Proteus Staff
Artifact
, 
: Put target creature on the bottom of its owner's library. That creature's controller reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a creature card. The player puts that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of their library in any order. Activate only as a sorcery.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Mirrodin
- Price
- $3.43
- EDHREC rank
- #8975
Proteus Staff bottoms a creature you control, then digs until it hits another — and if your deck runs zero other creatures, it puts every nonland card in the perfect order, turning a single activation into a deterministic win with Nexus of Fate or whatever finisher you've stacked. The cost is three mana to activate and a creature to sacrifice, which is trivial when the payoff is a fully ordered library.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Proteus Staff actually lives — the singleton format's creatureless-deck trick is a known archetype, and the Staff is the engine that makes it tick. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but essentially unplayed; the activation cost is too slow for formats where turn-one wins are realistic. Modern sees the same problem: three mana plus a creature is a steep ask against faster clocks, and better combo infrastructure exists. Oathbreaker is legal and occasionally relevant, since the format's lower starting life total rewards the same library-ordering lines.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.43 cheap tier
At $3.43, Proteus Staff sits comfortably in the cheap tier — low enough that there's no real barrier to picking it up for a dedicated build. Demand is narrow but stable, coming almost entirely from Commander players building creatureless or near-creatureless combo decks, so the price is unlikely to spike or crash without a reprint.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.