Greater Good
Enchantment
Sacrifice a creature: Draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, then discard three cards.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- $17.46
- EDHREC rank
- #647
Greater Good turns any large creature into a draw engine — sacrifice it, draw cards equal to its power, discard three — and the raw card advantage it generates is among the best green has to offer at four mana. The discard cost is negligible in graveyard decks and actively beneficial in reanimator shells, making Greater Good one of the cleanest roleplayers in the format; Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis decks run it at over 70% inclusion for exactly that reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis recurs from the graveyard repeatedly, so sacrificing it to Greater Good draws a fistful of cards and fills the graveyard in the same motion — both halves of the effect directly enable the next Hogaak cast.
Titania, Protector of Argoth
Titania, Protector of Argoth produces 5/3 Elemental tokens whenever lands hit the graveyard, giving Greater Good a constant stream of sacrifice fodder that replaces itself with cards and more land-death triggers.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath is designed to be sacrificed and recurred, so pitching it to Greater Good draws three or four cards while setting up the next escape cast — the discard feeds the graveyard and the escape cost simultaneously.
Henzie "Toolbox" Torre
Henzie "Toolbox" Torre blinks in large creatures with blitz, which already have a built-in sacrifice trigger; Greater Good layers a second draw effect on top so each blitzed creature effectively draws cards twice before dying.
Bello, Bard of the Brambles
Bello, Bard of the Brambles makes Vehicles into creatures with high power, and Greater Good converts that power directly into cards — a crewed Phyrexian Dreadnought or Skysovereign can draw five or more in a single sacrifice.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is Greater Good's home — the singleton format rewards high-impact enchantments, and the four-mana investment pays off across long multiplayer games where repeated creature sacrifice generates insurmountable card advantage. In Legacy and Vintage it sees fringe play, mostly in reanimator shells that want to fill the graveyard quickly and don't mind a four-mana enchantment as a value piece, but faster interaction and leaner win conditions push it to the margins there. Modern is theoretically legal but Greater Good doesn't show up competitively — the format's pace rarely allows a four-mana enchantment to live long enough to matter. Pioneer and Standard are off the table entirely.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Hogaak, Arisen NecropolisGreater GoodZombie Infestation
Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite tapped creature tokens
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Greater GoodBody of Research
Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
The Watcher in the WaterGreater Good
Infinite draw triggers; Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers; Near-infinite untap of some creatures you control
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Disciple of Bolas hits the same sacrifice-for-cards axis at two mana and costs under a dollar, though it's a one-shot sorcery-speed effect rather than a repeatable engine. Evolutionary Leap trades the card-quantity ceiling for creature-to-creature consistency at one mana, and Plumb the Forbidden can match Greater Good's draw volume in a single turn by sacrificing a token swarm — neither replaces the repeatable enchantment fully, but both cover the core function when $17 is the constraint.
Price Context
Current price
$17.46 mid tier
At $17.46, Greater Good sits in the mid-tier range — expensive enough to feel in a budget build, cheap enough that it belongs in any powered Commander deck that can run it. It's been reprinted enough times to stay in this band, and demand from graveyard and big-creature strategies keeps the floor stable.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.