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Cauldron Familiar

Creature — Cat

When this creature enters, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
Sacrifice a Food: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

CMC
1
Mana cost
{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
common
Set
Jumpstart
Price
$1.90
EDHREC rank
#2814
Buy on TCGplayer
Cauldron Familiar card art
Cauldron Familiar drains an opponent for 1 and gains you 1 life every time it enters — and with a Food sacrifice outlet it does that repeatedly, for one black mana per loop. Warren Soultrader and Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar both turn that loop into a win condition; the Cat is the piece that makes the damage stack.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

02
Gyome, Master Chef

Gyome, Master Chef

74.6% of decks · synergy 0.68

Gyome, Master Chef generates a Food token every turn at no extra cost, giving Cauldron Familiar a free sacrifice outlet and a free recursion trigger on a reliable loop.

03
Ygra, Eater of All

Ygra, Eater of All

71.7% of decks · synergy 0.66

Ygra, Eater of All converts every Food sacrifice into a life payment, which turns Cauldron Familiar's drain loop into a source of life-fueled card advantage and board pressure simultaneously.

04
Merry, Warden of IsengardPippin, Warden of Isengard

Merry, Warden of Isengard // Pippin, Warden of Isengard

30.8% of decks · synergy 0.26

Merry, Warden of Isengard // Pippin, Warden of Isengard cares about Food tokens entering and leaving, so Cauldron Familiar's repeated sacrifice-and-return cycle generates extra triggers and incremental value throughout the game.

05
Frodo, Adventurous HobbitSam, Loyal Attendant

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant

24.5% of decks · synergy 0.20

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant runs a wide Food package, and Cauldron Familiar plugs in as a drain piece that benefits from all that incidental Food generation without requiring dedicated build-around slots.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

In Commander, Cauldron Familiar is a role-player in any black Food or sacrifice shell — the drain trigger is slow by itself but becomes a game-ender once a looping sacrifice outlet is online. In Pauper, it was a cornerstone of the Witch's Oven combo deck and remains a legitimate threat anywhere Witch's Oven is legal. Modern and Pioneer players know Cauldron Familiar as the engine behind one of the most resilient grind strategies in those formats' histories, though its prevalence has ebbed as the metagame shifted. Legacy and Vintage have faster and more abusive things to do, so it rarely shows up there outside niche lists.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

9,616 decks
Warren SoultraderCauldron FamiliarAcademy Manufactor

Warren SoultraderCauldron FamiliarAcademy Manufactor

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite colored mana; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite lifeloss; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Treasure tokens; Infinite Clue tokens

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$1.90 cheap tier

At $1.90, Cauldron Familiar sits in the cheap tier — reasonable for a card that does real work in multiple formats and slots directly into several popular Commander archetypes. Its price is stable: it's widely printed and not a chase rare, so you're not overpaying and you're not getting a bargain that disappears.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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