Aura Thief
Creature — Illusion
Flying
When this creature dies, you gain control of all enchantments. (You don't get to move Auras.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $10.05
- EDHREC rank
- #10593
When Aura Thief dies, you steal every enchantment on the battlefield — and with Enchanted Evening turning all permanents into enchantments, that means you take everything. The cost is blue mana, a 4/4 flier for 3U, and finding a way to kill your own creature; that's a reasonable bar for one of the most lopsided board-swings in Commander.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Minn, Wily Illusionist
Minn, Wily Illusionist creates illusion tokens that sacrifice themselves when targeted, which plays directly into the need to get Aura Thief off the battlefield on demand — Minn's token engine keeps the pressure on while you set up the theft.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Aura Thief is a Commander card through and through — the effect only breaks open when there are multiple opponents with enchantments worth stealing, and a 60-card format rarely gives you the density of enchantments to justify the setup cost. Legacy and Vintage are both legal formats, but a four-mana creature that requires its own death to do anything doesn't compete in those environments. Commander and Oathbreaker are where Aura Thief belongs: multiplayer games accumulate enchantments naturally, and Enchanted Evening turns the ability from a value play into a table-ending ultimatum.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Enchanted EveningAura Thief
Gain control of all permanents; Mass Land Denial
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
There's no clean budget replacement for Aura Thief's effect because mass enchantment theft on death is essentially unique. Blatant Thievery and Shrewd Negotiation can steal individual enchantments or permanents for less setup, but they don't scale the same way — you're trading the all-or-nothing explosion for a slower, more incremental form of stealing.
Price Context
Current price
$10.05 mid tier
At $10.05, Aura Thief sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it won't break a budget build. It's a reserved-list card with a narrow but devoted audience, so the price reflects genuine scarcity more than broad demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Enchanted Evening
- Minn, Wily Illusionist
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.