Cephalid Coliseum
Land
: Add 
. This land deals 1 damage to you.
Threshold — , , Sacrifice this land: Target player draws three cards, then discards three cards. Activate only if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Odyssey
- Price
- $2.83
- EDHREC rank
- #843
Cephalid Coliseum trades three cards for three cards — a net-zero refill that also dumps three into the graveyard, which is the whole point. Commanders like Teval, the Balanced Scale treat that threshold-activated loot as a resource doubler, not a cost.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Teval, the Balanced Scale
Teval, the Balanced Scale cares deeply about filling the graveyard and casting from it, and Cephalid Coliseum's threshold activation does both at once — three fresh cards drawn, three more pitched, all off a land drop.
Rielle, the Everwise
Rielle, the Everwise turns every discard into a free draw, so Cephalid Coliseum's loot-three effect immediately recoups those three discards as three additional cards — a single land activation nets six cards of movement.
Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer
Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer casts nonland cards from the graveyard as they're discarded, meaning Cephalid Coliseum's three-card pitch is effectively three free casts waiting to happen.
Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
Captain Howler, Sea Scourge rewards filling the graveyard at speed, and Cephalid Coliseum provides a repeatable, land-slot-efficient way to stock it without spending additional mana.
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy generates large mana surpluses that want to be converted into action, and Cephalid Coliseum offers a colorless land that refuels the hand once threshold is online without competing with the blue-green spell budget.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Cephalid Coliseum is a staple in any blue deck that wants graveyard density — the threshold condition is trivially met by mid-game, and a land that replaces itself three times over is simply good infrastructure. Legacy sees it in Reanimator and Dredge shells where loading the graveyard on turn one or two is the entire plan, and the colorless entry cost is irrelevant against that payoff. Vintage permits it but rarely needs it when Bazaar of Baghdad exists; Cephalid Coliseum shows up as a redundant piece in fringe lists. It's not legal in Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so Commander and the older eternal formats are where it actually lives.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.83 cheap tier
At $2.83, Cephalid Coliseum sits in the cheap tier — genuine utility at a price that doesn't sting. Demand from graveyard-heavy Commander builds keeps a floor under it, so don't expect it to crater.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Teval, the Balanced Scale
- Rielle, the Everwise
- Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer
- Captain Howler, Sea Scourge
- Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.