Jinxed Idol
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, this artifact deals 2 damage to you.
Sacrifice a creature: Target opponent gains control of this artifact.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tempest
- Price
- $1.19
- EDHREC rank
- #9612
Jinxed Idol forces an opponent to sacrifice a creature every upkeep just to pass the curse along — the on-board pressure is real and continuous. The cost is that unloading it requires your own sacrifice, which is a feature rather than a bug in shells like Nim Deathmantle or Iroh, Tea Master that want creatures dying on command.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Iroh, Tea Master
Iroh, Tea Master wants creatures entering and leaving the battlefield to generate value, and Jinxed Idol turns every upkeep into a sacrifice trigger on demand — feeding Iroh's engine while draining the table.
Darien, King of Kjeldor
Darien, King of Kjeldor converts damage taken into Soldier tokens, and Jinxed Idol's upkeep drain gives Darien a steady stream of incoming damage to convert — hold the Idol, take the hits, fill the board.
Zidane, Tantalus Thief
Zidane, Tantalus Thief profits from opponents losing permanents and life, and Jinxed Idol pressures both simultaneously — forcing sacrifices while ticking down life totals every turn it sits unchallenged.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Zedruu the Greathearted's whole game is donating permanents that hurt the recipient, and Jinxed Idol is one of the cleanest gifts in the format — hand it over, let them bleed, and collect the upkeep rewards.
Blim, Comedic Genius
Blim, Comedic Genius exists to force-feed opponents cursed permanents, and Jinxed Idol is exactly the kind of sticky liability Blim was built around — opponents either suffer the upkeep drain or sacrifice creatures to pass it somewhere else.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Jinxed Idol actually functions as designed — three opponents means the Idol creates a multiplayer hot-potato dynamic, draining life and forcing sacrifices until someone blinks. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but sees no meaningful play; the formats move too fast for a two-mana artifact that demands setup and offers no immediate board impact. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home for the same reason Commander is: multiple opponents slow the game down enough that sustained upkeep pressure compounds. Jinxed Idol is a Commander card wearing other format legality as an accident of history.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Nim DeathmantleSu-ChiJinxed Idol
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$1.19 cheap tier
At $1.19, Jinxed Idol sits in impulse-buy territory — cheap enough to throw into any cursed-permanents or sacrifice shell without a second thought. It's a narrow card with a dedicated audience, so the price is stable rather than climbing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Nim Deathmantle
- Iroh, Tea Master
- Darien, King of Kjeldor
- Zidane, Tantalus Thief
- Zedruu the Greathearted
- Blim, Comedic Genius
- Su-Chi
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.