Cruelclaw's Heist
Sorcery
Gift a card (You may promise an opponent a gift as you cast this spell. If you do, they draw a card before its other effects.)
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card. If the gift was promised, you may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and mana of any type can be spent to cast it.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Bloomburrow
- Price
- $0.35
- EDHREC rank
- #5688
Cruelclaw's Heist lets you raid an opponent's library and cast what you find, generating a body in the process — that's a lot of card on one spell. Gonti, Night Minister turns every stolen cast into a trigger, which means this card isn't just a one-shot rummage but a repeatable engine piece.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gonti, Night Minister
Gonti, Night Minister triggers off every spell cast from an opponent's library, so Cruelclaw's Heist — which lets you cast up to three exiled cards — can stack multiple triggers off a single resolution.
Tasha, the Witch Queen
Tasha, the Witch Queen creates a Demon token whenever an opponent's spell is cast under your control, and Cruelclaw's Heist hands you exactly that opportunity, potentially generating multiple tokens from one spell.
Don Andres, the Renegade
Don Andres, the Renegade rewards you for casting spells you don't own, making Cruelclaw's Heist a natural fit that advances the theft theme while providing immediate board presence.
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin already locks opponents out of casting their own cards, and Cruelclaw's Heist converts that locked-away library into fuel you can actually use.
Laughing Jasper Flint
Laughing Jasper Flint is built around casting opponents' cards, and Cruelclaw's Heist offers a burst of exile-and-cast fuel that can chain directly into Jasper's payoffs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Cruelclaw's Heist earns its slot — three opponents mean a wider spread of libraries to raid, and theft commanders like Gonti, Night Minister or Tasha, the Witch Queen turn each stolen cast into a compounding advantage. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer, a four-mana sorcery that doesn't immediately close the game struggles to justify its place on rate, and the inconsistency of hitting useful cards in a singleton-adjacent shell makes it unreliable there. Legacy and Vintage have the raw card quality to ignore it entirely. Standard is the one 60-card format where the cost is more palatable if the metagame slows down enough, but it's still a fringe consideration at best.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.35 bulk tier
At $0.35, Cruelclaw's Heist sits firmly in bulk territory, which makes it an easy inclusion for any theft or cast-from-exile build without a second thought. Bulk rares with narrow homes rarely climb on their own, so don't expect the price to move unless a new commander dramatically spikes demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Gonti, Night Minister
- Tasha, the Witch Queen
- Don Andres, the Renegade
- Xanathar, Guild Kingpin
- Laughing Jasper Flint
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.