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Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Legendary Creature — Zombie Mutant Advisor

Each other creature you control that's a Zombie or Mutant gets +X/+X, where X is the number of counters on Hancock.
Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Fallout
Price
$8.03
EDHREC rank
#6341
Buy on TCGplayer
Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor card art
Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor turns every creature you control into a Zombie-factory on death, flooding the board with 2/2 tokens and rewarding any deck that wants to sacrifice or kill its own creatures repeatedly. At four mana for a 3/3, the rate is fair — but the real cost is that Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor does nothing until something dies, making him dependent on a sacrifice outlet or board wipe to fire. Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of Twilight and Jenova, Ancient Calamity both show up in builds that can exploit that trigger immediately; if you're not in a shell with consistent sacrifice loops, he underperforms.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Jenova, Ancient Calamity

56.1% of decks · synergy 0.55

Jenova, Ancient Calamity naturally kills creatures — her own and opponents' — which means Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor converts every Jenova trigger into a fresh wave of 2/2 Zombies, giving the deck a second axis of board presence that doesn't rely solely on Jenova resolving her own abilities.

02
The Wise Mothman

The Wise Mothman

32.0% of decks · synergy 0.29

The Wise Mothman spreads -1/-1 counters broadly, which kills small creatures at scale; Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor turns each of those deaths into a Zombie token, letting Mothman decks snowball a token army out of the same counters they're already distributing.

03
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

28.9% of decks · synergy 0.28

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician sacrifices creatures as a cost, so Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor slots directly into the sacrifice loop — every creature spent to power Yawgmoth's draw and -1/-1 counter abilities replaces itself with a 2/2, keeping the engine fueled.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor belongs — 100-card singleton games run long enough for his death-trigger engine to generate meaningful board presence, and Black's deep suite of sacrifice outlets gives him reliable partners. In Legacy and Vintage he's legal but competes against faster, more self-sufficient threats; a four-mana 3/3 that requires creatures to die before it does anything is too slow for those formats' clock. Oathbreaker is the one other format worth mentioning — as a signature spell or alongside a Black planeswalker commander, the token generation can be relevant, though the 20-life starting total compresses the window. Everywhere else, Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor is simply not legal.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

101 decks
Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightViscera SeerHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightViscera SeerHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite death triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite scry 1

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
93 decks
Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightAshnod's AltarHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightAshnod's AltarHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
82 decks
Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightCarrion FeederHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn // Isilu, Carrier of TwilightCarrion FeederHancock, Ghoulish Mayor

Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite death triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Pawn of Ulamog fills a similar role at under $1 — it also converts creature deaths into tokens, though Eldrazi Spawn rather than Zombies, so you lose tribal synergy but keep the sacrifice-replacement effect. Reassembling Skeleton doesn't generate tokens but gives you a repeatable sacrifice target that recurs itself, which covers the "fuel the engine" function Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor provides without the four-mana investment; the trade-off is you're getting one body per loop instead of a swarm.

Price Context

Current price

$8.03 mid tier

At $8.03, Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor sits in mid-tier pricing — justified if you're building specifically around Jenova, Ancient Calamity or a Zombie sacrifice shell, steep if you only want a generic death-trigger effect. The price is likely stable given his presence across multiple popular commanders, but he's not so format-warping that demand will spike dramatically.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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