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Feign Death

Instant

Until end of turn, target creature gains "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it."

CMC
1
Mana cost
{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
common
Set
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Price
$1.20
EDHREC rank
#1477
Buy on TCGplayer
Feign Death card art
Feign Death returns a creature that died this turn to the battlefield under your control at end of turn with a +1/+1 counter — for one black mana. The catch is the delay, but in any deck running sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer or commanders like Yargle and Multani that want repeated death triggers, that end-of-turn clause barely registers.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Yargle and Multani

Yargle and Multani

49.8% of decks · synergy 0.47

Yargle and Multani wants to swing and die into a massive damage trigger, and Feign Death turns a single swing into two — the commander comes back at end of turn ready to threaten lethal again without paying commander tax.

03
Deadpool, Trading Card

Deadpool, Trading Card

39.0% of decks · synergy 0.33

Deadpool, Trading Card's whole game is dying and coming back to generate value, so Feign Death is a natural fit — it adds another controlled death trigger while also netting the +1/+1 counter that feeds into combat math.

04
Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist

Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist

37.1% of decks · synergy 0.29

Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist cares deeply about creatures entering and leaving the battlefield to generate bone counters, and Feign Death essentially doubles an ETB or death trigger on whatever creature you most need to fire twice.

05
Hidetsugu and Kairi

Hidetsugu and Kairi

28.3% of decks · synergy 0.26

Feign Death on Hidetsugu and Kairi means a second cast-from-graveyard trigger and a second halving of an opponent's life total when the commander inevitably hits the bin again.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Feign Death earns its keep — one mana to protect a combo piece, rebuy an ETB, or loop a death trigger is exactly the kind of efficiency the format rewards, and the card slots into any black deck without restriction. In Pauper, Feign Death is a genuine role-player in sacrifice-based midrange and reanimator shells where commons that do this much for one mana are scarce. Modern and Legacy see it mostly in niche combo lists that need cheap redundancy for Ephemerate-style loops, but it lacks the instant-speed recursion power that those formats usually demand at that slot. Pioneer is a legal home where graveyard and sacrifice synergies exist, though the competition for one-mana protection effects is stiff enough that Feign Death remains a fringe inclusion rather than a staple.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.20 cheap tier

At $1.20, Feign Death sits in the sweet spot where it's cheap enough to include on impulse but priced above bulk, reflecting genuine demand from combo and sacrifice archetypes across multiple formats. It's a stable buy — widespread Commander play and cross-format legality keep copies moving, so don't expect it to crater.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.