Very few cards return a card from exile. Riftsweeper shuffles any face-up exiled card into its owner's library, Pull from Eternity puts one into its owner's graveyard, where ordinary recursion can reach it, Karn, the Great Creator takes back an artifact, Coax from the Blind Eternities an Eldrazi, and Runic Repetition a card with flashback. Exile is where the game puts cards it means to keep out of reach, so the list is short: 42 Commander-legal cards in four groups, each read from its rules text in our card database. Cards that exile a permanent and bring it straight back are blink, covered next.
Exile and return: if you mean blink
Most searches for "exile and return" are about blink, also called flicker: a spell or ability that exiles a permanent and returns it to the battlefield at once, as Ephemerate and Cloudshift do, so that its enters abilities trigger again. Our list of white instants that blink creatures is the place for those. Cards like Banishing Light are a third thing: they exile a permanent until they leave the battlefield, and the exiled card then returns by itself, under its owner's control (Comprehensive Rules 610.3 and 610.3c). Neither kind is what this page lists. The cards below reach into exile and take out a card that something else put there.
Cards that take a card back out of exile
We read the rules text of every Commander-legal card that refers to cards in exile, and these ten are the ones that take back a card they did not exile themselves. Two take any face-up exiled card, and Mirror of Fate any of your own; the rest take one kind.
| Card | Cost | Type | Which exiled card | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riftsweeper | {1}{G} | Creature | Any face-up exiled card, yours or anyone's | Shuffled into its owner's library, when Riftsweeper enters |
| Pull from Eternity | {W} | Instant | Any face-up exiled card, yours or anyone's | Its owner's graveyard, at instant speed |
| Mirror of Fate | {5} | Artifact | Up to seven face-up exiled cards you own | {T}, sacrifice it: on top of your library, after you exile every card in your library |
| Karn, the Great Creator | {4} | Legendary Planeswalker | A face-up artifact card you own in exile | Your hand, with his -2 loyalty ability. The same ability can instead reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game |
| Coax from the Blind Eternities | {2}{U} | Sorcery | A face-up Eldrazi card you own in exile | Your hand. It can instead reveal an Eldrazi card you own from outside the game |
| Runic Repetition | {2}{U} | Sorcery | An exiled card with flashback that you own | Your hand |
| Sorceress's Schemes | {3}{R} | Sorcery | An exiled card with flashback that you own, or an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard | Your hand, and it adds {R}. It has flashback {4}{R} itself |
| Rootcoil Creeper | {G}{U} | Creature | A card with flashback that you own in exile | Your hand, for {G}{U}, {T} and exiling the Creeper. It also taps for mana. Colour identity: green and blue |
| Sentinel of Lost Lore | {1}{G}{G} | Creature | A card you own in exile that has an Adventure | Your hand, as one of three modes when it enters. Another mode puts an exiled Adventure card you don't own on the bottom of its owner's library; the third exiles a player's graveyard |
| Blade of the Swarm | {3}{B} | Creature | An exiled card with warp, yours or anyone's | The bottom of its owner's library, as one of two modes when it enters |
Riftsweeper and Pull from Eternity are the two that work on any card, opponents' cards included: either one takes a suspended spell off its clock. For a card of your own, Pull from Eternity is the better half of a two-card plan, since once the card is in your graveyard, anything on our graveyard to hand list or in our reanimation guide can finish the job. Mirror of Fate is a trap unless you build for it: it exiles your whole library and leaves you at most seven cards to draw.
