MagicTheGathering.fyi

Archghoul of Thraben

Creature — Zombie Cleric

Whenever this creature or another Zombie you control dies, look at the top card of your library. If it's a Zombie card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. If you don't put the card into your hand, you may put it into your graveyard.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Innistrad: Double Feature
Price
$0.41
EDHREC rank
#5952
Buy on TCGplayer
Archghoul of Thraben card art
Archghoul of Thraben turns every Zombie death into a free scry, and if that Zombie was a Zombie token, you draw instead — that's a persistent card-advantage engine stapled to a three-mana 3/2. The cost is that the payoff requires a critical mass of Zombies dying regularly, which makes it dead weight in shells that don't already want to sacrifice or lose creatures; in Mortuary loops or alongside Zul Ashur, Lich Lord, it's a gas engine that scales with the graveyard.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord

53.3% of decks · synergy 0.52

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord already wants a parade of Zombie tokens entering and dying to fuel his draw triggers, and Archghoul of Thraben layers a second draw engine on top of every sacrifice — the two commanders effectively double-dip on each death event.

02
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

35.8% of decks · synergy 0.32

Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver generates a Decayed Zombie token on nearly every creature death, and those tokens are immediately sacrificed when they attack, making Archghoul of Thraben a near-guaranteed draw trigger every combat step.

03
Ghoulcaller Gisa

Ghoulcaller Gisa

32.6% of decks · synergy 0.31

Ghoulcaller Gisa's activated ability sacrifices a Zombie to produce a pile of new Zombie tokens, so every activation feeds Archghoul of Thraben a draw trigger while simultaneously refilling the board for the next one.

04
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

27.3% of decks · synergy 0.24

Grimgrin, Corpse-Born requires sacrificing a Zombie to untap and get bigger, turning each sacrifice into both a combat threat upgrade and an Archghoul of Thraben draw trigger.

05
Gisa and Geralf

Gisa and Geralf

24.2% of decks · synergy 0.21

Gisa and Geralf mills Zombies into the graveyard and recasts them, creating a revolving door of creatures that die and return — Archghoul of Thraben converts that churn into steady card selection across every loop.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Archghoul of Thraben is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its home is Commander by a wide margin. In Commander, the 100-card singleton format rewards incremental value engines, and a three-mana 3/2 that turns every Zombie death into scry-1 (or a full draw for tokens) compounds quickly over a long game. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer, it's too slow and too conditional — three mana for a 3/2 is below-rate, and the payoff requires a Zombie-dense shell that those formats rarely want to commit to. Legacy and Vintage have the redundancy to support Zombie synergy packages, but faster, more consistent engines crowd Archghoul of Thraben out of those lists.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.41 bulk tier

At $0.41, Archghoul of Thraben sits firmly in bulk territory — you're picking this up as a throw-in, not hunting for copies. It's played in enough Commander decks that supply stays healthy, so the price is unlikely to spike without a reprint scare or a breakout tournament moment it's not positioned to have.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.