Obstinate Familiar
Creature — Lizard
If you would draw a card, you may skip that draw instead.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Odyssey
- Price
- $0.70
- EDHREC rank
- #20198
Obstinate Familiar replaces your draw step with drawing a single card — full stop, no negotiation — which is either a catastrophic lock piece or a precise engine part depending on the deck. Outside of commanders that wheel constantly and want that replacement effect, Obstinate Familiar is unplayable; inside them, it's essential.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Arjun, the Shifting Flame
Arjun, the Shifting Flame turns every spell cast into a wheel, and Obstinate Familiar caps each of those wheels at exactly one card — letting you churn through triggers without ever decking yourself mid-combo.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Obstinate Familiar is a Commander card almost by definition — its effect only matters in decks built around wheel effects, and those engines live in the 100-card singleton format. In Legacy and Vintage, where it's technically legal, there's no competitive shell that wants to bottleneck its own draw engine; faster and more consistent lock pieces exist. Commander is the only format where this card earns a slot, and even there the metagame is narrow: wheel commanders or bust.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.70 bulk tier
At $0.70, Obstinate Familiar sits in bulk territory despite being a genuine role-player in the decks that want it. The price reflects how narrow the use case is, so it's a cheap pickup for the right build and dead cardboard for everything else.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.