of its prepare spell in exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #10· Wizards of the Coast
A creature with a prepare spell can't become prepared more than once at the same time. For example, Emeritus of Ideation is on the battlefield and is prepared. When it attacks, its last ability triggers. When that ability resolves, its controller may still exile eight cards from their graveyard, but doing so won't cause Emeritus of Ideation to become prepared a second time or create a second copy of Ancestral Recall in exile.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #11· Wizards of the Coast
If an effect causes a creature to become unprepared, a prepared creature stops being prepared and the associated copy of its prepare spell in exile ceases to exist. If it wasn't prepared at that time, nothing happens.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #12· Wizards of the Coast
Creating a copy of a creature's prepare spell in exile ignores copy exceptions applied to that creature that would affect the copiable values of that spell. For example, say a player casts Croaking Counterpart (a sorcery that says "Create a token that's a copy of target non-Frog creature, except it's a 1/1 green Frog.") targeting Goblin Glasswright. The token copy of Goblin Glasswright will enter prepared as a 1/1 green Frog creature, but the copy of Craft with Pride in exile will still be a red sorcery. The copy of Craft with Pride won't be green, a creature, or a Frog, and it won't have power or toughness.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #13· Wizards of the Coast
A creature without a prepare spell can't become prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #14· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepare spell with one or more targets has no legal targets when it tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. Since the spell was cast, the associated permanent will still not be prepared.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #15· Wizards of the Coast
If a prepared creature stops being a creature, it will still be prepared, and the copy of its prepare spell will remain in exile. That permanent's controller will still be able to cast it. The same is true if a prepared creature becomes a copy of something else, even if it's then a permanent without a prepare spell.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Dovescape + Displacer Kitten + Phyrexian Altar + Cheerful Osteomancer // Raise Dead
- 1Cast a copy of the prepared spell by paying its mana cost.
- 2When you cast that spell, Displacer Kitten and Dovescape trigger.
- 3Resolve the Dovescape trigger, countering the prepared spell and creating a number of 1/1 flying Bird creature tokens equal to its mana value.
- 4Resolve the Displacer Kitten trigger, blinking Cheerful Osteomancer // Raise Dead, which enters prepared.
- 5Activate Phyrexian Altar by sacrificing a Bird token, adding one mana of any color.
- 6Repeat.
Legal formats
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