MagicTheGathering.fyi

Grave Pact

Enchantment

Whenever a creature you control dies, each other player sacrifices a creature of their choice.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{1}{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Tenth Edition
Price
$25.77
EDHREC rank
#565
Buy on TCGplayer
Grave Pact card art
Grave Pact turns every creature death you control into a forced sacrifice for every opponent — at four mana it's one of the most oppressive enchantments in the format. Commanders like Glissa, the Traitor and Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER that generate repeated creature deaths make it a lock, not just a threat.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

54.8% of decks · synergy 0.35

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER floods the board with expendable tokens and punishes opponents for blocking or removing them — Grave Pact converts each of those deaths into an opponent sacrifice, keeping the board clear while Sephiroth's counters keep climbing.

02
Vren, the Relentless

Vren, the Relentless

40.7% of decks · synergy 0.35

Vren, the Relentless creates a steady stream of Rat tokens designed to die and recur, which means Grave Pact is always active; every recycled token becomes a removal spell that costs nothing beyond the enchantment being in play.

03
Fumulus, the Infestation

Fumulus, the Infestation

53.9% of decks · synergy 0.34

Fumulus, the Infestation builds an ever-growing swarm of creatures that die and respawn by design, so Grave Pact doesn't sit idle — it fires every turn and strips opponents of their most relevant blockers or win conditions.

04
Athreos, God of Passage

Athreos, God of Passage

41.4% of decks · synergy 0.33

Athreos, God of Passage wants creatures to die repeatedly, and Grave Pact rewards each death twice: opponents lose a creature when yours dies, then face the choice of paying three life or returning it to your hand for another trigger.

05
Thraximundar

Thraximundar

35.0% of decks · synergy 0.33

Thraximundar gets a +1/+1 counter whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature, so Grave Pact isn't just a control piece here — it's a direct pump engine that can make Thraximundar lethal in a handful of attack steps.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Grave Pact is a Commander card in practice. The four-mana cost is too slow and parasitic for Legacy or Vintage, where the game rarely reaches a board state where a symmetrical sacrifice engine matters, and those formats have faster ways to clear boards. In Commander, it's a staple: multiplayer tables mean three opponents losing creatures to every death you engineer, and the format's slower pace gives you time to establish the enchantment and build around it. Oathbreaker is the only other format where it sees real play, for the same reasons — more players, more targets, more upside per trigger.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Dictate of Erebos is the closest replacement at a fraction of the price, doing exactly what Grave Pact does but with flash and the upside of hitting all opponents simultaneously rather than one at a time — the trade-off is a mana cost of five versus four, which matters in faster pods. If even that is too slow, Butcher of Malakir staples the effect onto a creature body, which is easier to recur but also easier for opponents to remove before it generates value.

Price Context

Current price

$25.77 premium tier

At $25.77, Grave Pact sits in premium enchantment territory — expensive but justified, since it has never been reprinted at high enough volume to crater the price and demand in Commander remains consistent. It holds value better than most cards in this range because it has no direct functional reprint, just upgrades and downgrades.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.