Grim Physician
Creature — Zombie
When this creature dies, target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Theros Beyond Death
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #21391
Grim Physician is a slow poison clock — three activations to kill a player is the floor commitment, and every activation costs mana on top of the body. It earns its slot only in dedicated proliferate or poison-counter shells where the counters are already stacking from other sources.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Grim Physician needs a poison-focused deck to matter — 40 life means damage routes are a slog, but 10 poison counters is a fixed number, and Grim Physician chips toward that ceiling every time it untaps. Pauper is its most honest home: the format's lower power floor makes a repeatable poison source more threatening, and commons-only pools thin the competition. In Modern and Pioneer the card is technically legal but functionally invisible — faster, more efficient threats make a three-mana 2/3 with a paid tap ability a non-starter. Legacy and Vintage are the same story at higher speed. Grim Physician rewards patience and synergy, neither of which competitive 60-card formats offer it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Grim Physician is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a box rather than buy. Its price will stay flat; there's no crossover appeal or scarcity story to push it, and the poison-counter archetype would need a dramatic spike in Commander popularity to move the needle.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.