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Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun

Legendary Enchantment // Legendary Land

When Growing Rites of Itlimoc enters, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control four or more creatures, transform Growing Rites of Itlimoc.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
Price
$8.00
EDHREC rank
#549
Buy on TCGplayer
Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun card art
Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun is a Gaea's Cradle you can actually build toward — cast it in a creature-heavy deck, flip it end of turn, and you're generating obscene mana as early as turn four. Pair it with Argothian Elder for the classic untap loop, or slot it into a Thrasios, Triton Hero // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful shell where the mana advantage translates directly into card advantage through Thrasios's activated ability.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Thrasios, Triton HeroYoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Thrasios, Triton Hero // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

56.3% of decks · synergy 0.52

Thrasios, Triton Hero // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful appears in over 56% of its decks alongside Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun for one reason: Thrasios converts raw mana into card selection at instant speed, and Itlimoc makes that loop cheap enough to run out of opponents before they can answer it.

02
Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Ezuri, Renegade Leader

50.2% of decks · synergy 0.37

Ezuri, Renegade Leader wants a board full of Elves and a Craterhoof-sized mana pool to pump them, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun delivers both — the front side scouts for a creature while Itlimoc turns the assembled Elf swarm into the fuel for a lethal overrun activation.

03
The Mycotyrant

The Mycotyrant

37.8% of decks · synergy 0.29

The Mycotyrant floods the board with Fungus tokens off every opposing action, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun converts that creature density directly into a mana engine that scales harder than any land in the deck.

04
Shroofus Sproutsire

Shroofus Sproutsire

40.3% of decks · synergy 0.27

Shroofus Sproutsire generates incremental creature tokens that build quickly into a wide board, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun flips almost automatically in that shell — letting Shroofus reinvest the mana windfall back into more token production.

05
Rhys the Redeemed

Rhys the Redeemed

35.6% of decks · synergy 0.27

Rhys the Redeemed's six-mana doubling ability demands serious mana acceleration, and Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun turns a typical Rhys token board into enough mana to double every turn and close the game.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun belongs — the multiplayer pace gives it time to flip, and the 99-card format's creature-density norms mean the front-side scry almost always finds something. Outside Commander, it sees fringe Legacy and Vintage play in creature-combo shells that need a backup Gaea's Cradle, but the original Cradle's unrestricted status in those formats limits how often you need the redundancy. Modern and Pioneer have used it in Elf tribal lists where it provides a legal Cradle effect, though creature-land synergies there are more fragile and the payoff is lower without the critical mass of creatures Commander provides. Standard legality is technically true but rarely relevant — the flip condition is hard to meet at meaningful speed in 60-card games before the board gets swept.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Cryptolith Rite is the closest functional substitute — it turns every creature into a mana source rather than generating mana equal to your creature count, but at a fraction of the cost it accomplishes a similar volume of mana in wide-board decks. Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun still pulls ahead in dedicated Elf or token builds where Itlimoc's tap ability quickly outpaces what Cryptolith Rite can produce, but if your deck already has enough mana sources, Rite covers the role without the $8 price tag.

Price Context

Current price

$8.00 mid tier

At $8, Growing Rites of Itlimoc // Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it belongs in any green creature deck without apology. It's a reprint target that has already been reprinted, which has kept the price grounded, so this is close to its floor.

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Sources

Mentioned

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