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Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Legendary Creature — Zombie Elf

Jarad gets +1/+1 for each creature card in your graveyard.
{1}{B}{G}, Sacrifice another creature: Each opponent loses life equal to the sacrificed creature's power.
Sacrifice a Swamp and a Forest: Return this card from your graveyard to your hand.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{B}{B}{G}{G}
Color identity
BG
Rarity
mythic
Set
Commander Anthology
Price
$1.99
EDHREC rank
#1952
Buy on TCGplayer
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord card art
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord turns the size of your largest creature into a table-wide life drain at instant speed — no combat math required. The ceiling is enormous: sacrifice a Yargle and Multani and every opponent loses 18 life immediately, or feed it a Jumbo Cactuar for a clean 10 across the board. The cost is real — you're giving up the creature and paying mana each activation — but a single well-timed sacrifice frequently ends games.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Yargle and Multani

Yargle and Multani

56.1% of decks · synergy 0.47

Yargle and Multani is the most dedicated Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord shell in the format because the commander itself is the payload: 18 power on a single body means one sacrifice drains every opponent for 18, and the deck builds around little else. At 56% inclusion across nearly 5,000 decks, it's the definitive home.

02
Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis

50.2% of decks · synergy 0.41

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis fills its graveyard fast and produces a massive creature almost for free, which makes Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord a natural closer — Hogaak itself is an 8/8 that keeps coming back to be sacrificed again. Half of all Hogaak decks run it for exactly this redundancy.

03
Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Jenova, Ancient Calamity

45.0% of decks · synergy 0.36

Jenova, Ancient Calamity copies big creatures from opponents and temporarily inflates your board with high-power threats, giving Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord a rotating supply of oversized sacrifice targets. That combo of copy-then-drain explains the 45% inclusion rate.

04
The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride

41.4% of decks · synergy 0.33

The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride generates a massive trampler that scales with lands in the graveyard, and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord converts that power directly into lethal life loss without ever needing to connect in combat. The two cards share a go-big-then-cash-out philosophy that makes them natural partners.

05
Old Stickfingers

Old Stickfingers

40.9% of decks · synergy 0.32

Old Stickfingers mills creatures into the graveyard while putting an enormous body into play whose power equals the creature count unearthed — Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord then cashes that body in for a drain that can easily top 10 or 15 life by mid-game. The 41% inclusion rate reflects how cleanly the two cards form a two-card kill condition.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is the unambiguous home for Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord — hitting three opponents simultaneously with a single sacrifice means the life-loss multiplies in a way that never applies in a 1v1 format. In Legacy and Vintage, the four-mana cost and creature-dependent ceiling are both liabilities in formats that kill or combo out far earlier than Jarad can set up a meaningful board presence. Modern is technically legal but the same problem applies: Jarad asks too much setup for too little guaranteed payoff against a field of faster, more consistent threats. Oathbreaker is the one exception worth noting, where Jarad can slot into a big-creature shell and close games against three opponents just as it does in Commander.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.99 cheap tier

At $1.99, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord sits firmly in the cheap tier — a high-synergy, combo-adjacent legendary creature for the price of a pack of sleeves. Demand from graveyard and big-creature Commander decks is steady enough that the price is unlikely to crater further, making it a safe pickup at any point.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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