Grinning Demon
Creature — Demon
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 2 life.
Morph 
(You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for 
. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Onslaught
- Price
- $3.49
- EDHREC rank
- #19424
Grinning Demon drops a 6/6 menace on turn four for four mana — that's an aggressive rate by any measure. The catch is a two-life upkeep tax, which barely registers unless you're gifting it to an opponent via Jon Irenicus, Shattered One and turning their life drain into your advantage.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Jon Irenicus, Shattered One
Jon Irenicus, Shattered One donates Grinning Demon to an opponent, who then bleeds two life every upkeep while you keep the card advantage engine rolling — the downside flips into a recurring soft clock.
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 |
In Commander, Grinning Demon is a niche inclusion outside of Jon Irenicus, Shattered One decks — a vanilla 6/6 menace with an upkeep drawback rarely competes at a 100-card singleton table where the bar for pure beaters is high. Legacy and Vintage are legal formats on paper, but neither has any interest in a four-mana creature without an enters-the-battlefield effect or combo relevance. Grinning Demon is firmly a Commander card, and even there it earns its slot only when the life-loss clause is a feature rather than a bug.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.49 cheap tier
At $3.49, Grinning Demon sits at the low end of the cheap tier — accessible for any budget. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to climb without a new Jon Irenicus-style commander pushing the donate archetype into wider play.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.