Renew in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Herko Kerghans April 2, 2025 MTG Cards, MTG Rules

Rot-Curse Rakshasa | Illustration by Chris Rahn

In Magic, black mana is about power, at any cost.

For the Mardu clan (), that's striking hard and fast. For the Abzan clan (), enduring whatever comes their way. And for the Sultai clan (), home of the most powerful necromancers in Tarkir, it's the willingness to do what nobody else will.

Necromancers that they are, that usually means messing with the graveyard in nefarious ways and bringing the dead back to fight again… but not always. Their powers also allow them to use the graveyard to heal and strengthen the living, renewing their allies while nothing goes to waste.

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How Does Renew Work?

Qarsi Revenant | Illustration by Lorenzo Mastroianni

Renew cards always have:

An activated ability,
That you can only activate from your graveyard,
That you can only activate at sorcery speed,
That always put some type of counter(s) on target creature(s),
And that forces you to exile the renew card from your graveyard as part of the activation cost.

The specific effect of each renew ability varies from card to card, though.

For example:

Agent of Kotis puts two +1/+1 counters on one creature,
Rot-Curse Rakshasa puts one decayed counter on X creatures,
Naga Fleshcrafter limits the target to a non legendary creature you control, and turns other creatures into copies of the target creature.

The History of Renew in MTG

Renew was introduced in Tarkir: Dragonstorm (April 2025) as the signature mechanic for the Sultai clan.

“The Sultai are most willing to do what it takes to get what they want,” writes Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater in Part 2 of his “Dragonstorm Is Brewing” article, where he goes through how each TDM mechanic came to be. “A big part of that philosophy ties into their relationship with death, bringing back creatures to serve them. Mechanically, this makes them the clan most associated with the graveyard (they used the delve mechanic the last time around).”

The first iteration of renew was called exhume, and the effect put 2/2 zombies on the board. But the Magic team eventually moved to giving the Sultai a more positive spin this time around, with renew usually boosting your own creatures. Keyword here being “often.”

Rosewater never reveals whether Wizards of the Coast will turn a new ability into an evergreen mechanic (ones that shows up in pretty much every Magic set, like flying), a deciduous mechanic (that often shows up, although not always), or a one-off, so we'll have to wait for the next few sets to find out. Renew seems too niche to see repeated use, but I could see it coming up once in a blue moon where it makes sense from the point of view of flavor.

Is Renew an Activated Ability?

Yes, it is! Renew is the textbook case of an activated ability, where you have the costs, followed by “:” and the effect(s).

Notice that exiling the renew card is part of the activation cost. There's no way for your opponent to prevent it when you activate a renew ability.

Can You Exile a Renew Card in Response to the Ability?

No, you can't: Since exiling the renew card is part of the activation cost (rather than part of the activated ability's effect), there's no “window of opportunity” for you to respond by exiling the renew card first.

Can You Activate Renew at Instant Speed?

Nope, you can't activate renew at instant speed. You can activate abilities at instant speed in general, but the renew text comes with an “activate only as a sorcery” clause.

Does Renew Use the Stack?

Yes, activating a renew ability puts that ability on the stack.

Can Renew be Countered?

Yes, you can counter a renew ability. But you can only counter renew with anything that counters abilities. A regular Counterspell that only counters spells won't work against renew (or any ability).

(You can also counter everything by ending the turn at instant speed, but that's a very niche interaction).

Can Renew Target Another Player’s Creature?

In general yes, it can – unless the card specifically says you can't.

In general, renew cards say “target creature,” without specifying who controls it. You could target your foe's creatures with Agent of Kotis or Qarsi Revenant. And you could target your own creatures with Rot-Curse Rakshasa if you ever think that such a move would make tactical sense.

But, as with all ability words, you really need to check on a case-by-case basis: Naga Fleshcrafter, for example, is limited to nonlegendary creatures under your control. You can't target your opponents' creatures or your legendaries.

Gallery and List of Renew Cards

Best Renew Cards

Rot-Curse Rakshasa

Rot-Curse Rakshasa is big. It can only swing once, but a 5/5 with trample can punch through pretty much everything your opponent can play in the early turns in Standard, except Glissa Sunslayer. And since Rot-Curse Rakshasa has decayed, it goes straight to the graveyard after delivering its punch.

The renew ability is very, very clever: Depending on the board state, Rot-Curse Rakshasa can be one of the most creative board wipes in quite some time, or a great aggro card (on top of its 5/5 trampling punch, I mean!) by preventing X creatures from blocking.

Cherry on top, it's a demon that goes like peanut butter with Unholy Annex’s jelly, and it should work wonderfully well with Kaito, Bane of Nightmares.

Naga Fleshcrafter

If Rot-Curse Rakshasa is the muscle of the renew crew, Naga Fleshcrafter is the brains. It's also a textbook case of power creep: It's exactly like Clone, but with a renew ability on top.

And what an ability! Turning all your puny 1/1 tokens into your best non legendary creature can end a game real quick. Imagine, for example, Lord of Atlantis and a bunch of tokens: Naga Fleshcrafter‘s renew ability turns your whole board into an army of Lord of Atlantises that mass-pump each other.

Qarsi Revenant

Keyword soup decks are going to love this vampire! I think Qarsi Revenant will see a lot of play in Standard midrange decks, and it's going to win TDM Drafts all by itself. It's impossible to race a 3/3 flying lifelinker, it's an amazing blocker thanks to deathtouch, and once it eats removal it'll share those juicy keywords with your best threat.

And, yeah, it makes Vampire Nighthawk weep in a corner while sobbing “power creep!”

Kheru Goldkeeper

WotC seems determined to make the “leaves your graveyard” archetype a thing, and I'm all here for it!

All renew cards already play as “leave your graveyard” enablers. But Kheru Goldkeeper also works on the other side of the counter by being a “when cards leave your graveyard” payoff itself.

This dragon is obviously designed to play well with Teval, the Balanced Scale, but there are a million ways to break it in Commander. I mean, maybe it may even go infinite with Gravecrawler, I guess?

The renew ability is just a bit of gravy on top here, or a way to kickstart your graveyard-leaving shenanigans.

Wrap Up

Naga Fleshcrafter | Illustration by Valera Lutfullina

Renew is certainly no delve, the original signature mechanic of the Sultai Brood. As it often happens with cost-reduction mechanics, Delve proved pretty broken (with two delve cards banned in Legacy and three banned in Modern) and, according to Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater, it's problematic for development.

Renew is a lot tamer in that regard, so I doubt it’ll make too many waves as a mechanic. But some of the renew cards are very cool designs when taken as a whole, in a way that the most broken delve cards are not: Treasure Cruise is a slow Ancestral Recall with extra steps, while Rot-Curse Rakshasa or Naga Fleshcrafter are unique, interesting cards.

Renew does fit Sultai's “Graveyard as a resource” motif, so the flavor is spot on. And renew cards are enablers for your “leaves your graveyard” synergies, which slowly but surely is something WotC wants to make happen – just notice how harmonize, Temur‘s signature mechanic in TDM, also plays in this space.

I hope you've enjoyed this Tarkir: Dragonstorm mechanical deep dive, and if you have comments or questions please drop a comment below, or stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat.

And good luck out there!

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Herko Kerghans

Herko has been battling online since EVE was a thing, fell in love with digital CCGs nearly a decade ago, and got his first taste of MTG during Arena's Open Beta. He loves Limited formats, crunching data, and (usually silly) puns and wordplay.