Cemetery Desecrator
Creature — Zombie
Menace
When this creature enters or dies, exile another card from a graveyard. When you do, choose one —
• Remove X counters from target permanent, where X is the mana value of the exiled card.
• Target creature an opponent controls gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the mana value of the exiled card.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Innistrad: Crimson Vow
- Price
- $0.48
- EDHREC rank
- #16947
Cemetery Desecrator enters and exiles something from any graveyard to remove a counter from any permanent or exile a target nonland permanent with no counters — two triggers on a single body that can answer almost anything on the board. The cost is six mana and a graveyard dependency, but the floor is still a 6/6 with menace, and the ceiling lets you answer a Divine Intervention before the final chapter resolves.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cemetery Desecrator is a Commander card through and through — graveyards are perpetually stocked, the game goes long enough to cast it, and the ability to strip counters doubles as interaction against proliferate decks, planeswalkers, and saga payoffs that would otherwise be hard to answer. In Modern and Legacy, six mana is a near-disqualifying cost unless you're reanimating it, and dedicated graveyard or reanimator shells rarely need a slow value piece when faster threats exist. Pioneer has similar problems: the format's threats close games before Cemetery Desecrator stabilizes the board. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's dynamics on a smaller scale, so it can pull its weight there if the meta leans on counters or problematic permanents.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.48 bulk tier
At $0.48, Cemetery Desecrator sits firmly in bulk territory despite doing genuine work in Commander. Bulk rares with unconditional removal stapled to a sizeable body tend to hold this floor indefinitely rather than crater further, so picking up copies now costs almost nothing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.