Cremate
Instant
Exile target card from a graveyard.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Return to Ravnica
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #7101
Cremate exiles a card from any graveyard and replaces itself with a draw — all for one black mana at instant speed. That rate is efficient enough to run on raw utility alone, and Toshiro Umezawa turns the instant typing into a second cast trigger on top of it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa's ability triggers whenever an opponent's creature dies, letting you cast instants from your graveyard — and Cremate being an instant means it can be recurred directly off that trigger, turning cheap graveyard hate into a repeatable draw engine.
Tor Wauki the Younger
Tor Wauki the Younger rewards instant and sorcery casts with pinpoint damage, so Cremate's one-mana instant slot converts enemy graveyard disruption into a free ping plus a fresh card.
Gisa, the Hellraiser
Gisa, the Hellraiser cares about filling and managing graveyards, and Cremate slots in as a zero-cost way to strip a reanimation target from an opponent while keeping your own hand stocked.
Black Waltz No. 3
Black Waltz No. 3 benefits from spell-slinging on a budget, and Cremate delivers instant-speed graveyard interaction that replaces itself without taxing the mana base.
Lord of the Nazgûl
Lord of the Nazgûl decks run enough cheap instants and sorceries to clock Wraith token production, and Cremate earns a slot by doubling as grave hate and a free card on the same one-mana investment.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Cremate earns its slot in decks that want cheap instant-speed interaction — the draw rider means it never truly costs you a card, and exiling rather than discarding matters against recursion-heavy tables. In Pauper, it sees fringe play as graveyard hate that doesn't lose card advantage, though dedicated hate pieces like Relic of Progenitus are stronger in that context. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's strictly outclassed by hate with broader upside — Nihil Spellbomb hits the whole graveyard and still draws, making Cremate's single-target mode too narrow for those formats. Vintage follows the same logic. Cremate's real home is Commander, specifically in black spell-value commanders where the instant type line is part of the payoff.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Cremate is deep bulk — it costs less than a sleeve and carries no financial risk whatsoever. The price is stable at the floor and will stay there; this is a card you pick up out of a bulk bin without thinking.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.