Demon of Death's Gate
Creature — Demon
You may pay 6 life and sacrifice three black creatures rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Flying, trample
- CMC
- 9
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $5.80
- EDHREC rank
- #13289
Demon of Death's Gate puts a 9/9 flying trampler into play on turn one — the cost is sacrificing three black creatures, which in the right deck is a feature, not a bug. If you're running aristocrats, reanimator, or any shell that wants creatures in the graveyard, this is a legitimate threat that bypasses the mana system entirely.
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 |
In Commander, Demon of Death's Gate earns its slot in black aristocrats and token lists that generate enough fodder to pay the alternate cost consistently — a 9/9 flying trampler that hits the table before most commanders have even resolved is a real threat. In Legacy and Vintage it sees essentially no play; the formats move too fast for a six-mana hard-cast, and the creature types lack the tribal payoffs that would justify building around the sacrifice cost. Modern is legal but unplayable in the same sense — dedicated aggressive black shells have better rate options and the alternate cost requires too much setup. Demon of Death's Gate is a Commander card first and a casual curiosity everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar occupies a similar role in sacrifice-heavy black lists and costs a fraction of the price, though it trades raw stat dominance for incremental card advantage. If the appeal is specifically a large lifelink-and-menace-adjacent threat off a sacrifice trigger, Vilis, Broker of Blood gives you comparable size with a card-draw engine attached — it costs more mana to hard-cast, but doesn't demand three bodies up front.
Price Context
Current price
$5.80 mid tier
At $5.80, Demon of Death's Gate sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it won't anchor a trade binder. The price is stable for a card with a narrow but devoted home in Commander aristocrats lists, and it's unlikely to spike or crater without a reprint or sudden breakout combo discovery.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.