Lich
Enchantment
As this enchantment enters, you lose life equal to your life total.
You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life.
If you would gain life, draw that many cards instead.
Whenever you're dealt damage, sacrifice that many nontoken permanents. If you can't, you lose the game.
When this enchantment is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you lose the game.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- 30th Anniversary Edition
- Price
- $73.25
- EDHREC rank
- #19367
Lich converts your entire life total into card advantage and damage prevention, then makes you sacrifice permanents instead of taking damage — a spectacular engine that collapses instantly if an opponent destroys it before you can protect it. The payoff is real, especially alongside Repay in Kind to level all life totals to zero, but the fragility at four mana is the whole risk calculation.
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 |
Commander is where Lich actually gets to do something, because the long game and access to black tutors let you find the card, protect it, and build around it before the combo fires. Legacy and Vintage are legal but irrelevant — the card is too slow and too dependent on board presence for those formats. Lich is banned nowhere it's legal, but outside Commander it simply doesn't have the support structure to function.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
LichSoul Conduit
Near-infinite card draw; Near-infinite draw triggers; Target opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Near-infinite card draw; Near-infinite draw triggers; Target opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Lich has no true budget replacement — the specific interaction of zeroing your life total for card draw and damage redirection is unique to the card. Necropotence gets you the card-draw half at a fraction of the price and with far more resilience, though it doesn't enable the life-total-manipulation lines that make Lich the centerpiece of dedicated combo builds.
Price Context
Current price
$73.25 premium tier
At $73.25, Lich sits firmly in the premium tier, priced as a Reserved List card with a narrow but devoted combo audience. Demand is stable rather than growing, so it holds value without meaningful upside — you're buying it to play it, not to sit on it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.