Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Legendary Creature — Monkey Pirate
Whenever Ragavan deals combat damage to a player, create a Treasure token and exile the top card of that player's library. Until end of turn, you may cast that card.
Dash 
(You may cast this spell for its dash cost. If you do, it gains haste, and it's returned from the battlefield to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Modern Horizons 2 Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #270
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is one of the most efficient one-drops ever printed — a 2/1 with Dash that steals spells and generates Treasure every time it connects, which is exactly why it ends up in high-synergy shells like Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver where cheap sacrifice fodder is the whole game. The cost is real: it demands evasion support or a vulnerable opponent, and at one mana it will draw hate the moment it sticks. In the right list, that trade is trivially worth it; in a casual pod, Yomiji, Who Bars the Way is a better fit for recursion than Ragavan is for jamming.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | banned |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is banned in Legacy — the only format where it's explicitly off the table — because one mana for repeatable card advantage and mana generation broke parity too fast in a format already defined by cheap interaction. Modern and Vintage tolerate it because each has the removal density and speed to answer it reliably before the value compounds. Commander gives it a complete pass because the singleton rule and four-player politics mean a 2/1 connecting every combat is genuinely hard to guarantee, and opponents are incentivized to trade resources with each other first.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is purpose-built for Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver — each combat connection produces a Treasure that directly discounts Dargo, collapsing the cost to zero in a single swing. The inclusion rate above 90% in that pairing is no accident; Ragavan is essentially a mana-positive engine piece dressed as a one-drop.
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept runs a dense package of cheap, aggressive creatures that threaten early combat damage, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer slots in as one of the most punishing one-drops in that role. Treasure generation accelerates Silas's artifact synergies while stolen spells give the deck additional action without drawing extra cards.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator // Vial Smasher the Fierce
Every time Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer connects, it triggers Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator's Treasure generation on top of its own, stacking mana acceleration at a rate that warps the mid-game. Vial Smasher punishes opponents for doing anything, so keeping them defensive and letting Ragavan through becomes a coherent strategy rather than wishful thinking.
Kibo, Uktabi Prince
Kibo, Uktabi Prince distributes Banana tokens to opponents, and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer sweeps in to steal whatever those Bananas let opponents cast — turning Kibo's political gifting into a card-advantage loop for you. The pairing is less about raw power and more about repeatedly taxing opponents for using the resources Kibo handed them.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer is a legendary one-drop, which means Sisay, Weatherlight Captain can tutor it directly onto the battlefield — giving the deck a repeatable mana and card-advantage engine fetched on demand. At one mana it's also the cheapest legendary Sisay can grab, so it frequently gets pulled early to fund bigger searches later.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Yomiji, Who Bars the WayPhyrexian AltarRagavan, Nimble Pilferer
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Yomiji, Who Bars the WayThermopodRagavan, Nimble Pilferer
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer typically trades in the $40–$60 range depending on printing and market timing, landing it firmly in the expensive-but-not-absurd tier for Commander staples. Whether it's worth picking up depends on how many red-inclusive high-power decks you're building — it's a genuine role-player in aggressive and combo-adjacent shells, not a card you jam into every list. If you're running multiple decks where it fits, a single copy covers all of them.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Yomiji, Who Bars the Way
- Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver
- Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept
- Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator // Vial Smasher the Fierce
- Kibo, Uktabi Prince
- Sisay, Weatherlight Captain
- Phyrexian Altar
- Thermopod
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.