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Caduceus, Staff of Hermes

Legendary Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature has lifelink.
As long as you have 30 or more life, equipped creature gets +5/+5 and has indestructible and "Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature."
Equip {W}{W}

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Assassin's Creed
Price
$8.10
EDHREC rank
#1427
Buy on TCGplayer
Caduceus, Staff of Hermes card art
Caduceus, Staff of Hermes redirects all damage dealt to you to a creature you control — pair it with Pariah on an indestructible creature and you've built a near-impenetrable damage shield for two cards. The payoff is real enough that Ratonhnhaké꞉ton decks run it at over 50% inclusion, and the cost is low enough that it belongs in any lifegain-or-prevention shell that can use it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton

52.5% of decks · synergy 0.50

Ratonhnhaké꞉ton incentivizes attacking alone and surviving combat, so Caduceus, Staff of Hermes fills a direct defensive role — redirect damage to a sturdy blocker and keep your commander healthy enough to keep triggering.

02
Captain America, First Avenger

Captain America, First Avenger

38.8% of decks · synergy 0.36

Captain America, First Avenger wants to be in the red zone constantly, and Caduceus, Staff of Hermes lets you redirect the blowback from those attacks to a creature with indestructible or high toughness, keeping your life total out of range.

03
Aerith, Last Ancient

Aerith, Last Ancient

31.7% of decks · synergy 0.29

Aerith, Last Ancient cares about spells and life totals, and Caduceus, Staff of Hermes plugs the hole where opponents try to race her down through combat — funneling that damage to a resilient creature buys the time her engine needs.

04
Ragost, Deft Gastronaut

Ragost, Deft Gastronaut

35.0% of decks · synergy 0.28

Ragost, Deft Gastronaut builds value over multiple turns, so surviving long enough to cash in is the whole game — Caduceus, Staff of Hermes acts as a persistent damage shield that keeps the engine from getting punched out before it pays off.

05
Aerith Gainsborough

Aerith Gainsborough

36.5% of decks · synergy 0.28

Aerith Gainsborough rewards staying in the game and accumulating resources, and Caduceus, Staff of Hermes is one of the cleanest ways to do that — redirecting combat damage to a creature sidesteps the attrition that would otherwise end her plans early.

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

Caduceus, Staff of Hermes is a Commander card through and through — its value comes from sustained games where the redirection effect compounds over multiple combat steps, and 100-card singleton is exactly the format where that matters. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but essentially invisible; three mana for a situational damage redirect does nothing in formats that end the game on turn one or two. Oathbreaker is the only other format where it's worth a second look, and only in the same indestructible-creature shells that make it work in Commander.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Pariah itself is the closest functional parallel at roughly the same price point — it staples the redirect effect to a creature rather than a separate artifact, which is more compact but also more fragile. If you want pure budget separation, Diplomatic Immunity or indestructibility auras can achieve a similar "untouchable blocker" result for under a dollar, though they don't replicate the direct damage redirect that makes Caduceus, Staff of Hermes distinctive in prevention shells.

Price Context

Current price

$8.10 mid tier

At $8.10, Caduceus, Staff of Hermes sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to be a deliberate inclusion, cheap enough that it doesn't require justification in a deck built around it. It's a Universes Beyond card with a narrow use case, so the price is unlikely to climb unless a high-profile combo shell breaks out around it.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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