Empty the Pits
Instant
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 
.)
Create X tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Khans of Tarkir
- Price
- $0.55
- EDHREC rank
- #14107
Empty the Pits puts a potentially enormous token army into play at instant speed — the ceiling is limited only by how many creatures are in your graveyard. The cost is real: delve at four black mana minimum means early-game this does nothing, and Witherbloom, the Balancer aside, you need a dedicated self-mill or sacrifice engine to make the payoff worth the setup.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Witherbloom, the Balancer
Witherbloom, the Balancer generates a constant stream of life-gain and death triggers that fill the graveyard with creatures, which means Empty the Pits arrives with a full magazine — exile ten creatures, make ten 2/2 Zombies at end of combat and immediately threaten a lethal swing.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Empty the Pits actually lives — a 100-card singleton format means graveyards fill up fast, and instant-speed mass token production at the end of an opponent's turn is the kind of ambush that closes games. In competitive Legacy and Vintage it's a near-non-starter; the format is too fast, and better payoffs exist for the delve cost. Modern and Pioneer theoretically support it in graveyard brews, but the card asks too much setup for formats where your opponent is actively disrupting the yard. Oathbreaker can find niche homes with a self-mill planeswalker package, but Commander is the only format where Empty the Pits is a genuine finisher.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.55 bulk tier
At $0.55, Empty the Pits sits firmly in bulk territory despite being a legitimate Commander finisher. That price is stable — it sees almost no competitive play outside EDH, so there's no external demand to push it up, and the effect is too narrow for casual players to suddenly spike a buyout.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.