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Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst

Artifact // Sorcery

{T}, Discard a card: Create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life."
{1}, {T}: Each opponent mills cards equal to the amount of life you gained this turn.
{4}, {T}: Exile four target cards from a single graveyard. Draw a card.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
BG
Rarity
rare
Set
Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#14862
Buy on TCGplayer
Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst card art
Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst is a self-mill engine that generates mana, drains opponents, and shuffles your graveyard back into a fresh library — all on one permanent. The back face alone justifies the slot in any deck running Ajani, Mentor of Heroes or similar graveyard-refuel strategies, and Blech, Loafing Pest players have figured out it's close to a must-include.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Blech, Loafing Pest

Blech, Loafing Pest

12.9% of decks · synergy 0.12

Blech, Loafing Pest's game plan revolves around filling the graveyard and converting that mass into value, and Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst feeds both sides of that engine — mill on the front, lifegain and library reset on the back — making it one of the most efficient single cards the deck can run.

02
Beledros Witherbloom

Beledros Witherbloom

10.5% of decks · synergy 0.10

Beledros Witherbloom trades life for extra untap triggers, and Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst fits perfectly as a way to recoup that life loss while milling toward combo pieces; the drain effect also converts the board-wide life payment into pressure on opponents.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst does its best work — 100-card libraries mean the mill output is rarely threatening to the controller, and the drain-per-card-milled scales naturally against three opponents. In Modern and Pioneer, the card sees fringe play in self-mill shells that want a repeatable engine without dedicating a slot to a spell, but the four-mana investment is a liability in faster formats where the front face doesn't close games fast enough. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more broken self-mill tools, so Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst rarely earns a spot there. Stick to Commander and slower midrange shells in the 60-card formats if you're sleeving it up.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Pestilent Cauldron // Restorative Burst isn't confirmed in our current feed, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number before buying. Given its synergy score in Golgari Commander builds and consistent inclusion across graveyard strategies, it tends to hold modest value — buy it when you need it rather than speculating on movement.

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Sources

Mentioned

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