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Blade of the Bloodchief

Artifact — Equipment

Whenever a creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature. If equipped creature is a Vampire, put two +1/+1 counters on it instead.
Equip {1}

CMC
1
Mana cost
{1}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander 2017
Price
$3.08
EDHREC rank
#2393
Buy on TCGplayer
Blade of the Bloodchief card art
Blade of the Bloodchief turns every creature death into a +1/+1 counter engine, and on a Vampire it doubles the output for one mana to cast and one to equip. Elenda, the Dusk Rose becomes a runaway threat in just a few turns, and Basking Broodscale can loop with it to generate counters infinitely — the payoff is absurd relative to the entry cost.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Elenda, the Dusk Rose

Elenda, the Dusk Rose

69.7% of decks · synergy 0.65

Elenda, the Dusk Rose grows whenever any creature dies, and Blade of the Bloodchief doubles that rate since she's a Vampire — every death puts two counters on her instead of one, accelerating the board state she needs to generate a lethal token swarm when she finally dies.

04
Olivia Voldaren

Olivia Voldaren

48.6% of decks · synergy 0.46

Olivia Voldaren wants to steal creatures and turn them into Vampires, and Blade of the Bloodchief means every creature that dies along the way stacks counters directly on her.

05
Massacre Girl

Massacre Girl

47.6% of decks · synergy 0.46

Massacre Girl kills every small creature on the board in a chain, and Blade of the Bloodchief converts that mass wipe into a pile of +1/+1 counters — the more thorough the sweep, the larger she becomes.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Blade of the Bloodchief is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its home is Commander by a wide margin. In Commander, the combination of a low equip cost, Vampire tribal density, and combo potential with Basking Broodscale makes it a genuine staple in the right shells rather than a fringe inclusion. In Legacy and Vintage it sees essentially no competitive play — one-mana equipment that requires creatures to die repeatedly is too slow and conditional against those formats' faster, more disruptive game plans. Modern is similarly inhospitable; tribal synergy decks there demand more immediate impact from their equipment slots. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where it could reasonably show up in a death-matters or Vampire build, though the card pool is narrow enough that it rarely gets tested.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1,525 decks
Elenda, the Dusk RosePhyrexian AltarBlade of the Bloodchief

Elenda, the Dusk RosePhyrexian AltarBlade of the Bloodchief

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite storm count; Infinite creature tokens; Infinite commander casts; Infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$3.08 cheap tier

At $3.08, Blade of the Bloodchief sits in the cheap tier for a card with genuine combo and tribal applications across thousands of Commander decks. The price is fair and unlikely to drop — high inclusion rates in Elenda, Clavileño, and Evereth builds provide consistent demand.

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Sources

Mentioned

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