Elder Spawn
Creature — Spawn
At the beginning of your upkeep, unless you sacrifice an Island, sacrifice this creature and it deals 6 damage to you.
This creature can't be blocked by red creatures.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $14.74
- EDHREC rank
- #29527
Elder Spawn is a 6/6 for six that destroys a land every upkeep — yours, unless you sacrifice an Island to feed it. That symmetry clause is the whole game: in an Islands-matter shell it's a repeatable land-destruction threat; in any other deck it's a liability that eats your own mana base.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Elder Spawn is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and realistically lives in Commander. Legacy and Vintage have zero interest in a six-mana creature that requires ongoing Island sacrifices when those formats kill on turn two or three. In Commander, Elder Spawn finds its niche in blue-heavy stax or land-disruption decks willing to pay the upkeep cost as a feature rather than a bug — think Talrand, Sky Summoner or any Island-dense tempo build that can sustain the Island tax while punishing opponents who can't.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Elder Spawn's combination of a large body and repeatable land destruction is unusual enough that no single cheap card fully replicates it. Mana Breach ($1–2) and Overburden are cheaper ways to punish land drops without requiring Islands, and Tide Elemental covers the Islands-matter angle at a lower mana cost — none of them hit the board as hard, but they avoid the self-destructive upkeep clause entirely.
Price Context
Current price
$14.74 mid tier
At $14.74, Elder Spawn sits in the mid tier — high enough to feel like a commitment for a card with a narrow home. It holds that price mostly on age and scarcity rather than widespread demand, so unless Islands-matter land-destruction is exactly what your deck wants, there are more impactful ways to spend $15.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.