River Serpent
Creature — Serpent
This creature can't attack unless there are five or more cards in your graveyard.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.29
- EDHREC rank
- #18124
River Serpent lands as a 6/5 with menace for five mana, which is a fine rate — but the cycling clause means you're rarely stuck holding a dead card in the wrong game state. Outside of dedicated Serpent and Kraken tribal builds, it's a fringe role-player at best.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Runo Stromkirk
Runo Stromkirk cares about having a Kraken, Leviathan, Octopus, or Serpent on the battlefield to copy on upkeep, and River Serpent is a cheap, cycleable body that qualifies — it fills the tribal slot without bricking your hand if the board goes wrong.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
River Serpent is a bulk common in every format it's legal in, and that's the whole story. In Pauper it competes against more efficient common threats and doesn't clear the bar. In Commander, its only real home is Runo Stromkirk, where the Serpent creature type does real work enabling the flip trigger — outside that one commander, it's not worth a slot. Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer all have creature bars River Serpent doesn't come close to meeting, and the cycling clause doesn't change that math.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.29 bulk tier
At $0.29, River Serpent is deep bulk — pick it up in your Runo Stromkirk build without a second thought. Bulk commons like this don't move unless a new tribal commander pushes demand, so don't expect the price to change.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Runo Stromkirk
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.