Baleful Strix
Artifact Creature — Bird
Flying, deathtouch
When this creature enters, draw a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction Commander
- Price
- $2.52
- EDHREC rank
- #355
Baleful Strix trades with anything, replaces itself, and costs two mana — that combination is the whole argument. The Mortuary interaction (recurring the Strix to draw indefinitely) and its central role in Gonti, Canny Acquisitor engines show how far a 1/1 deathtouch flier can reach when the ceiling is "infinite cards."
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gonti, Canny Acquisitor
Gonti, Canny Acquisitor triggers every time a creature with deathtouch deals damage, and Baleful Strix is the cheapest repeatable deathtouch body in the color pair — it generates value on the way in, blocks profitably, and keeps the Gonti engine firing every combat.
Urza, Chief Artificer
Baleful Strix is an artifact creature, so Urza, Chief Artificer gives it menace for free while it handles ground defense and replaces itself — it does double duty as both a threat and a speed bump without costing a real deckbuilding slot.
Satoru Umezawa
Satoru Umezawa lets you ninjutsu out anything that connects, and Baleful Strix's flying plus deathtouch makes it the easiest creature in the format to sneak through for a trigger — it's the deck's preferred enabler, not an incidental include.
Marchesa, the Black Rose
Under Marchesa, the Black Rose, anything that dies with a +1/+1 counter comes back at end of turn, turning Baleful Strix into a repeating draw engine that refills your hand every time an opponent removes it.
Indominus Rex, Alpha
Indominus Rex, Alpha cares about creatures with as many different keywords as possible, and Baleful Strix supplies both flying and deathtouch on a single cheap artifact body — two keywords for two mana is about as efficient as that ability gets.
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 |
Commander is where Baleful Strix lives — a 1/1 deathtouch flier that draws a card on entry is exactly the kind of card that punishes powerful boards while never being a dead draw. In Legacy it sees occasional play in Dimir and artifact-based shells that want cheap interactive bodies, though its role there is more supporting cast than engine piece. Vintage allows it but the format moves too fast to care much about a two-mana chump with upside. Baleful Strix is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so 99% of its real-world usage is Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
MortuaryCarrion FeederAlurenBaleful Strix
Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Infinite death triggers; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$2.52 cheap tier
At $2.52, Baleful Strix sits in the cheap tier and has been reprinted often enough that the price is unlikely to spike — you're paying for one of the most efficient two-mana plays in Commander, not for scarcity. It's a safe pickup at this price.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.