Galvanoth
Creature — Beast
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library. You may cast it without paying its mana cost if it's an instant or sorcery spell.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Mirrodin Besieged
- Price
- $0.39
- EDHREC rank
- #13315
Galvanoth lets you cast the top instant or sorcery off your library for free at the start of combat — every turn, no hoops. Lorehold, the Historian is the natural home, but any deck stacking the top of its library turns Galvanoth into a free-spell engine that compounds fast.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Lorehold, the Historian
Lorehold, the Historian runs so many instants and sorceries that Galvanoth becomes a reliable free-cast trigger every combat step, fueling the graveyard recursion loops Lorehold is built around.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge already exiles instants and sorceries from libraries, and Galvanoth adds a parallel axis — free casts off the top mean the deck fires on two engines instead of one.
Svella, Ice Shaper
Svella, Ice Shaper generates massive mana and manipulates the top of the library, setting up Galvanoth to fire high-cost spells for free off a stacked deck.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Galvanoth actually lives — 100-card decks loaded with instants and sorceries give it enough hits, and the singleton format's slower games let a five-mana 3/3 survive long enough to matter. In Legacy and Vintage it's theoretically legal but competing against formats that close games before Galvanoth untaps, so it sees no real play there. Modern is the same story: five mana for a creature with no immediate impact is too slow for the format's threats. Galvanoth is a Commander card, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.39 bulk tier
At $0.39, Galvanoth is deep bulk — no financial barrier to picking one up for any spell-heavy Commander list. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to move unless a breakout commander pushes it into the spotlight.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Lorehold, the Historian
- Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
- Svella, Ice Shaper
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.