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Dawntreader Elk

Creature — Elk

{G}, Sacrifice this creature: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
common
Set
Dark Ascension
Price
$0.30
EDHREC rank
#8391
Buy on TCGplayer
Dawntreader Elk card art
Dawntreader Elk is a two-mana creature that fetches a basic land from your deck when it dies — slow by ramp standards, but the redundancy matters in sacrifice loops where Yedora, Grave Gardener turns every nontoken creature death into a Forest, letting Dawntreader Elk re-enter the battlefield and trigger again. The cost is that it does nothing the turn it enters and needs a sacrifice outlet or combat death to pay off, which makes it a liability outside dedicated graveyard engines; Hazel's Brewmaster has started to compete for the same slot by generating tokens on top of the ramp.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Yedora, Grave Gardener

Yedora, Grave Gardener

31.4% of decks · synergy 0.31

Dawntreader Elk is one of Yedora, Grave Gardener's most reliable engine pieces — when Yedora is out, the Elk's death trigger finds a basic, Yedora flips that Forest face-down into a creature, and any free sacrifice outlet lets you loop the sequence for mana acceleration or combo wins.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Dawntreader Elk is a fringe card in every format it's legal in, and its home is Commander. In Commander, it earns its slot specifically in Yedora, Grave Gardener decks and other sacrifice-value shells that want cheap, repeatable landfall triggers — outside those contexts, Cultivate and Kodama's Reach do the same job faster without needing a death. In Pauper, where common-only ramp is competitive, Dawntreader Elk still loses out to Sakura-Tribe Elder, which sacrifices itself at instant speed and doesn't require a separate outlet. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in a 2/2 that fetches basics. Run it where the loop matters; everywhere else, there are better options.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.30 bulk tier

At $0.30, Dawntreader Elk is bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or bulk bin find. Price should stay flat; it's not a staple outside Yedora builds, and those decks aren't going anywhere that would spike demand.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.