Pointed Discussion

Worldgorger Dragon, here I come!

I like the new Oracle text for this card. It seems to do a better job of explaining how the card works than the original text.

This card appears to be strictly better than Raise Dead considering it only costs one more to cast.

Very effective reanimation with not much of a draw back. Combos well with putrid imp to get your big creatures to the graveyard fast.

If something costs one more, it isn't strictly better! A card is strictly better than another when it's better in 99.9999999999% of situations. There are tons of situations where one mana will make a difference, and returning to hand is a completely different effect from reanimation anyways. What if you have something that wants you to discard, for example?

"Let's make a card that can reanimate something for only two mana."
"Oh, but we'd need to add a drawback."
"How about -1/-0? That's balanced for something that can get you a turn two Elesh Norn (or any other amazing bomb).

Turn 1: Draw, don't play a land, discard Sengir Vampire
Turn 2: Swamp, Dark Ritual, this, take 1 mana burn.

That's the way we did it back then.

Classic card, classic art, classic flavor.

Grim Return mirrors this art. A fitting tribute to the original, the magnificent, the Animate Dead.