Gnaw to the Bone
Instant
You gain 2 life for each creature card in your graveyard.
Flashback 
(You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Shadows of the Past
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #15680
Gnaw to the Bone can refill your life total by double-digit amounts for two mana in any graveyard-heavy deck — the flashback means you get that twice from a single card. It's narrow but ruthlessly efficient in the right shell.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Gnaw to the Bone earns a slot in graveyard decks — Meren of Clan Nel Toth, Golgari Grave-Troll strategies, and self-mill builds that routinely hit eight or more creatures in the bin — where the life swing can buy a full extra turn against aggressive tables. Pauper is its best home: the format's self-mill and Tortured Existence shells accumulate creatures in the graveyard fast, and flashback means two activations without spending an extra card, which is a real rate at common. In Legacy and Vintage, Gnaw to the Bone is too slow and too conditional to compete with the format's combo and tempo threats. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander — worth it only in a dedicated graveyard deck.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Gnaw to the Bone is a common with no price data on record, which almost certainly puts it well under a dollar — likely a bulk pick or free-from-a-box find. If you're building the deck that wants it, just grab one; there's no financial consideration here.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.