Ruin Raider
Creature — Orc Pirate
Raid — At the beginning of your end step, if you attacked this turn, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to the card's mana value.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Ixalan
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #17032
Ruin Raider draws you a card every combat — the cost is life equal to that card's mana value, which in aggressive black decks running cheap spells is usually one or two and rarely matters. It's a Dark Confidant stapled to a 3/2 with raid, and in the right shell it earns its slot every game.
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 |
In Commander, Ruin Raider fits cleanly into aggressive black decks that attack every turn — raid is trivially satisfied, and the life payments stay small when your curve is low. Outside Commander, it sees virtually no play in Modern or Legacy, where Dark Confidant and Sylvan Library compete at the same role with no attack requirement and stronger raw stats. Pioneer is the one non-rotating format where it could theoretically slot into a B/x aggro build, but it has never found consistent representation there. The card lives and dies in Commander; that's the only place the trade-off regularly comes out in its favor.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Ruin Raider is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a dollar box or grabbing a playset for under a dollar without thinking twice. That price is stable; there's no reprint pressure on a card this cheap, and it won't spike without a breakout Commander build pushing demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.