Raise Dead

Raise Dead was originally introduced in the Alpha set of Magic: The Gathering in 1993, designed by Richard Garfield as a foundational black spell. The version from Ninth Edition, released in 2005, reflects the game's shift toward using core sets to reprint essential cards that maintain the mechanical identity of each color. This iteration features updated art by Greg Staples, who replaced the original illustration to align with the more polished, modern aesthetic established by Wizards of the Coast during the mid-2000s.

The Ninth Edition printing is notable for being part of the last core set to feature the classic white-bordered design before the game transitioned entirely to black borders in Tenth Edition. The card's function—returning a creature card from the graveyard to the owner's hand—has remained a staple of graveyard recursion strategy throughout the history of the game. Its inclusion in Ninth Edition served to introduce new players to basic resource management and recovery mechanics within the black color pie.