Ertai's Familiar
Creature — Illusion
Phasing (This phases in or out before you untap during each of your untap steps. While it's phased out, it's treated as though it doesn't exist.)
When this creature phases out or leaves the battlefield, mill three cards.
: Until your next upkeep, this creature can't phase out.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Weatherlight
- Price
- $0.66
- EDHREC rank
- #27332
Ertai's Familiar is a one-mana 1/1 flyer with phasing — it blinks itself every other turn, which means it dodges sorcery-speed removal on the off-turn and triggers any enters-the-battlefield effects you've stacked on it. The cost is real: you lose the creature's board presence every other turn, so it demands a deck built to exploit the ETB loop rather than one that just wants a body in play.
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 |
In Commander, Ertai's Familiar is a niche piece that earns its slot only in decks that care about repeated ETB triggers on a low-cost blue creature — Brago, King Eternal and flicker-adjacent builds are the natural homes. Legacy and Vintage are technically legal but have no interest in a 1/1 that removes itself from combat every other turn when far more efficient threats and combo pieces exist. Oathbreaker shares Commander's casual context, so the same ETB-loop decks that want it there are the ones that want it here. The honest read: Ertai's Familiar is a Commander card, and even there it's a narrow one.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.66 bulk tier
At $0.66, Ertai's Familiar sits in bulk territory — cheap enough to throw in without thinking twice if the synergy is there. It's an older card with low demand, so the price is stable rather than a signal of hidden value; don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.