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Pentavus

Artifact Creature — Construct

This creature enters with five +1/+1 counters on it.
{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: Create a 1/1 colorless Pentavite artifact creature token with flying.
{1}, Sacrifice a Pentavite: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.

CMC
7
Mana cost
{7}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander 2014
Price
$0.18
EDHREC rank
#10441
Buy on TCGplayer
Pentavus card art
Pentavus enters as a self-contained token factory that can repeatedly spend and reclaim its own +1/+1 counters to generate or absorb 1/1 Pentavite tokens — the kind of on-board loop that combo decks want badly. The seven-mana cost is steep, but engines like Dross Scorpion and commanders like Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate make that price irrelevant once the machine is running.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate

Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate

44.1% of decks · synergy 0.38

Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate proliferates counters onto colorless creatures, which means Pentavus keeps growing back the counters it spends on tokens — turning a finite loop into an engine that accelerates itself. The 44% inclusion rate reflects just how central Pentavus is to what Omarthis wants to do.

03
The Capitoline Triad

The Capitoline Triad

23.5% of decks · synergy 0.18

The Capitoline Triad cares about artifact tokens and +1/+1 counters simultaneously, which makes Pentavus a perfect two-for-one — it produces the tokens and sits on the counters the deck wants to manipulate. The 23% inclusion rate puts it squarely in the core package for this commander.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Pentavus sees virtually no play in Legacy, Modern, or Vintage — seven mana for a do-nothing-until-activation artifact creature is not competitive in formats where games end by turn four. Commander is where Pentavus lives, specifically in artifact-creature and counter-based strategies that can exploit its self-contained loop with sacrifice outlets, proliferate effects, or untap engines. Oathbreaker is legal but shares the same problem as non-rotating 60-card formats: the cost is prohibitive without the redundancy tools Commander provides. This is a Commander-only card in practice.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.18 bulk tier

At $0.18, Pentavus is deep bulk — a penny-bin pickup that carries no financial risk whatsoever. The price reflects its narrow application, but in the decks that want it, that application is irreplaceable enough that the cost is a non-issue.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.