Putrid Warrior
Creature — Zombie Soldier Warrior
Whenever this creature deals damage, choose one —
• Each player loses 1 life.
• Each player gains 1 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #28608
Putrid Warrior puts a choice in your opponent's hands every combat — lose a life or give you a card — and that's a real repeatable effect stapled to a 2/2 for two mana. The catch is that the choice is theirs, so against aggressive decks willing to pay life freely, the draw trigger never fires.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Putrid Warrior is a fringe role-player in Orzhov life-drain decks — the trigger is genuinely useful over a long game, but a 2/2 for two struggles to stay relevant at a table of 40-life opponents who can afford to pay the life tax indefinitely. Pauper is its best home: the card is legal there and the life-loss mode matters much more when opponents start at 20, making the forced choice meaningfully taxing. In Legacy and Vintage, the card is legal but sees no play — the power floor is simply too low for formats that end games in a handful of turns. Putrid Warrior's value scales directly with how long combat goes wide, which makes it a niche fit at best in any format faster than Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Putrid Warrior is deep bulk — you're paying almost nothing for a card that sees narrow play even in the formats where it's legal. Don't expect the price to move; demand is too thin and supply too plentiful for any meaningful shift.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.