Renew

Keywords · intermediate

Renew is an ability word. It has no rules meaning of its own (CR 207.2c) — it groups activated abilities that let you use a card from your graveyard by exiling it.

How it works

• Every renew ability reads "Renew — [cost], Exile this card from your graveyard: [effect]. Activate only as a sorcery."
• You pay the listed cost and exile the card straight out of the graveyard; the card is never cast or returned to your hand.
• Effects vary by card: putting +1/+1 counters on a creature, tapping and stunning an opponent's creature, giving a creature a lifelink counter, or turning your other creatures into copies of a target creature.

Rules notes

• Exiling the card from the graveyard is part of the activation cost, so it happens immediately when you activate the ability, before it resolves.
• This is an activated ability, not a spell. It never goes on the stack as a spell, so effects that care about spells being cast don't see it.
• "Activate only as a sorcery" limits it to times you could cast a sorcery, even though the ability itself isn't a spell.

Rule reference

[207.2c]