Carnage wants a deck that turns its opponents against each other. It also suits a deck that brings big creatures back from the discard pile.
Mana cost
Black, Red ()
Power / toughness4 / 3
RarityRare
Trample
When Carnage enters, return target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains "This creature attacks each combat if able" and "When this creature deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice it."
Picked for what they do in Carnage's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Carnage's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Carnage works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast19 Sep 2025
If a card in a graveyard has {X} in its mana cost, X is 0 when determining its mana value.
Wizards of the Coast19 Sep 2025
If the returned creature can't attack for any reason (such as being tapped or having come under your control that turn), then it doesn't attack. If there's a cost associated with having it attack, you're not forced to pay that cost, so it doesn't have to attack in that case either.
Wizards of the Coast19 Sep 2025
Mayhem represents an alternative cost that can be paid to cast a spell from your graveyard if you discarded the card with mayhem that turn. You must pay any additional costs the spell has.
Wizards of the Coast19 Sep 2025
You must follow all normal timing rules when casting a spell with mayhem. For example, you can't cast a creature card with mayhem you couldn't normally cast during an opponent's turn, even if you discard that card during an opponent's turn.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBRPlayers write colors as letters: B for black, R for red.PoliticsPolitics decks turn opponents against each other, making their creatures attack someone else or letting the whole table vote. Goad is the most common tool: a goaded creature must attack, and must attack someone other than you if it can.Open the Politics pageSelf-SacrificeSacrifices itself as part of its own ability, trading the permanent away for what it does. Evolving Wilds, Mind StoneOpen the Self-Sacrifice pageForced CombatForces creatures to attack, or decides who they attack, often with goad. In multiplayer it points other people's creatures at each other instead of at you. Bident of Thassa, Toski, Bearer of SecretsOpen the Forced Combat pageETB ValueDoes something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One RingOpen the ETB Value pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator pageReanimationReturns a creature card from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost. That is why decks built around it put their biggest creatures into the graveyard on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate DeadOpen the Reanimation page
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