Basalt Golem
Artifact Creature — Golem
This creature can't be blocked by artifact creatures.
Whenever this creature becomes blocked by a creature, that creature's controller sacrifices it at end of combat. If the player does, they create a 0/2 colorless Wall artifact creature token with defender.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Mirage
- Price
- $0.24
- EDHREC rank
- #24898
Basalt Golem locks down any creature it blocks or gets blocked by — the defender loses flying until end of turn and can't untap the following turn, which is a real taxing effect stapled to a 3/3 body for five mana. The cost is the problem: five mana for a 3/3 with a conditional, combat-dependent ability is well below the efficiency bar in any powered environment.
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 |
Basalt Golem is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different things. In Commander, the five-mana slot is brutally competitive, and a 3/3 that only disrupts opponents who choose to engage with it in combat rarely makes the cut over creatures with unconditional impact. Legacy and Vintage have the card pool to simply ignore it — neither format is looking for a slow, combat-gated lock piece on a vanilla-sized body. Oathbreaker has the same calculus as Commander at smaller scale: the slot cost is too high for what Basalt Golem actually does.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.24 bulk tier
At $0.24, Basalt Golem is deep bulk — the kind of card that fills a common box and rarely gets pulled out. That price reflects its playability ceiling accurately, and there's no competitive demand that would push it higher.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.