Grateful Apparition
Creature — Spirit
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player or planeswalker, proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander
- Price
- $0.34
- EDHREC rank
- #1839
Grateful Apparition proliferates whenever it deals combat damage to a player — on a flying, evasive body that actually connects — making it a repeatable counter engine for next to no mana investment. Tidus, Yuna's Guardian decks run it at over 70% inclusion because that trigger fires every combat step, not just once.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian
Tidus, Yuna's Guardian wants counters distributed across the board constantly, and Grateful Apparition delivers a free proliferate trigger every time it connects — flying evasion means that's most combats.
Minthara, Merciless Soul
Minthara, Merciless Soul scales on +1/+1 counters and wants repeated proliferate to accelerate her growth; Grateful Apparition supplies that trigger through the air turn after turn.
Commodore Guff
Commodore Guff runs a planeswalker-heavy shell that lives and dies by loyalty counts, and Grateful Apparition's combat-damage proliferate ticks up every walker on board without spending a card.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is pure proliferate synergy, and Grateful Apparition adds a reliable aerial threat that fuels the counter engine each attack step.
Kros, Defense Contractor
Kros, Defense Contractor hands out counters to opponents as a political tool, and Grateful Apparition's evasive proliferate trigger accelerates those goad-enabling counters without any extra spend.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Grateful Apparition is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — but Commander is where it actually matters. In 60-card formats the one-trigger-per-combat ceiling is too slow and the body too small to justify a slot alongside faster threats. Commander is a different story: three opponents mean three potential damage triggers per swing, and any proliferate-matters commander turns that into a repeatable engine that compounds over a long game. Oathbreaker can also support it if the planeswalker commander wants loyalty acceleration, but the raw volume of proliferate payoffs in Commander makes that format the clear home.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.34 bulk tier
At $0.34, Grateful Apparition is deep bulk — the kind of card you pick up without thinking about it. That price is stable; it sees consistent Commander demand but no competitive crossover to push it higher, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.