Rot-Curse Rakshasa
Creature — Demon
Trample
Decayed (This creature can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.)
Renew — 
, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a decayed counter on each of X target creatures. Activate only as a sorcery.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Price
- $1.63
- EDHREC rank
- #7085
Rot-Curse Rakshasa puts a self-replacing threat on board — when it dies, it curses an opponent's creature, and if that curse kills the creature, you get a 4/3 Demon token — so removal rarely comes out ahead. The cost is a five-mana 4/3 with no immediate protection, which means it lives or dies on whether your deck can exploit the death-and-curse chain before opponents untap; Abigale, Eloquent First-Year decks are the clearest home because they're already engineering exactly that loop.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Abigale, Eloquent First-Year
Abigale, Eloquent First-Year builds around cursing opponents' creatures and profiting when those creatures die, so Rot-Curse Rakshasa slots directly into the engine — it generates curses on its own death and replaces itself with a Demon token, hitting both halves of what Abigale wants to do.
The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride
The Gitrog, Ravenous Ride cares about putting counters on creatures and sending them into battle, and Rot-Curse Rakshasa's death trigger gives the deck a resilient threat that punishes opponents for blocking or removing it.
Ardyn, the Usurper
Ardyn, the Usurper rewards stacking debuffs on opponents' creatures, and Rot-Curse Rakshasa contributes a curse on death that can chain into a Demon token — exactly the kind of incremental pressure Ardyn decks want to accumulate.
Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist
Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist works in a shell that manipulates and exploits cursed or debuffed creatures, making Rot-Curse Rakshasa a natural fit as both a threat and a curse generator that keeps producing value through combat.
Be'lakor, the Dark Master
Be'lakor, the Dark Master draws a card whenever a Demon enters, and Rot-Curse Rakshasa's death trigger can produce a 4/3 Demon token — turning a removal spell aimed at the Rakshasa into a free card off Be'lakor.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Rot-Curse Rakshasa earns its slot specifically in curse-matters and death-trigger shells — it's not a generically powerful card, but in the right 99 it generates real two-for-one value without requiring any additional investment beyond playing it. In competitive formats like Modern and Pioneer, five mana for a 4/3 with a conditional death trigger doesn't clear the bar; those formats have enough removal and efficient threats that the curse chain rarely resolves before the game is over. Legacy and Vintage have even less patience for it. Standard is the one non-Commander format where it could see fringe play if a curse-payoff shell exists in the meta, but that's a narrow window. Play it in Commander or don't play it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.63 cheap tier
At $1.63, Rot-Curse Rakshasa sits in the cheap tier — low enough to include on spec in any synergistic shell without budget concern. It's a narrow build-around card with limited cross-format demand, so don't expect the price to move unless a new curse commander pushes it into a wider meta.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.