NecrosavantHow it works & interactions with other cards

Understanding the Reanimation Ability

Necrosavant features a self-reanimation ability that functions specifically while it is in your graveyard. For a cost of three colorless and three black mana, plus the sacrifice of a creature you currently control, you can move Necrosavant directly from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Timing and Resolution

This ability is restricted to your upkeep step, which occurs right after you untap your permanents. To resolve it, you must pay the mana and sacrifice a creature as part of the activation cost. Once the ability resolves, Necrosavant enters the battlefield; it does not count as being cast, so it cannot be countered by spells that target creature spells.

Common Pitfalls

Many players forget that the sacrifice is an activation cost, not an effect. This means if an opponent responds by exiling Necrosavant from your graveyard, your sacrificed creature is already gone and cannot be saved. Additionally, because the ability can only be used during your upkeep, you cannot bring it back during your main phase to gain a surprise attacker.

Interaction examples

Draining Life with Devotion

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

During your upkeep, you activate Necrosavant in your graveyard by paying mana and sacrificing Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Necrosavant returns to the battlefield. Because Necrosavant has three black mana symbols in its cost, it immediately increases your devotion to black, making any future copies of Gray Merchant of Asphodel or other devotion effects significantly more powerful.

The Grim Toll

Syr Konrad, the Grim

With Syr Konrad, the Grim on the battlefield, you activate Necrosavant's ability. First, you sacrifice a creature as a cost, which triggers Syr Konrad to deal 1 damage to each opponent because a creature died. Then, as the ability resolves and Necrosavant leaves your graveyard, Syr Konrad triggers a second time, dealing another 1 damage to each opponent.