Invasion of Azgol // Ashen Reaper
Battle — Siege // Creature — Zombie Elemental
(As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, target player sacrifices a creature or planeswalker of their choice and loses 1 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BR
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- March of the Machine
- Price
- $0.21
- EDHREC rank
- #17161
Invasion of Azgol // Ashen Reaper trades one mana and an instant-speed trigger for destroying a creature with a counter on it, then flips into a 2/2 menace zombie that grows whenever another creature dies — two meaningful effects stapled to one of the cheapest battle costs in the format. The front side's restriction matters: no counter, no kill, which keeps it out of general removal packages and squarely in counter-synergy or aristocrats shells.
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 |
In Commander, Invasion of Azgol // Ashen Reaper earns its slot in counter-heavy builds — proliferate commanders, +1/+1 counter synergies, and aristocrats decks where creatures die constantly to grow Ashen Reaper into a legitimate threat. The one-mana entry point is genuinely rare for a permanent-based removal spell with an upside backside, which is the card's main pitch in a format that taxes every mana source. In competitive non-rotating formats like Modern and Legacy the conditional removal is too narrow — you're not reliably hitting countered creatures in most non-combo contexts — so it stays on the bulk shelf there. Pioneer and Oathbreaker mirror Commander's niche use case, and the card simply never made Standard before rotating out of legality.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.21 bulk tier
At $0.21, Invasion of Azgol // Ashen Reaper sits firmly in bulk territory, meaning there's essentially no financial risk to picking up copies for any deck that can use it. Bulk rares with narrow conditions rarely climb unless a combo or commander pushes them into widespread demand, so treat this as a cheap include rather than a hold.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.