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Phyrexian Tower

Legendary Land

{T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice a creature: Add {B}{B}.

CMC
0
Mana cost
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Ultimate Masters
Price
$25.74
EDHREC rank
#201
Buy on TCGplayer
Phyrexian Tower card art
Phyrexian Tower turns any creature into two black mana at instant speed — that's a sacrifice outlet, a mana accelerant, and a way to dodge removal all on a land that costs you nothing extra to include. The bar for running it is low: if your deck cares about sacrifice triggers, enters-the-battlefield effects, or has a free commander like Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept that can be cashed in repeatedly, Phyrexian Tower belongs in the 99.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Rograkh, Son of RohgahhSilas Renn, Seeker Adept

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

83.1% of decks · synergy 0.77

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept costs zero, which means Phyrexian Tower converts a free commander into two black mana with zero setup — an engine that resets every time Rograkh hits the command zone. That loop underpins almost every storm and artifact line this pairing runs, which is why it shows up in over 83% of these decks.

02
Dargo, the ShipwreckerTymna the Weaver

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver

63.5% of decks · synergy 0.54

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver wants cheap creatures spent early to reduce Dargo's cost, and Phyrexian Tower converts those spent bodies into mana rather than letting them sit in the graveyard doing nothing. Sacrifice a token, float two black, replay a piece — the Tower tightens the whole loop.

03
Rakdos, the Muscle

Rakdos, the Muscle

51.9% of decks · synergy 0.41

Rakdos, the Muscle demands a sacrifice on entry, and Phyrexian Tower lets you pre-load that requirement while banking two mana toward the next threat. It's the cleanest answer to the commander's tax, which is why over half of all Rakdos, the Muscle decks run it.

04
Edea, Possessed Sorceress

Edea, Possessed Sorceress

46.8% of decks · synergy 0.41

Edea, Possessed Sorceress generates tokens when you sacrifice creatures, so Phyrexian Tower is both the fuel and the trigger — sacrifice a token to the Tower, make mana, potentially chain into more sacrifices. The Tower transforms a mana sink into a self-sustaining loop piece.

05
Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg

47.9% of decks · synergy 0.31

Ratadrabik of Urborg makes a token copy whenever a legendary creature you control dies, so Phyrexian Tower is a repeatable engine: sacrifice a legendary, get mana, get a token, repeat. Nearly half of all Ratadrabik of Urborg decks include it because no other land generates value from deaths this cleanly.

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

Phyrexian Tower is at its best in Commander, where singleton construction makes a land that doubles as a sacrifice outlet genuinely scarce, and the 100-card format's slower pace means you'll reliably find creatures worth sacrificing. In Legacy and Vintage, it's legal but rarely played — those formats move fast enough that paying a land slot for conditional mana generation is hard to justify outside narrow reanimator builds that need a clean way to bin a creature at instant speed. Modern players occasionally explore it in sacrifice-adjacent strategies, but Altar of Dementia and similar pieces tend to outperform it when raw throughput matters more than mana. Oathbreaker is the sleeper format for Phyrexian Tower — planeswalker-centric decks often have token-generating signatures that make the Tower's activation trivially cheap.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Witch's Cottage and High Market both offer sacrifice on a land, but High Market is the closest analog — it costs nothing to include, the mana is colorless, and the life gain is negligible, but it doesn't generate the two black mana that makes Phyrexian Tower worth $25. If you specifically need the mana generation, Ashnod's Altar is under $2, operates at instant speed off the battlefield slot, and scales harder in token-heavy builds — the trade-off is that it's an artifact rather than a land, making it easier to remove.

Price Context

Current price

$25.74 premium tier

At $25.74, Phyrexian Tower sits in the premium tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate inclusion but cheap enough that sacrifice-focused Commander decks treat it as a staple rather than a luxury. It has been reprinted, which keeps the floor from climbing much higher, but demand from cEDH and high-power casual is steady enough that it's unlikely to crater.

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Sources

Mentioned

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