Gate to Phyrexia
Enchantment
Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target artifact. Activate only during your upkeep and only once each turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Antiquities
- Price
- $51.56
- EDHREC rank
- #15861
Gate to Phyrexia is one of the few repeatable artifact removal pieces in black, letting you sacrifice a creature at upkeep to destroy any artifact — no mana required after it resolves. The cost is real: you need a creature to feed it every turn, and the once-per-upkeep timing is slow.
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 |
Commander is where Gate to Phyrexia earns its slot — artifact removal in mono-black is notoriously scarce, and the enchantment's zero activation cost means it doesn't compete with your mana on the turns it matters most. The once-per-upkeep restriction is a real constraint in a four-player game where multiple opponents can deploy artifacts simultaneously, but decks with reliable token generation barely notice it. In Legacy and Vintage, Gate to Phyrexia is legal but sees no meaningful play — those formats move too fast for a slow enchantment that requires an upkeep trigger and a creature sacrifice to answer a single artifact.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Karn Liberated handles artifacts at any speed and isn't color-restricted, but costs far more mana and far more money. For a true budget stand-in, Relic of Progenitus and Executioner's Capsule handle single artifacts without the creature requirement, though neither matches the repeatable, no-mana-activation advantage that makes Gate to Phyrexia unique in black — if you're in mono-black and need recurring artifact hate, there's no clean substitute under $5.
Price Context
Current price
$51.56 premium tier
At $51.56, Gate to Phyrexia sits firmly in premium territory, driven by its status as one of the only repeatable artifact removal options available to mono-black decks. The price reflects genuine scarcity of effect rather than hype — as long as artifact-heavy tables remain common in Commander, demand isn't going anywhere.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.