Cackling Imp
Creature — Imp
Flying
: Target player loses 1 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Duel Decks: Divine vs. Demonic
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #27365
Cackling Imp drains each opponent for 1 life at end of turn for each Swamp you control — in a dedicated mono-black or Swamp-heavy shell, that passive damage adds up fast without spending any mana. The cost is a 2/2 flyer for four mana, which is a mediocre body for the price, so you're running this entirely for the drain trigger.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cackling Imp is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but its competitive footprint is essentially zero outside of Pauper and Commander. In Pauper, the drain trigger is legitimately threatening in a mono-black devotion or Swamp-based control shell where you can reliably hit three or four Swamps by turn four. In Commander, it belongs narrowly in dedicated Swamp-matters builds — think Lim-Dûl the Necromancer or Oloro, Ageless Ascetic drain packages — where the life loss scales with a large land count across a long game. Everywhere else, the rate is simply too poor to compete.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Cackling Imp is deep bulk — the kind of card you pick up in a commons box without thinking about it. That price is stable because demand is narrow and supply from older print runs is plentiful; don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.