Rise of the Witch-kingHow it works & interactions with other cards

Symmetrical Sacrifice with a Bonus

When Rise of the Witch-king resolves, every player must choose a creature they control to sacrifice. Unlike targeted removal, this bypasses Hexproof and Shroud since the players choose the creatures themselves. If you successfully sacrifice a creature during this process, the spell allows you to return a permanent card—which includes lands, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, or creatures—from your graveyard directly to the battlefield.

Resolution Step-by-Step

First, the active player (the player whose turn it is) chooses which creature they will sacrifice. Then, each other player in turn order does the same, with the benefit of knowing what the players before them chose. All selected creatures are then sacrificed simultaneously. After the creatures hit the graveyard, if you sacrificed one, you choose a permanent card currently in your graveyard to return. This choice happens during resolution, so your opponents cannot react once you've picked your permanent.

The 'Another' Restriction

A common mistake is trying to sacrifice a creature and immediately bring that same creature back. The card explicitly states you must return 'another' permanent card. This means the card you choose to return must have already been in your graveyard before the sacrifice happened, or it must be a different card that was put there during the sacrifice. You cannot target the specific creature you just sent to the graveyard with this spell's own effect.

When to Cast It

This spell is best utilized when you have a disposable creature or a 'dying' trigger you want to activate, and a high-value permanent like a powerful enchantment or a late-game creature sitting in your graveyard. Because it doesn't target the permanent in the graveyard upon casting, it is harder for opponents to disrupt with graveyard exile effects in response.

Interaction examples

Reclaiming Lost Resources

Cultivate

Imagine you previously used Cultivate to ramp up your mana, but your opponent destroyed one of your key enchantments earlier in the game. You cast Rise of the Witch-king, sacrificing a small creature token. Since you sacrificed a creature, you can now return that enchantment from your graveyard to the battlefield, gaining board presence while your opponent loses their best creature.

Ramping Back into Action

Kodama's Reach

If you have used Kodama's Reach to pull lands out of your deck and later find yourself with a powerful land in the graveyard (perhaps due to a discard effect or land destruction), Rise of the Witch-king can bring that land back. Even if the land isn't a creature, it is a 'permanent card,' making it a legal choice for the return effect as long as you sacrificed a creature first.