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Lier, Disciple of the Drowned

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

Spells can't be countered.
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. The flashback cost is equal to that card's mana cost.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Store Championships
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2225
Buy on TCGplayer
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned card art
Lier, Disciple of the Drowned turns your graveyard into a second hand — every instant and sorcery you've cast becomes recastable, and countermagic stops working against you entirely while it's on board. The cost is real: you can't run counterspells yourself, so your interaction has to live on the stack at sorcery speed or below. Merfolk Secretkeeper // Venture Deeper feeds the yard to fuel flashback targets, and Neerdiv, Devious Diver pairs so tightly with Lier that over 62% of Neerdiv decks run it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Neerdiv, Devious Diver

Neerdiv, Devious Diver

62.4% of decks · synergy 0.59

Neerdiv, Devious Diver mills cards into the graveyard as a core mechanic, which is exactly what Lier, Disciple of the Drowned needs to start generating value — the two form a self-reinforcing engine where each spell you flash back mills more targets for the next.

02
Shiko and Narset, Unified

Shiko and Narset, Unified

55.6% of decks · synergy 0.52

Shiko and Narset, Unified rewards casting spells from everywhere but your hand, and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned's flashback clause turns the graveyard into a permanent extension of that reward loop, letting you double-dip on every instant and sorcery you've already cast.

03
Teval, Arbiter of Virtue

Teval, Arbiter of Virtue

26.5% of decks · synergy 0.25

Teval, Arbiter of Virtue cares about casting from exile and the graveyard, and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned ensures the graveyard never runs dry, keeping the trigger engine live turn after turn.

04
Zevlor, Elturel Exile

Zevlor, Elturel Exile

27.2% of decks · synergy 0.25

Zevlor, Elturel Exile wants a deep library of instants and sorceries to copy and redirect, and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned effectively doubles that library by making every spell in the yard available again.

05
Elsha, Threefold Master

Elsha, Threefold Master

26.4% of decks · synergy 0.23

Elsha, Threefold Master casts from the top of the library and rewards spell density, and Lier, Disciple of the Drowned adds a second axis of redundancy by recycling key spells from the graveyard when the top of the deck runs dry.

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

In Commander, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned is a genuine engine piece — the no-counterspells clause is a meaningful deckbuilding constraint, but in graveyard-heavy blue decks the flashback upside far outweighs it. Modern and Legacy are where the math gets complicated: at five mana with no immediate protection, Lier hits the board too slowly in those formats to reliably take over, and the anti-counter clause can hurt you in tempo matchups. Pioneer is similarly hostile — the format's interaction density means Lier rarely survives long enough to pay off. Oathbreaker is the sleeper home: smaller starting life totals and signature spell recursion make the flashback engine snowball faster than Commander, and the anti-counter clause shuts down a lot of the format's most common answers.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing for Lier, Disciple of the Drowned isn't available in this data set, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number before buying. Given its 62%+ inclusion rate in Neerdiv, Devious Diver lists and strong showings across several other popular commanders, demand is steady enough that it's unlikely to be a bulk rare.

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Sources

Mentioned

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