Magic the Gathering Card Analysis: Reknit

Reknit is an uncommon green and white instant introduced in the Shadowmoor expansion set of Magic: The Gathering. It costs one green or white mana and one colorless mana to cast. Reknit allows you to regenerate one target permanent.

Because Reknit allows you to regenerate a target permanent, not a target creature, it is much more useful than earlier regeneration spells. The standard form of this spell is Regenerate, a common green instant costing one green mana and one colorless mana. Regenerate allows you to regenerate a target creature, meaning that instead of being destroyed, the creature is tapped, removed from combat, and has all damage on it removed. Another similar instant is Death Ward, which costs one white mana and allows you to regenerate a target creature.

Regenerate and Death Ward are very useful spells for creatures that do not have regeneration as one of their activated abilities. However, they cannot be used to prevent other permanents from being destroyed, only creatures. Reknit can be used to regenerate any permanent: creatures, artifacts, lands, enchantments, and planeswalkers.

It is this last permanent that is most important, because Reknit is, so far, the only Magic card which can be used to regenerate planeswalkers. All other spells and abilities that can be used to regenerate specify a card type (usually creature, but sometimes artifact) and often a creature type, color, or condition (such as having tokens on it) as well.

Planeswalkers are a new card type, not a type of creature, and so regeneration spells and abilities which affect creatures do not affect planeswalkers. They can, however, be attacked and defended just like players. Without Reknit, there is no way to regenerate a planeswalker; if it cannot be defended by your creatures, it will be destroyed and put into your graveyard.

Reknit, however, allows you to remove damage from your planeswalker and tap it instead of destroying it. This means that you can prevent the loss of loyalty counters, which are added or removed as a cost to perform certain actions.

In addition to Planeswalkers, Reknit can regenerate artifacts, enchantments, and lands. These cards can normally not be attacked, but they can be destroyed with a spell such as Abolish or a creature ability such as that of Acidic Slime. Reknit removes this damage, allowing you to tap the land, enchantment, or artifact instead of destroying it.

Reknit has the same converted mana cost as Regenerate, but its effect is much broader and more useful. It is an essential card to have if you are playing with a planeswalker, and a very good card to have even without one.

Source

MagicCards.info