Keeper of the Dead
Creature — Human Wizard
, 
: Choose target opponent who has at least two fewer creature cards in their graveyard than you do as you activate this ability. Destroy target nonblack creature that player controls.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Exodus
- Price
- $0.31
- EDHREC rank
- #23792
Keeper of the Dead is a repeatable, no-mana-activation threat that strips your opponents' creatures at upkeep as long as you have a creature in your graveyard — a condition black decks meet trivially. At one black mana for a 1/2, the rate is obscene for the volume of value it generates in any graveyard-heavy shell.
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 |
In Commander, Keeper of the Dead is quietly one of the best one-mana creatures in black — three opponents means three separate upkeep triggers, and any graveyard deck maintains the enablement condition without trying. Legacy allows it, but the format's speed and creature-light combo decks leave it without enough valid targets to matter competitively. Vintage is the same story: the power ceiling of the format makes a 1/2 with a slow attrition ability irrelevant. Keeper of the Dead is a Commander card through and through, built for the long games and creature-dense boards where its incremental advantage compounds into a commanding board state.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.31 bulk tier
At $0.31, Keeper of the Dead is deep bulk — one of the most underpriced cards for what it does in a 100-card graveyard shell. Don't expect the price to spike dramatically given its age and limited tournament demand, but at this cost it's simply an auto-include in any black deck that expects to trade creatures.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.