Gimli of the Glittering Caves
Legendary Creature — Dwarf Warrior
Double strike
Whenever another legendary creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on Gimli.
Whenever Gimli deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander
- Price
- $5.73
- EDHREC rank
- #3537
Gimli of the Glittering Caves turns every nontoken creature death into a +1/+1 counter on itself, which in the right shell means it grows into a serious threat faster than opponents can answer it. The best home by a wide margin is Norin the Wary, where Norin's guaranteed end-of-turn exile-and-return loop feeds Gimli a counter every single round for free.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Norin the Wary
Norin the Wary exits and re-enters the battlefield every combat, and Gimli of the Glittering Caves converts each of those "deaths" into a +1/+1 counter — by mid-game Gimli is routinely a 10/10 or larger without any additional investment.
Gornog, the Red Reaper
Gornog, the Red Reaper rewards you for having large creatures, and Gimli of the Glittering Caves becomes one of the fastest-growing bodies on the board in a deck that's constantly sacrificing or trading creatures to feed Gornog's triggers.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
Magda, Brazen Outlaw cares about Dwarves, and Gimli of the Glittering Caves is a Dwarf that swells in power the more creatures die around it — the two together give the deck a legitimate non-combo threat that scales with the natural churn of Magda's engine.
Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge
Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge runs a heavy legendary-creature package, and Gimli of the Glittering Caves picks up a counter each time any of those legends die in combat or to removal, quietly becoming one of the deck's biggest attackers.
Knuckles the Echidna
Knuckles the Echidna wants large power to maximize its digging ability, and Gimli of the Glittering Caves is a self-growing threat that reliably reaches the thresholds Knuckles needs without dedicated pump spells.
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 the clear home for Gimli of the Glittering Caves — a four-player game guarantees a constant stream of creature deaths from across the table, letting Gimli grow without the pilot spending a single additional card. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but entirely irrelevant; three-mana 2/2s that need creatures to die don't compete in those formats. Oathbreaker offers a tighter multiplayer environment where Gimli can still accumulate counters, though with fewer players the growth rate is less reliable. Anywhere outside these formats it isn't legal, and realistically it belongs in Commander and nowhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Soul of Emancipation and Taurean Mauler both grow on triggers for similar or lower costs, though neither ties growth specifically to creature deaths the way Gimli of the Glittering Caves does. If the counter-accumulation is the draw, Scavenging Ooze offers a cheaper, more interactive version of the same idea in green, at the cost of leaving mono-red shells entirely.
Price Context
Current price
$5.73 mid tier
At $5.73, Gimli of the Glittering Caves sits in the mid tier — not an impulse buy, but affordable enough that the Norin the Wary decks running it at a 67% clip aren't making a painful investment. The price is driven by the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set premium and a genuine demand spike from Norin builds, so it's unlikely to crater unless a reprint lands.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Norin the Wary
- Gornog, the Red Reaper
- Magda, Brazen Outlaw
- Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge
- Knuckles the Echidna
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.