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Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

Legendary Creature — Halfling Rogue

Whenever a player casts their second spell each turn, you lose 1 life and create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")

CMC
2
Mana cost
{W}{B}
Color identity
BW
Rarity
rare
Set
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Price
$14.77
EDHREC rank
#406
Buy on TCGplayer
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff card art
Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff turns every spell your opponents cast into a free land drop for you — on a two-mana body that generates that value passively, without any setup. In the Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver shell especially, the incremental mana advantage snowballs fast enough to matter even in games that end early.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Dargo, the ShipwreckerTymna the Weaver

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver

93.4% of decks · synergy 0.80

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver runs a high-velocity artifact and spell chain where opponents are almost guaranteed to be casting multiple spells per turn, and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff converts every one of those into a free land drop that fuels Dargo's cost reduction.

02
Vihaan, Goldwaker

Vihaan, Goldwaker

71.2% of decks · synergy 0.58

Vihaan, Goldwaker wants a wide board of Treasures, and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff's land-drops-as-Treasures effect quietly pads that count every turn cycle without spending a card.

04
Marneus Calgar

Marneus Calgar

59.7% of decks · synergy 0.43

Marneus Calgar draws cards whenever tokens enter the battlefield, and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff's Treasure production turns opponents' spell activity into a trickle of extra draws through Calgar's trigger.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff lives — four opponents casting spells every round means the Treasure-per-land-drop trigger fires reliably, and the passive life drain closes ground that creature damage misses. In Legacy and Vintage the card is technically legal but faces no meaningful home: two-mana do-nothing-immediately creatures compete against formats that kill on turns one through three, and the payoff requires a sustained game those formats don't provide. Modern is similar — the effect is fine in isolation but slots more naturally into a 100-card singleton context where repeated triggers across a long game accumulate value no single-card effect can replicate. Oathbreaker is the one alternative where Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff could function, since the faster clock pressures the life drain angle more than Commander does.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

There is no direct budget replacement for Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff's exact trigger — passive Treasure generation tied to opponents' land drops is a unique effect. Smothering Tithe covers some of the same ground by taxing opponents' draw steps for Treasures, though at four mana and a much higher price point it isn't a budget swap; for the mana-draining angle, Mana Drain effects don't reach this price floor, so the closest true budget alternative is leaning on token producers like Brass's Bounty or Gold Mine that generate Treasures in bursts rather than passively.

Price Context

Current price

$14.77 mid tier

At $14.77, Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff sits in mid-tier territory for a two-mana legendary with a unique passive effect — comparable to other niche-but-powerful small commanders that hold value through scarcity and synergy demand rather than raw power ceiling. The price is fair for what it does in the decks that want it, and it is unlikely to crater without a reprint.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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