Entomb

Premodern-legal editions of Entomb — old-border printings plus any period-appropriate foil promos (Arena/Judge, through Scourge). Hover to preview an edition on the card; click to select it.

Odyssey

2001·odyrare

Selected

Old-border editions + pre-Scourge promo foils (Arena/Judge). Modern-frame reprints (8th Edition onward) exist but are not period-appropriate printings.

Why It's Banned

For a single black mana at instant speed, Entomb tutors any card directly into your graveyard, turning the hardest part of a reanimator deck — getting a fatty into the bin — into a near-free action. In Premodern's slower, more grindy power band, that efficiency collapses the combo: a turn-one Entomb into a turn-one or turn-two Reanimate or Exhume drops a Verdant Force, Spirit of the Night, or other bomb onto the battlefield before opponents can deploy meaningful interaction. It is not a card that asks you to build toward a payoff; it simply hands you the payoff on the cheapest possible terms.

Entomb was printed in Odyssey (2001), the set that launched the graveyard-matters era, and has long defined reanimator strategies across formats. It was restricted in Vintage for years (until being unrestricted in October 2020) and was banned in Legacy in 2025 for the same reanimator pressure. In Premodern it pairs with reanimation spells like Reanimate and Exhume to enable explosive, lightly-interactive starts well above the format's intended power level.

Trivia & Lore

• Entomb's templating reads 'Search your library for a card' — a CARD, not a creature card. Its Oracle text lets you fetch literally anything in your deck into the graveyard, not just a reanimation target.
• Entomb was unbanned in Legacy on September 18, 2009, alongside Dream Halls and Metalworker. It was later re-banned in Legacy on November 10, 2025 to finally kill Reanimator.
• The graveyard combo Entomb famously fed was Animate Dead (or Dance of the Dead) on Worldgorger Dragon: animating the Dragon exiles all your other permanents including the reanimation enchantment, which then makes the Dragon leave play, returning everything and re-triggering the loop. Worldgorger Dragon itself was banned in Legacy until it was unbanned there on January 19, 2015.
• The original Odyssey (2001) printing carried the generic flavor line 'A grave is the safest place to store ill-gotten treasures.' Only later reprints (Eternal Masters, Ultimate Masters) bear the now-famous Ghoulcaller Gisa quote 'I'll return once you've ripened.'
• Entomb was first printed at rare in Odyssey, released October 1, 2001, with original art by Ron Spears.
• Entomb received brand-new artwork from Seb McKinnon for its Eternal Masters reprint (set EMA, #87), released June 10, 2016 — a different artist from the original Ron Spears Odyssey illustration.
• Entomb got a foil 'Masterpiece' treatment as Amonkhet Invocations #23 (art by Eytan Zana), part of the 54-card Invocations series randomly inserted into Amonkhet block boosters; the Amonkhet portion released April 28, 2017.
• A gold-bordered Entomb appeared in World Championship Decks 2003 as part of Peer Kröger's black-red Reanimator decklist (3 copies) — a tournament-replica printing distinct from its black-bordered constructed versions.
• Unmarked Grave (Modern Horizons 2, 2021) is a Modern-legal echo of Entomb: it costs two mana ({1}{B}) instead of one, and can only fetch a nonlegendary card rather than literally anything.