Eternal Witness 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
When this creature enters, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
Complete guide
Eternal Witness is a staple in green-based decks, offering unparalleled flexibility by turning your graveyard into a second hand. This Human Shaman provides a reliable way to recover key resources, ensuring that your best spells are never truly gone for good.
A Powerful Entry Effect
Eternal Witness possesses a triggered ability that triggers exactly when it enters the battlefield. Unlike many other recursion effects, it can target any card type—be it a creature, land, enchantment, or even a planeswalker—allowing you to adapt to any situation in the game.
Step-by-Step Resolution
When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, its ability is put onto the stack. First, you choose a target card in your graveyard. You do not have to decide whether to return it until the ability resolves. If the target is still in the graveyard when the ability resolves, you may choose to put it into your hand. Because the ability is optional ('you may'), you can choose not to return the card if you wish.
Strategic Timing and Common Pitfalls
A common mistake is forgetting that the target must be chosen when the ability is put onto the stack. If your opponent removes the targeted card from your graveyard in response, the ability will fail to resolve, and you won't get to choose a different card. However, if Eternal Witness enters the battlefield via a spell like a reanimation effect, that spell will be in the graveyard by the time the trigger needs a target, making it a valid choice.
When to Play It
Eternal Witness is best played when you have a high-impact card already in your graveyard or when you need to maintain card advantage in a grindy matchup. It is a fantastic target for 'blink' effects or recursion, as repeating its entry trigger allows you to continuously recycle your most powerful tools.
Interaction examples
Sakura-Tribe ElderFirst, you sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder to search for a basic land. With the Elder now in the graveyard, you cast Eternal Witness. When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, its ability triggers, allowing you to target and return Sakura-Tribe Elder to your hand to repeat the ramp process later.
Solemn SimulacrumIf your Solemn Simulacrum has died and is in the graveyard, you play Eternal Witness. You target the Solemn Simulacrum with the entry trigger. The artifact creature returns to your hand, allowing you to cast it again, search for another land, and eventually draw another card when it dies a second time.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Eternal Witness
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
If a resolving spell puts Eternal Witness onto the battlefield, Eternal Witness's ability can target that card if it's put into your graveyard as it resolves.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Eternal Witness + Snap + Gaea's Cradle
- 1Activate Gaea's Cradle by tapping it, adding at least
. - 2Activate another land by tapping it, adding at least
. - 3Cast Snap by paying
, returning Eternal Witness from the battlefield to your hand and untapping Gaea's Cradle and the land tapped in step 2. - 4Cast Eternal Witness by paying .
- 5When Eternal Witness enters, it triggers, returning Snap from your graveyard to your hand.
- 6Repeat.
Ghostly Flicker + Peregrine Drake + Eternal Witness
- 1Activate up to five lands by tapping them, adding at least
. - 2Cast Ghostly Flicker by paying , blinking Eternal Witness and Peregrine Drake.
- 3When Eternal Witness and Peregrine Drake enter the battlefield, their abilities trigger.
- 4Resolve the Eternal Witness trigger, returning Ghostly Flicker to your hand from your graveyard.
- 5Resolve the Peregrine Drake trigger, untapping up to five lands.
- 6Repeat.
Doppelgang + Eternal Witness
- 1Cast Doppelgang by paying
, creating five token copies of Eternal Witness and of the four mana-producing permanents. - 2When the Eternal Witness tokens enter the battlefield, they trigger, returning Doppelgang and up to four other cards from your graveyard to your hand.
- 3Activate seventeen of the mana-producing permanent tokens by tapping them, adding at least .
- 4Repeat.
- 5Once you have infinite tokens and mana, you may instead target any other permanents using Doppelgang.
Living Death + Eternal Witness + Phyrexian Altar
- 1Activate Phyrexian Altar by sacrificing Eternal Witness and all other creatures you control, adding
for each creature sacrificed. - 2Cast Living Death by paying
, causing each player to exile all creatures from their graveyard, sacrifice all creatures they control, then return the exiled cards to the battlefield. - 3When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Living Death from your graveyard to your hand.
- 4Repeat any number of times.
Displacer Kitten + Eternal Witness + Lotus Petal + Snap
- 1Activate up to two lands by tapping them, adding at least .
- 2Cast Snap by paying .
- 3Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
- 4When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Lotus Petal from your graveyard to your hand.
- 5Resolve Snap, returning the creature that can be cast using one colored mana from the battlefield to your hand, and untapping two lands you control.
- 6Cast Lotus Petal by paying
. - 7Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
- 8When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Snap from your graveyard to your hand.
Displace + Eternal Witness + Peregrine Drake
- 1Activate up to five lands by tapping them, adding at least .
- 2Cast Displace by paying , blinking Eternal Witness and Peregrine Drake
- 3When Eternal Witness and Peregrine Drake enter the battlefield, their abilities trigger.
- 4Resolve the Eternal Witness trigger, returning Displace from your graveyard to your hand.
- 5Resolve the Peregrine Drake trigger, untapping up to five lands.
- 6Repeat.
Displacer Kitten + Eternal Witness + Dark Ritual
- 1Cast Dark Ritual by paying .
- 2Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
- 3When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning the other instant or sorcery from your graveyard to your hand.
- 4Resolve Dark Ritual, adding .
- 5Cast the other instant or sorcery by paying its mana cost.
- 6Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
- 7When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Dark Ritual from your graveyard to your hand.
- 8Resolve the instant or sorcery.
Displacer Kitten + Eternal Witness + Lotus Petal + Snap
- 1Activate up to two lands by tapping them, adding at least .
- 2Cast Snap by paying .
- 3Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
- 4When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Lotus Petal from your graveyard to your hand.
- 5Resolve Snap, returning Cloud of Faeries from the battlefield to your hand, and untapping two lands you control.
- 6Activate up to two lands by tapping them, adding at least .
- 7Cast Lotus Petal by paying .
- 8Displacer Kitten triggers, blinking Eternal Witness.
Legal formats
Commentaires
- Sois le premier à commenter cette carte.
Read next
Meta decks with Eternal Witness
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.