Eldrazi processors: your opponents' exiled cards, into their graveyards
The Eldrazi Processors treat exile as a resource: each one puts a card an opponent owns from exile into that player's graveyard, and is paid for it. They need an opponent's card to be in exile first, and they return it to a graveyard, never to you. Three later cards at the end of the table do a similar job on one opponent.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it moves | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wasteland Strangler | {2}{B} | Creature | When it enters, you may move one card an opponent owns | Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn |
| Ulamog's Nullifier | {2}{U}{B} | Creature | When it enters, you may move two cards your opponents own | Counter target spell. Flash and flying. Colour identity: blue and black |
| Blight Herder | {5} | Creature | When you cast it, you may move two cards your opponents own | Three 1/1 Eldrazi Scion tokens, each of which can be sacrificed for {C} |
| Mind Raker | {3}{B} | Creature | When it enters, you may move one card an opponent owns | Each opponent discards a card |
| Murk Strider | {3}{U} | Creature | When it enters, you may move one card an opponent owns | Return target creature to its owner's hand |
| Ulamog's Reclaimer | {4}{U} | Creature | When it enters, you may move one card an opponent owns | Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand |
| Ruin Processor | {7} | Creature | When you cast it, you may move one card an opponent owns | You gain 5 life |
| Ulamog's Despoiler | {6} | Creature | As it enters, you may move two cards your opponents own | It enters with four +1/+1 counters |
| Oracle of Dust | {4}{U} | Creature | {2} and one card an opponent owns, as the cost of its ability | Draw a card, then discard a card |
| Cryptic Cruiser | {3}{U} | Creature | {2}{U} and one card an opponent owns, as the cost of its ability | Tap target creature |
| Void Attendant | {2}{G} | Creature | {1}{G} and one card an opponent owns, as the cost of its ability | One 1/1 Eldrazi Scion token that can be sacrificed for {C} |
| Processor Assault | {1}{R} | Sorcery | One card an opponent owns, as an additional cost to cast it | It deals 5 damage to target creature |
| Binding Negotiation | {1}{B} | Sorcery | One face-up exiled card target opponent owns, into their graveyard, if you take no card from their hand | Its first choice instead: they reveal their hand and discard a nonland card you choose |
| Memory Theft | {2}{B} | Sorcery | You may move one exiled card that has an Adventure and that target opponent owns | Before that, they reveal their hand and discard a nonland card you choose |
| Time Reaper | {3}{B}{B} | Creature | Whenever it deals combat damage to a player: target face-up card that player owns in exile, onto the bottom of their library | You gain 3 life. Flying and haste |
The two with a job in Commander are Wasteland Strangler and Ulamog's Nullifier, a removal spell and a counterspell on a body, in decks that already exile opponents' cards with removal such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares. For the opponent this is sometimes a gift: a creature that was exiled for good is back in a graveyard, where reanimation can find it. Memory Theft is aimed at a card on an adventure, and Time Reaper at anything face up, a suspended spell included.
Cards that come back from exile on their own
Five cards treat exile as a second hand. Three can be cast from exile; two have an ability that works there.
| Card | Cost | Type | How it comes back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squee, the Immortal | {1}{R}{R} | Legendary Creature | You may cast it from your graveyard or from exile |
| Eternal Scourge | {3} | Creature | You may cast it from exile. It exiles itself when it becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls |
| Misthollow Griffin | {2}{U}{U} | Creature | You may cast it from exile. Flying |
| Torrent Elemental | {4}{U} | Creature | {3}{B/G}{B/G}, only as a sorcery: put it from exile onto the battlefield tapped. Flying. Colour identity: blue, black and green |
| Mister Immortal | {1}{G} | Legendary Creature | {2}{G}: return it from your graveyard or from exile to the battlefield tapped |
Casting a card from exile isn't returning it in the rules' sense, but it answers the same need: removal that exiles doesn't get rid of these five. Squee as your commander is the simplest case, though a commander needs no help here: its owner may move it from exile to the command zone anyway (rule 903.9a).
