Master of Death
Creature — Zombie Wizard
When this creature enters, surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if this card is in your graveyard, you may pay 1 life. If you do, return it to your hand.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Modern Horizons 2
- Price
- $0.32
- EDHREC rank
- #6637
Master of Death puts a self-recurring 3/2 zombie on the board that costs you nothing to bring back as long as you have a card to discard — the engine runs itself. The catch is that discarding to recur it is a feature in graveyard decks and a real cost everywhere else, which makes this card extremely good in the right shell and borderline unplayable outside it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills opponents on combat damage and rewards you for having cards in your graveyard, so Master of Death's self-mill loop feeds Mirko's engine turn after turn without spending additional resources — it's one of the most efficient repeatable discard outlets the deck can run.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Master of Death is a graveyard-deck staple that punishes any table without dedicated exile-based removal — recurring it costs one card per turn cycle, which is trivial when your commander rewards discard or self-mill. In Legacy and Vintage, the card is legal but rarely sees play; those formats move too fast for a three-mana 3/2 that requires setup, and the recursion loop doesn't generate enough raw power to compete with the format's velocity. Modern is the most interesting non-Commander home — zombie synergy decks and reanimator-adjacent strategies can leverage the self-recursion, though it competes with cheaper and more impactful options in that slot. Anywhere graveyard synergy is the plan, Master of Death earns its spot; anywhere it isn't, pass.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.32 bulk tier
At $0.32, Master of Death is deep bulk — easy to acquire as a throw-in or bulk pick without touching your budget. Given that it sees consistent Commander play in Mirko and similar graveyard builds, that price is unlikely to spike but equally unlikely to crater further.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.