Grim Backwoods
Land
: Add 
.
, , Sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2018
- Price
- $0.21
- EDHREC rank
- #2084
Grim Backwoods trades a creature and four mana to draw a card — expensive, but it's a land slot doing the work, which matters when Hazel of the Rootbloom is triggering off every land drop and turning that activated ability into a repeatable value engine. It's not for every deck, but in sacrifice-heavy shells that want a draw outlet stapled to a basic-land-type land, nothing else does exactly this job.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hazel of the Rootbloom
Hazel of the Rootbloom copies activated abilities from lands, which means Grim Backwoods doesn't cost four mana and a creature once — it costs that once and then fires again for free, turning each sacrifice into two cards drawn.
Dina, Essence Brewer
Dina, Essence Brewer wants a consistent sacrifice outlet that also generates card advantage, and Grim Backwoods fills both roles on a land — freeing up spell slots for more life-drain payoffs.
Winter, Cynical Opportunist
Winter, Cynical Opportunist cares about generating value from creatures dying, and Grim Backwoods provides a mana sink that converts those creatures into cards without requiring a dedicated artifact or enchantment slot.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Savra, Queen of the Golgari needs reliable creature sacrifice on demand to trigger her drain and board-wipe effects, and Grim Backwoods supplies that outlet at virtually no deck-building cost since it occupies a land slot.
Kathril, Aspect Warper
Kathril, Aspect Warper wants creatures in the graveyard before it enters, and Grim Backwoods lets you convert surplus creatures into cards while incidentally stocking the bin — it's quiet utility that supports the setup phase without eating a spell slot.
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 |
Grim Backwoods is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it only sees meaningful play in Commander. In Legacy and Vintage, four mana on a land to draw one card is several orders of magnitude too slow — those formats end games before this ability pays off. Modern has no meaningful sacrifice shell patient enough to run it. Commander is where Grim Backwoods earns its keep: the singleton constraint rewards land-based utility, the longer game makes the activation cost acceptable, and sacrifice commanders actively want an outlet that doesn't occupy a precious spell slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.21 bulk tier
At $0.21, Grim Backwoods is deep bulk — pick it up from any dollar-bin or throw it into a cart as a filler card without a second thought. Bulk land-utility cards at this price point don't move much in either direction, so there's no reason to stock up speculatively or hesitate on a single copy.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.