Cards that give back what they exiled themselves
The largest group by far returns only the cards it exiled itself. Our data holds more than fifty of them that are legal in Commander; the twelve below are a selection, chosen to show each way it is done. On most of these cards the two abilities are linked: the second sees only the cards the first one exiled (rules 406.6 and 607.2a). Karn, Scion of Urza and Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel mark the card with a counter instead, so they can also take back a card that another copy marked.
| Card | Cost | Type | What it exiles | How the cards come back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bag of Holding | {1} | Artifact | Every card you discard, from your graveyard | {4}, {T}, sacrifice it: all of them to their owner's hand. It also draws then discards for {2}, {T} |
| Bomat Courier | {1} | Artifact Creature | The top card of your library, face down, each time it attacks | {R}, discard your hand, sacrifice it: all of them into their owners' hands. Haste. Colour identity: red |
| Gustha's Scepter | {0} | Artifact | {T}: a card from your hand, face down | {T}: one you own returns to your hand. If you lose control of the Scepter, the rest go to their owner's graveyard |
| Bane Alley Broker | {1}{U}{B} | Creature | {T}: draw a card, then exile a card from your hand face down | {U}{B}, {T}: one of them returns to its owner's hand. Colour identity: blue and black |
| Ethereal Forager | {4}{U}{U} | Creature | The cards you exile from your graveyard to pay for its delve | Whenever it attacks, you may return an instant or sorcery card among them to its owner's hand. Flying |
| Endless Horizons | {3}{W} | Enchantment | When it enters: any number of Plains cards from your library | At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put one of them into your hand |
| Karn, Scion of Urza | {4} | Legendary Planeswalker | +1: you reveal the top two cards of your library; an opponent chooses one for your hand, and the other is exiled with a silver counter on it | -1: put a card you own with a silver counter on it from exile into your hand |
| Moonring Mirror | {5} | Artifact | Whenever you draw a card: the top card of your library, face down | At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile your hand face down and take all the other cards exiled with the Mirror in its place |
| Bottled Cloister | {4} | Artifact | At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep: your whole hand, face down | At the beginning of your upkeep: all of them return to your hand, and you draw a card |
| Safe Haven | None (a land) | Land | {2}, {T}: target creature you control | At the beginning of your upkeep, you may sacrifice it: each of them returns to the battlefield under its owner's control |
| Synod Sanctum | {1} | Artifact | {2}, {T}: target permanent you control | {2}, sacrifice it: all of them return to the battlefield under your control |
| Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel | {1}{W} | Legendary Creature | {1}{W}: another target creature, if its controller agrees, with an aegis counter on it | {2}{W}, {T}: all exiled cards with aegis counters return to the battlefield under their owners' control. Partner |
These are storage more than recursion: Safe Haven and Synod Sanctum hide your permanents from a board wipe, Bottled Cloister hides your hand from discard, and Bag of Holding turns every discard into a card you get back later. If the card that did the exiling leaves the battlefield first, the exiled cards usually stay in exile for good, unless one of the ten cards at the top of this page goes and gets them.
How exile works, and why most exiled cards stay there
- Exile is a zone of the game, not outside it. A wish that fetches a card "from outside the game", such as Burning Wish or Living Wish, can't take a card from exile: a card is outside the game only if it is in none of the game's zones, and exile is one of them (rules 400.1 and 400.11). Karn, the Great Creator and Coax from the Blind Eternities name exile as well, which is why they are on this page.
- In Commander, the "outside the game" half of those two does nothing by default. Traditional cards can't be brought into a Commander game from outside it, except by rules, special actions and effects that specifically do that for Commander games (rule 903.11). The exile half works as printed.
- Most of these can choose only a face-up card. Exiled cards are face up unless something says otherwise (rule 406.3). Riftsweeper, Pull from Eternity, Mirror of Fate, Karn, Coax, Binding Negotiation and Time Reaper all say "face-up", so a card exiled face down, a foretold card for instance (rule 702.143a), is safe from them.
- A card that leaves exile is a new object. It keeps nothing from its time there (rule 400.7): any counters on it cease to exist (rule 122.2), and a permission to cast or play it from exile no longer applies. Pull from Eternity on a suspended card simply puts it into the graveyard.
