Meathook Massacre II
Legendary Enchantment
When Meathook Massacre II enters, each player sacrifices X creatures of their choice.
Whenever a creature you control dies, you may pay 3 life. If you do, return that card under your control with a finality counter on it.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, they may pay 3 life. If they don't, return that card under your control with a finality counter on it.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror
- Price
- $2.53
- EDHREC rank
- #3129
Meathook Massacre II kills the board, drains for every creature that dies, and leaves a permanent enchantment behind — all on one card. The cost scales with how wide you want to wipe, but even at X=0 the death-trigger engine is live; Valgavoth, Terror Eater decks are running it above 30% inclusion for exactly that reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Valgavoth, Terror Eater
Valgavoth, Terror Eater pays life to cast spells and rewards that pain with card draw, so Meathook Massacre II does double duty: it clears the path for Valgavoth to attack and drains opponents every time a creature dies, accelerating the life-loss engine the whole deck is built around.
Fumulus, the Infestation
Fumulus, the Infestation generates tokens and wants creatures dying constantly, so Meathook Massacre II acts as both a board reset and a persistent drain piece that turns every insect fatality into a life-swing in Fumulus, the Infestation's favor.
Malik, Grim Manipulator
Malik, Grim Manipulator forces opponents to sacrifice creatures, and Meathook Massacre II turns each of those forced deaths into a drain trigger — the enchantment's passive does work even without casting it at a high X, which is exactly the redundancy Malik, Grim Manipulator wants.
Massacre Girl
Massacre Girl wipes the board through triggered -1/-1 effects, and pairing her with Meathook Massacre II means every creature that drops in that chain drains an opponent — the two cards stack chain-kills into meaningful life swings.
Maha, Its Feathers Night
Maha, Its Feathers Night operates in black and wants mass removal that also generates incremental advantage, and Meathook Massacre II fits cleanly into that game plan as a scalable wipe that keeps draining long after the initial cast.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Meathook Massacre II is a legitimate roleplayer: the drain triggers stack across four opponents, the enchantment sticks through most removal, and X=4 or higher clears most creature-based boards at the midgame. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Pioneer it faces stiffer competition from cheaper, faster removal, and the sorcery speed limits its ceiling there. Legacy and Vintage have access to more efficient sweepers, so it rarely sees play in those formats. Standard is where it shows up most outside Commander, since the card pool is shallow enough that a scalable drain-wipe with upside has real demand. Across all formats, the card rewards decks that want a cleanup effect and a passive engine on the same card — the floor is always the enchantment itself, not just the X spell.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.53 cheap tier
At $2.53, Meathook Massacre II sits in the cheap tier despite doing the work of both a sweeper and a drain engine — that's a strong rate for a card with this much text. It's the kind of card that stays in the $2–4 range as long as it remains Standard-legal and continues to see Commander play, so there's no urgency to buy multiples, but a single copy is an easy include at this price.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Valgavoth, Terror Eater
- Fumulus, the Infestation
- Malik, Grim Manipulator
- Massacre Girl
- Maha, Its Feathers Night
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.