Necropanther
Creature — Cat Nightmare
Mutate 
(If you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.)
Whenever this creature mutates, return target creature card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #12219
Necropanther puts a free permanent onto the battlefield every time it attacks — the cost is restricting that permanent to mana value 3 or less, which is a real constraint but not a crippling one in any deck built to exploit it. Nethroi, Apex of Death decks run it as a recursive engine piece, and anywhere Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is involved, copying a Necropanther mid-combat turns the trigger into an assembly line.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Nethroi, Apex of Death
Necropanther sits in nearly half of all Nethroi, Apex of Death decks because it feeds the graveyard with value creatures and can itself be reanimated by Nethroi's mutate trigger, creating a loop where every attack threatens to rebuild a board that was just wiped.
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 |
Necropanther is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. Commander is where it actually sees play — the singleton format rewards its recursive trigger more than any 60-card format does, since you can build an entire package of mana-value-3-or-less creatures worth cheating into play. In Legacy and Vintage, a three-mana 3/3 that only triggers on attacks has no competitive footing against faster, more focused threats. Modern and Pioneer are the same story: Necropanther's ceiling requires a critical mass of small ETB creatures and multiple combat steps, a win condition those formats don't support at this cost.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror BreakerNecropanther
Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite death triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite tapped creature tokens
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Necropanther is deep bulk — a safe pickup for any Nethroi, Apex of Death or creature-recursion build without any budget consideration. Bulk rares in niche synergy roles tend to stay flat unless a new commander pushes them into the spotlight, so don't expect movement.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.