Heart-Piercer Manticore
Creature — Manticore
When this creature enters, you may sacrifice another creature. When you do, this creature deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target.
Embalm 
(, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a white Zombie Manticore with no mana cost. Embalm only as a sorcery.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Amonkhet
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #18518
Heart-Piercer Manticore turns any creature entering the battlefield into a fling — immediate, stackable damage that doesn't require combat. The embalm clause means Feldon of the Third Path decks get a second copy on demand, but even outside reanimator shells, a 4/3 that punishes any creature entering your board is a real threat.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Heart-Piercer Manticore is a Commander card first and almost entirely. In EDH, the combination of a repeatable fling-on-ETB and an embalm backup makes it a genuine engine piece in creature-heavy red decks, especially anything running token generators or reanimation. In Modern and Pioneer it's simply outclassed — five mana for a 4/3 with a conditional damage trigger can't compete with the efficiency of those formats, and the embalm cost is prohibitive when games end on turn four. Legacy and Vintage are the same story: the card is legal but functionally irrelevant at that power level. Stick to Commander, where the slower clock and creature-dense tables let Heart-Piercer Manticore do exactly what it's designed to do.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Feldon of the Third PathWorldgorger DragonMass HysteriaHeart-Piercer Manticore
Infinite colored mana; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite damage; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite blinking of permanents; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Heart-Piercer Manticore is deep bulk — easy to pick up in any commons box or throw into a trade as filler. There's no price pressure here; it sees narrow enough play that it will stay in this tier indefinitely.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Feldon of the Third Path
- Worldgorger Dragon
- Mass Hysteria
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.