Immortal Obligation
Instant
Return target creature card from an opponent's graveyard to the battlefield under their control with a duty counter on it. For as long as that creature has a duty counter on it, it is goaded, can't attack you or a permanent you control, and can't block creatures you control.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Murders at Karlov Manor Commander
- Price
- $0.31
- EDHREC rank
- #7449
Immortal Obligation reanimates a creature from an opponent's graveyard and puts it under their control — attacking them with their own dead and generating a Clue every time that creature swings at someone else. The catch is three mana and sorcery speed, but in Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser builds the payoff is immediate: forced attacks and a Clue engine that runs off your opponents' boards.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser appears in 63% of lists that run Immortal Obligation for good reason — Nelly forces the reanimated creature to attack, which triggers her Clue-generation and keeps the card-advantage engine churning without spending your own resources.
Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer // Noble Heritage
Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer // Noble Heritage hands out +1/+1 counters to opponents' creatures to goad them, and Immortal Obligation provides a fresh target that already wants to attack — letting Baeloth spend counters on a creature you gave back while still pointing it away from you.
Mathas, Fiend Seeker
Mathas, Fiend Seeker rewards opponents for killing the creatures Mathas marks with bounty counters, and Immortal Obligation closes that loop by snagging something from the graveyard after a bounty creature dies — turning the death trigger payoff into board presence at no extra resource cost.
Breena, the Demagogue
Breena, the Demagogue scales on creatures attacking players other than you, so Immortal Obligation earns its slot by producing an attacker already pointed at someone else, netting Breena's counter triggers without deploying anything from your own hand.
Kros, Defense Contractor
Kros, Defense Contractor puts goad counters on creatures to force them into opponents' lanes, and Immortal Obligation gives Kros a creature to goad that arrives pre-positioned to attack — extending the tap-and-attack pressure without adding to your own threat density.
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 |
Immortal Obligation is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and Commander is where it actually sees play — the multiplayer table creates graveyard targets constantly, and the forced-attack rider is much more threatening when several opponents are pressuring each other. In Legacy and Vintage the effect is too slow and too narrow: three mana at sorcery speed to rebuy a creature you don't control is not competing with those formats' efficiency bar. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander 60-card-adjacent format where the goad-adjacent politics angle could matter, though the card pool is small enough that dedicated reanimation lines do the job cleaner.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.31 bulk tier
At $0.31, Immortal Obligation sits firmly in bulk territory — it's an easy include with no financial friction for any Mardu politics build. Bulk enchantments with narrow homes tend to stay flat, so treat this as a throw-in rather than a trade target.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser
- Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer // Noble Heritage
- Mathas, Fiend Seeker
- Breena, the Demagogue
- Kros, Defense Contractor
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.