Alms Beast
Creature — Beast
Creatures blocking or blocked by this creature have lifelink.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Gatecrash
- Price
- $0.24
- EDHREC rank
- #25487
Alms Beast puts a 6/6 trampler on the board for five mana — the catch is that every creature it blocks or is blocked by gains lifelink for the turn, handing your opponents free life. It's a build-around, not a staple: the body is real, but the drawback is significant enough that you need a deck that punishes life totals or exploits the lifelink gift before running it.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Alms Beast is a niche piece in decks that convert opponents' life gain into a liability — Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose and Sanguine Bond effects flip the lifelink trigger into a kill condition, and Triskaidekaphobia or Axis of Mortality strategies can weaponize the gifted life directly. In competitive constructed formats like Modern and Legacy, a five-mana 6/6 with a relevant downside simply doesn't clear the bar when faster, cleaner threats exist. Pioneer is the same story — the format's threats are leaner and the life-gain drawback has no reliable payoff shell. Alms Beast is legal in Vintage but would never see play there. This is a Commander-or-bust card, and even in Commander it belongs in a specific deck, not a generic black shell.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.24 bulk tier
At $0.24, Alms Beast is deep bulk — you're not paying a premium for the effect, and there's no reason to expect that to change. Pick it up freely for the right build; there's no financial risk either way.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.