Pitiless Carnage
Sorcery
Sacrifice any number of permanents you control, then draw that many cards.
Plot 
(You may pay and exile this card from your hand. Cast it as a sorcery on a later turn without paying its mana cost. Plot only as a sorcery.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction Promos
- Price
- $0.61
- EDHREC rank
- #5633
Pitiless Carnage draws you a card for every creature you control that dies in a single turn — in a token deck, that's easily five to ten cards off one sorcery. The catch is that it costs four mana and does nothing if your battlefield is empty, which means Teysa, Opulent Oligarch and commanders like her are the only homes where it earns its slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Teysa, Opulent Oligarch
Teysa, Opulent Oligarch generates Soldier tokens on upkeep and rewards you whenever creatures die, so Pitiless Carnage turns a single board wipe into a full hand refill while Teysa's triggers are already resolving.
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder floods the board with Thrull tokens every time you cast a creature, and Pitiless Carnage converts that disposable army into cards the moment a wrath or sacrifice outlet clears them out.
Kambal, Profiteering Mayor
Kambal, Profiteering Mayor creates a Treasure and a 1/1 off every non-token creature your opponents cast, so the board fills up fast — Pitiless Carnage cashes in that token accumulation for a late-game hand reload.
Elenda and Azor
Elenda and Azor cares about creatures dying and creates tokens in the process, giving Pitiless Carnage a steady stream of fodder to convert into cards as the engine snowballs.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Pitiless Carnage is a Commander card — full stop. The four-mana sorcery speed and dependency on a wide board make it a non-starter in Legacy, Modern, or Pioneer, where games end before a token army assembles and opponents hold up interaction on your turn. In Commander, it slots into any black token strategy that expects to sacrifice or lose multiple creatures in a single turn, functioning as a burst draw spell that scales with board state rather than a fixed return. The one-per-turn restriction on each creature rarely bites in practice, since you're typically cashing in an entire token wave at once.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.61 bulk tier
At $0.61, Pitiless Carnage is bulk, and it should stay there — it's a niche role-player with no competitive demand outside Commander. Grab copies freely; the price isn't going anywhere meaningful.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.