Necrotic Wound
Instant
Undergrowth — Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard. If that creature would die this turn, exile it instead.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Foundations Jumpstart
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #17628
Necrotic Wound exiles a creature outright — no death trigger, no graveyard recursion — as long as you've fed enough creatures to your graveyard first. The condition makes it unreliable in low-synergy shells, but in decks that churn through creatures it's unconditional exile for one black mana.
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 |
Commander is where Necrotic Wound earns its slot, specifically in graveyard-centric black decks that accumulate creature cards in the bin naturally — aristocrats builds, reanimator shells, and self-mill strategies all hit the threshold fast enough to make the exile clause trivial. In competitive 60-card formats like Modern and Legacy, it can't compete with Fatal Push or Leyline Binding on consistency, since fueling the graveyard to match a large threat is too slow against a field of answers. Pioneer gives it the most interesting case outside Commander, where graveyard synergy decks exist but the format's faster removal suite still edges it out. Across the board, Necrotic Wound is a Commander card masquerading as a tournament option.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Necrotic Wound is pure bulk — easy to acquire and essentially free to slot into any graveyard deck testing it. Bulk rares with narrow conditions rarely climb unless a specific commander drives demand, so don't expect movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.