- A token never comes back. A token that has left the battlefield can't move to another zone or return to the battlefield (rule 111.8), and in exile it ceases to exist (rule 704.5d).
- Your commander doesn't need any of this. If it is put into exile, you may move it to the command zone the next time state-based actions are checked (rule 903.9a).
Which of these should a Commander deck play?
- To get one of your own cards back: Pull from Eternity, then a card that returns it from the graveyard. Riftsweeper if shuffling it into your library is enough.
- Artifact decks: Karn, the Great Creator, which also shuts off the activated abilities of your opponents' artifacts.
- Eldrazi decks: Coax from the Blind Eternities, plus Wasteland Strangler and Ulamog's Nullifier if you exile opponents' cards.
- Flashback decks: Runic Repetition, Sorceress's Schemes or Rootcoil Creeper, to use a flashback spell again.
- Against suspend, Adventures and other cards that wait in exile: Pull from Eternity, Riftsweeper or Time Reaper.
- To protect your own board or hand: Safe Haven, Synod Sanctum or Bottled Cloister, knowing the cards are lost if the land or artifact is destroyed first.
All 42 are legal in Commander, and none is on the Game Changers list, so none counts toward a bracket's Game Changer limit.
Find the blink side with Scry
Scry, Mana Grove's card search, reads what a card does, so you can ask in plain English on the card catalog. It is the quickest way to the blink side of this question, and to cards from a set newer than this page. For the cards that take something back out of exile, the tables above are the answer, checked against each card's rules text.
To narrow the results to your deck, open the filter sidebar on the card catalog and set your commander's colour identity. Getting Better Search Results covers the search and the filters.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get a card back from exile in MTG?
Yes, but only with a card that says so. Riftsweeper shuffles any face-up exiled card into its owner's library, and Pull from Eternity puts one into its owner's graveyard. Karn, the Great Creator (artifacts), Coax from the Blind Eternities (Eldrazi) and Runic Repetition (cards with flashback) return one to your hand. No rule returns an exiled card by itself; the one exception is an effect that exiled it only until something happens (Comprehensive Rules 610.3).
Is "exile and return" the same as blink?
In most searches, yes. Blink, or flicker, means exiling a permanent and returning it to the battlefield with the same spell or ability, as Ephemerate does. The returned card is a new object (Comprehensive Rules 400.7), so its enters abilities trigger again. See our list of white instants that blink creatures.
Do wishes work on exiled cards?
Only two do. Karn, the Great Creator and Coax from the Blind Eternities let you choose a face-up card you own in exile as well as one from outside the game, and in Commander only the exile half works (rule 903.11). A wish that says only "from outside the game" can't reach exile, because exile is one of the game's zones (Comprehensive Rules 400.1 and 400.11).
Can a token come back from exile?
No. A token that has left the battlefield can't move to another zone or come back onto the battlefield (Comprehensive Rules 111.8), and it ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked (rule 704.5d). A blinked token is simply gone.
Can my commander be returned from exile?
It doesn't need a card for that. If your commander is in exile, you may put it into the command zone the next time state-based actions are checked (Comprehensive Rules 903.9a), and cast it again from there.
Build the deck around them
Put these cards into a Commander deck in the Mana Grove deck builder, and the Validation tab flags any card your commander can't run, such as Rootcoil Creeper in a deck without green and blue. Create a free account to start; every plan includes the full deck builder, and plans and pricing shows what the paid plans add.
Sources
- Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective September 25, 2026: https://magic.wizards.com/en/rules. Read on November 9, 2026. Rules 111.8, 122.2, 400.1, 400.7, 400.11, 406.3, 406.6, 607.2a, 610.3, 610.3c, 702.143a, 704.5d, 903.9a and 903.11 are paraphrased above.
- Mana Grove card database, MTGJSON build of November 5, 2026: the mana cost, type, rules text, Commander legality and Game Changer flag of every card named above.
This article is updated when the exile rules change or a set adds a card that takes cards back out of exile. The date at the top is the last revision.
