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Bone Miser

Creature — Zombie Wizard

Whenever you discard a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Whenever you discard a land card, add {B}{B}.
Whenever you discard a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{4}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
The List
Price
$30.79
EDHREC rank
#2227
Buy on TCGplayer
Bone Miser card art
Bone Miser turns every discard into a free resource — mana, cards, or tokens — which means discard-heavy commanders treat it as a second engine rather than a support piece. The Necrobloom and Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer both run it at rates above 60%, and that consensus is correct: five mana is the fair price for an effect that refunds itself within a turn cycle.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

61.4% of decks · synergy 0.60

Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer casts spells from the graveyard by discarding, so every activation triggers Bone Miser before the spell even resolves — you're generating Treasure or drawing cards on top of whatever you just cast for free.

02
Anje Falkenrath

Anje Falkenrath

59.2% of decks · synergy 0.56

Anje Falkenrath's looting ability hits multiple times per turn cycle, and Bone Miser converts each discard into Zombie tokens or mana, turning a card-selection engine into a battlefield and resource engine simultaneously.

03
Varina, Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen

57.4% of decks · synergy 0.52

Varina, Lich Queen mills and discards as a combat trigger, so Bone Miser stacks on top of Varina's own exile-for-life-gain effect — a single attack step can produce tokens, mana, and cards all at once.

05

Norman Osborn

40.6% of decks · synergy 0.36

Norman Osborn incentivizes loading the graveyard and discarding threats to recur them, and Bone Miser ensures those discards aren't purely a tempo loss — each one produces a Zombie, mana, or a card to replace what was pitched.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Bone Miser lives, full stop — the payoff scales with how many discard triggers a deck can produce per turn, and multiplayer games give it enough time to generate absurd value. In Legacy and Vintage, it's legal but never played; five mana is far too slow for formats where games end on turn one or two, and the effect requires a board state to matter. Oathbreaker is the one exception worth considering: if your planeswalker's signature spell involves discard, Bone Miser can generate enough resources to close a game before the table stabilizes.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Bone Miser's closest budget analog is Waste Not, which covers the same discard-triggers-resources loop for under $2 and hits lands as a third category Bone Miser ignores — the trade-off is that Waste Not is an enchantment and survives most removal suites more easily. Archfiend of Ifnir or Geth's Grimoire can fill part of the role at a fraction of the price, but neither matches the raw three-mode flexibility; you're choosing a narrower piece, not a direct substitute.

Price Context

Current price

$30.79 premium tier

At $30.79, Bone Miser sits firmly in premium territory for a card with no competitive format demand — that price is driven entirely by Commander supply pressure and its near-staple status in multiple discard archetypes. It holds value as long as discard commanders remain popular, but it's not immune to a reprint dropping the floor significantly.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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