Grave Defiler
Creature — Zombie
When this creature enters, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Zombie cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
: Regenerate this creature.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Apocalypse
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #22697
Grave Defiler enters the battlefield and immediately mills four cards, then lets you return a Zombie from among those cards to your hand — card selection and graveyard seeding stapled together on a single body. The cost is a four-mana 3/3 with no evasion, which means it lives or dies on how much your deck wants both halves of that trigger.
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 Grave Defiler does its best work — Zombie tribal decks want exactly this kind of incremental graveyard sculpting, and commanders like Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver or The Scarab God reward every body that passes through the bin. In Legacy and Vintage, it's technically legal but practically irrelevant; four mana for a 3/3 with a conditional draw effect doesn't compete in formats where speed and efficiency set the bar. Grave Defiler is a Commander card through and through, and even there it competes for slots against more explosive recursion engines.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Grave Defiler is deep bulk — a throw-in at any trade table or a near-free pickup online. Bulk Zombie creatures rarely spike unless a new commander warps demand, so treat this as a low-risk include rather than a hold.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.