Cephalid Aristocrat
Creature — Octopus Noble
Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, mill two cards.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Torment
- Price
- $0.13
- EDHREC rank
- #26613
Cephalid Aristocrat mills three cards every time it receives a counter — stack enough targeting effects and you empty a library in a single turn. The rate is absurdly high for a four-mana body, and pairing it with Lightning Greaves to repeatedly re-equip and re-target is the whole engine.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Cephalid Aristocrat actually lives — the format's abundance of counter-synergy commanders, free equip tricks, and graveyard payoffs makes the mill trigger easy to chain repeatedly. In Legacy and Vintage it's theoretically legal but never sees play; faster and more consistent mill options crowd it out entirely. Pauper is the one other format worth noting, where the card is legal at common, though dedicated mill strategies there rarely want a four-mana creature with no immediate board impact.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.13 bulk tier
At $0.13, Cephalid Aristocrat is deep bulk — the kind of card you pick up as a throw-in without thinking about it. That price is stable by definition; there's no casual demand spike coming for a four-mana combo piece this narrow.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.