Risen Reef
Creature — Elemental
Whenever this creature or another Elemental you control enters, look at the top card of your library. If it's a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you don't put the card onto the battlefield, put it into your hand.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- GU
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Special Guests
- Price
- $4.89
- EDHREC rank
- #2188
Risen Reef turns every Elemental entering the battlefield into a free land drop or a card, which means a single copy can bury opponents in incremental advantage before they stabilize. The cost — three mana in a creature type that wants to flood the board — is almost no cost at all; Ashling, the Limitless and Selective Memory-style engines that want to chain permanents will find Risen Reef mandatory, not optional.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ashling, the Limitless
Ashling, the Limitless copies Elementals, and every copy triggers Risen Reef independently, turning a single Elemental entering into a cascade of land drops and card selection that can bury an opponent in a single turn.
Omnath, Locus of the Roil
Omnath, Locus of the Roil is an Elemental that cares about lands entering and Elementals entering — Risen Reef feeds both halves simultaneously, making it one of the most efficient three-drops the deck can run.
Yarok, the Desecrated
Yarok, the Desecrated doubles every enters-the-battlefield trigger, so each Elemental under Yarok fires Risen Reef twice — two land-or-card selections per creature is a draw engine that gets out of hand fast.
Esix, Fractal Bloom
Esix, Fractal Bloom converts token creation into copies of your best creatures, and when those copies are Elementals, Risen Reef turns each new token into additional land drops, compounding the engine with every spell.
Omnath, Locus of Creation
Omnath, Locus of Creation rewards land drops with life and mana, and Risen Reef accelerates directly into that loop by putting lands into play off every Elemental trigger, shortening the runway to Omnath's full payoff.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Risen Reef lives — the 100-card singleton format gives it the density of Elemental synergy pieces it needs to chain triggers, and multiplayer games give it enough time to generate the overwhelming advantage it promises. In Modern and Pioneer it has seen fringe play in Elemental tribal shells, but without the redundancy of Commander's deeper pools, a single removal spell stops the engine cold and the three-mana investment rarely pays off. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but ignore it entirely; the formats move too fast for a value creature that needs board presence to function. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where Risen Reef is genuinely strong, particularly under Elemental-adjacent signature spells that can rebuild the board repeatedly.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Selective MemoryRisen ReefZendikar's RoilJace, Wielder of Mysteries
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View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$4.89 cheap tier
At $4.89, Risen Reef sits at the high end of cheap — it's not a budget inclusion you grab without thought, but it's not a painful purchase either. Given its near-universal inclusion rate in Elemental commanders and the raw power of its trigger, it holds that price comfortably.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.