Athreos, God of Passage
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to white and black is less than seven, Athreos isn't a creature.
Whenever another creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless target opponent pays 3 life.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #2808
Athreos, God of Passage turns every creature death into a tax — opponents either hand your creatures back or pay 3 life, and at three mana with indestructible, that pressure compounds fast. Recursive threats like Forsaken Miner make the choice brutally unfair, and commanders like Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness weaponize the life-loss trigger directly on top of the recursion engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness drains opponents whenever you lose life or sacrifice creatures, so Athreos, God of Passage creates a loop where dying creatures either come back or deal damage — both outcomes feed Ardbert's plan.
Bane, Lord of Darkness
Bane, Lord of Darkness cares about creatures dying and opponents losing life, so Athreos, God of Passage slots in as redundant inevitability — every creature that hits the graveyard is either a recurrable threat or 3 free damage.
Zur, Eternal Schemer
Zur, Eternal Schemer animates enchantments as creatures, and Athreos, God of Passage is an indestructible enchantment creature that protects the rest of the board — Zur can put it directly into play and the death-tax effect guards every other animated enchantment.
Teysa Karlov
Teysa Karlov doubles death triggers, so Athreos, God of Passage gets to fire twice per creature lost — opponents face 6 life or a returned threat, and in a deck flooded with sacrifice outlets that math breaks down quickly.
Ratadrabik of Urborg
Ratadrabik of Urborg makes token copies of legendary creatures that die, and Athreos, God of Passage protects those legends by taxing opponents who refuse to return them — the two effects reinforce each other across every death in the deck.
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 |
Commander is where Athreos, God of Passage does its best work: three opponents means three people absorbing the 3-life tax, and the cumulative drain in a 40-life format is genuinely threatening rather than trivially ignorable. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but largely absent — the effect is too slow and too conditional against tuned decks that don't care about life totals. Modern and Pioneer see occasional fringe play in aristocrats or devotion shells, but without the multiplayer math it's a fair card in formats that punish fair cards. Oathbreaker can replicate some of the Commander experience at a smaller table, and Athreos, God of Passage is a strong signature spell or background piece for any black-white sacrifice build there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Athreos, God of PassageForsaken MinerPhyrexian Altar
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Athreos, God of Passage isn't available in the current dataset, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for the live number. Historically it's sat in the mid-range mythic tier — not a budget include, but consistently justified by the amount of work it does in aristocrats and recursion strategies.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.