Malefic Scythe
Artifact — Equipment
This Equipment enters with a soul counter on it.
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each soul counter on this Equipment.
Whenever equipped creature dies, put a soul counter on this Equipment.
Equip 
(: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Core Set 2021
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #18055
Malefic Scythe grows every time a creature dies and passes that counter to the next equipped creature — in a creature-heavy meta, it becomes a permanent stat-pump that compounds across the game. The equip cost and setup requirement mean it earns its slot only in decks that plan to lose creatures repeatedly, not generically.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Malefic Scythe is a Commander card — full stop. The format's long games, creature-dense boards, and recurring death loops are exactly the environment where a self-growing Equipment pays off. In 60-card competitive formats like Modern or Legacy, Equipment that doesn't impact the board the turn it's played almost never makes the cut, and the Scythe is no exception; faster threats and tighter resource constraints leave no room for a slow grind engine. Pioneer sits in the same position: the card is legal but irrelevant in any archetype with a real win condition. Commander is where Malefic Scythe belongs, specifically in black-leaning sacrifice or recursion shells where the counter grows organically and the equip cost is manageable by the mid-game.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Malefic Scythe is deep bulk — no financial barrier whatsoever to picking up a copy. Bulk rares rarely appreciate unless they find a broken home, and this one's ceiling is casual Commander play, so treat it as a throw-in rather than a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.