Living Death and Reanimate are some of the best creature recursion in Magic: The Gathering. Being able to recur spells is a good way to come back from removal.

What do I play if my commander isn't in Black, though? I have some ideas.

Non-Black Recursion Staples

White

How do I recur creatures in White? When I first started thinking about this article idea, I immediately thought about Emeria, the Sky Ruin. I've always wanted to have seven Plains and this land so I could recur one creature. I built a Mono-White Giada, Font of Hope deck to make this possible. And several years later, I've still not been able to make this card work. Emeria Shepherd did far more recursion than the land, and it's a seven-mana angel that requires a land drop to trigger, so I often recommend her than Emeria, The Sky Ruin.

What are the top White creature recursion cards in Commander? Reinforcements is a great recursion spell because it gets more than one creature card. The drawback is that it doesn't go to hand or to the battlefield. It goes to the top of the deck so it kind of puts you a bit behind on draw. It's good that Reinforcements is up to three if there aren't three targets.

The TOP White creature recursion effect in Commander has to be Sun Titan. To recur a permanent three mana value or less when it enters and when it attacks makes it possible to keep recurring things you sacrifice or block with. It also isn't limited to only creatures. It's also directly onto the battlefield.

Blue

How do I recur creatures in Blue? Traditionally with recursion, we're trying to put creatures back to the battlefield or back to hand. Recall is perfect for this: discard a few cards and put the cards back into hand. Not even specifically creatures, but back to hand isn't really what we want. We want creatures right to the battlefield. This is how I have to get creative.

What are the top Blue creature recursion cards in Commander? Hour of Eternity gave me an idea. What if we make something else enter the battlefield as a copy of something in the graveyard? The problem with Hour of Eternity is that you'd need five mana for one creature and it's a 4/4 token Zombie. Back From the Brink is an enchantment for six mana that can create a token of something in the graveyard but you have to pay the mana cost. It makes it hard to use the same turn you play it.

The TOP Blue creature recursion effect in Commander has to be Body Double. Yes, it's five mana like Hour of Eternity but it isn't rocked by bounce effects. It is also a target for some of the other spells I've mentioned from the graveyard to recur it. It also gets the enter effects of the creature it copies.

Green

How do I recur creatures in Green? This is really rough. I'm not sure how to put the creatures directly back into the battlefield in Green. Regrowth and Nature's Spiral are sorcery speed returning any card from the graveyard to the hand. It's good because it's not just creature recursion. Bala Ged Recovery is good because it allows you to play a land or recur something for a bit more, but let's be honest we're playing it as a land.

What are the top Green creature recursion cards in Commander? Noxious Revival is great because it can respond to something targeting your graveyard. It also can potentially be cast without mana to stack your deck before a draw. It is very evasive. The problem is that it doesn't put it in hand and puts you back a draw.

The TOP Green creature recursion effect in Commander has to be Eternal Witness. Its mana cost is slightly higher but is on a creature which gets around a lot of counter spells that are non-creature targetable. You can double its effects with creature entering effect doublers. You can recur it more often with other creature recursion spells.

Colorless

How do I recur creatures in colorless? The Underworld Cookbook and Sword of Light and Shadow return creatures to hand. The Underworld Cookbook needs four mana and to sacrifice itself to recur the creature, but as an artifact has many ways to be recurred itself. It is likely a recurable effect that way. Sword of Light and Shadow can recur just with combat damage to a player. With an evasive creature, something with menace or flying, this is a fairly consistent recursion strategy.

What are the top colorless creature recursion cards in Commander? Confession Dial is great recursion in a "legends matter" deck because it casts the creature from the graveyard. It's also great for commander recursion, though it would give me a stomachache to send my commander to the graveyard and then try to trigger this. You have to pay the mana cost but it does enter the battlefield and get the cast trigger.

The TOP colorless creature recursion effect in Commander has to be Artisan of Kozilek and I'm not exactly pleased with this. It recurs a creature from the grave on cast on a large annihilator 2 creature. So it might mitigate how much it feels like you cast it for, but the reason I'm not a fan is having 9 mana for reanimation is tough, but if you do, it's amazing.

Red

How do I recur creatures in Red and what are the top Red creature recursion cards in Commander? Feldon of the Third Path is great recursion. The token copies would enter and have potentially enter effects and die at the end so they would have death triggers. This effect is repeatable because it doesn't exile the creature from the graveyard. If you have a way to untap Feldon of the Third Path you can do the effect twice in one turn.

The TOP Red creature recursion effect in Commander has to be Underworld Breach. The sneaky thing about this card is that after its effect of giving escape to all of your nonland cards, it also can be recurred. It doesn't exile at the end step; it sacrifices itself. This allows for a loopable recasting of your graveyard if you have enough cards in grave and mana. And after that turn passes you might be able to do it all again.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope this helps in your next deck building session! @cashinds on X.