Foul Familiar
Creature — Spirit
This creature can't block.
, Pay 1 life: Return this creature to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Deckmasters
- Price
- $0.40
- EDHREC rank
- #29941
Foul Familiar is a free recursive threat — it returns to hand for zero mana, making it a reliable enabler for death triggers, sacrifice loops, and storm-count padding. The ceiling is high in the right shell; in the wrong one it's a 3/1 with no evasion and no purpose.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Foul Familiar earns its slot in sacrifice-and-recursion builds where bouncing it for free generates repeated value off aristocrats payoffs or resets an etb trigger engine. Pauper is where it sees the most competitive action — zero-mana bounce is a real axis in graveyard and storm-adjacent strategies at that card-quality ceiling. Legacy and Vintage legality is academic; Foul Familiar doesn't clear the bar those formats set for recursive threats. Outside dedicated loops, it's a fine role-player that never rises above role-player.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.40 bulk tier
At $0.40, Foul Familiar is deep bulk — easy to pick up without a second thought. Bulk rares and uncommons with niche applications rarely climb unless a new combo piece pushes them, so expect the price to stay flat unless a breakout decklist puts it on the map.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.