Blight Keeper
Creature — Bat Imp
Flying
, 
, Sacrifice this creature: Target opponent loses 4 life and you gain 4 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ixalan
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #16063
Blight Keeper threatens to cut an opponent's hand in half — permanently — the moment it connects, and it costs one mana. The catch is that the activated ability requires tapping eight creatures you control, which means it lives or dies by your ability to go wide fast; in the right token shell, that condition is trivially met by the midgame, and Zoraline, Cosmos Caller decks have made it a staple exactly for that reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller generates a flood of tokens through her triggered ability, and Blight Keeper turns that board presence into a hand-destruction clock — tap eight creatures, an opponent discards half their hand, repeat as the tokens keep coming.
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor rewards connecting with multiple creatures every combat, and Blight Keeper fits that aggro-evasion gameplan while adding a discard pressure axis that punishes opponents who try to rebuild after Gix's card-draw triggers resolve.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Blight Keeper is a one-mana threat that scales with board presence — the eight-creature activation looks steep in a vacuum but is routine in token or go-wide strategies, where stripping half an opponent's hand at instant speed is a meaningful swing. Outside Commander, it sees essentially no competitive play: the activation cost is parasitic and requires a token engine that slower, more interactive formats punish before you assemble it. Pauper is the one non-Commander format where Blight Keeper is technically accessible, but it doesn't see play there either — aggressive black decks in Pauper prefer direct damage or evasion threats that close the game rather than a discard payoff that needs a crowd to function.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Blight Keeper is deep bulk — you're picking these out of a dollar box or ordering a playset for less than a pack of sleeves. Bulk rares at this price point rarely appreciate unless they spike in a popular Commander deck, and Blight Keeper's narrow activation condition keeps it from breaking out of niche status.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.