Dearly Departed
Creature — Spirit
Flying
As long as this creature is in your graveyard, each Human creature you control enters with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Innistrad
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #15728
Dearly Departed puts a +1/+1 counter on every Human you play as long as it's in your graveyard — a persistent anthem that dodges removal by design. The catch is the six-mana setup cost, which means it only earns its slot in dedicated Human tribal lists where the payoff compounds fast enough to justify it; Agatha's Soul Cauldron strategies aside, this card has no home outside that lane.
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 |
Dearly Departed is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a Commander card in practice. In Modern and Legacy, six mana for a graveyard-dependent anthem is far too slow against the formats' interaction density — Human tribal in those formats wants Champion of the Parish and Thalia's Lieutenant, not a six-drop that needs to die first. Commander is where Dearly Departed finds its footing, specifically in Human tribal builds where the graveyard is accessible and the game goes long enough for the incremental counter production to matter. Oathbreaker is theoretically viable but the smaller deck size and faster games make the setup even harder to justify.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Agatha's Soul CauldronKiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerDearly Departed
Infinite creature tokens with haste; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Dearly Departed is pure bulk — the price of a card that sees narrow, niche play in a single format slot. It's unlikely to move without a significant reprint of Human tribal support that brings the archetype back into competitive relevance, so pick it up for pennies if you need it and don't expect it to appreciate.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.