Cephalid Sage
Creature — Octopus
Threshold — As long as there are seven or more cards in your graveyard, this creature has "When this creature enters, draw three cards, then discard two cards."
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Eternal Masters
- Price
- $0.07
- EDHREC rank
- #25027
Cephalid Sage draws you three cards the turn it enters — no hoops, no combat step, just a triggered ability that fires immediately. The catch is the four-mana price tag on a 2/2 body that doesn't stick around to do anything else.
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 Sage sees the most play, and even there it sits in a narrow lane — morph-matters decks that want redundant ETB draw on a face-down creature, or Sultai value piles willing to pay four for three cards on entry. In Legacy and Vintage it's outclassed by every draw spell that exists, so it doesn't show up. Pauper is the one format where bulk commons can punch up, but four mana for a creature-based draw-three is still slow against the format's tempo demands. Outside of Commander shells that specifically reward morph or blue ETBs, Cephalid Sage is a card you run because the effect is real, not because the rate is competitive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.07 bulk tier
At $0.07, Cephalid Sage is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not the card. That price is stable in the way bulk commons are stable: there's no demand pressure to push it up, and the floor is already the floor.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.