Ruthless Winnower
Creature — Elf Rogue
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player sacrifices a non-Elf creature of their choice.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Kaldheim Commander
- Price
- $2.84
- EDHREC rank
- #6951
Ruthless Winnower hits the table and immediately starts taxing every player who can't match your creature count — in an Elf token deck, that's nearly always everyone but you. It's a cheap threat with a punishing passive, and in the right shell it generates real card advantage without asking for anything extra.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Lathril, Blade of the Elves floods the board with Elf tokens on attack, so Ruthless Winnower's condition is trivially met every turn — opponents sacrifice while you untap into more threats.
Abomination of Llanowar
Abomination of Llanowar's power scales with Elf count, and Ruthless Winnower keeps that count comparatively high by forcing opponents to sacrifice rather than block or chump away your board.
Tyvar the Bellicose
Tyvar the Bellicose turns every Elf activation into mana, and Ruthless Winnower pressures opponents into a resource deficit that makes it harder to answer that engine before it runs away.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ruthless Winnower is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but Commander is the only format where it belongs. In Legacy and Vintage, a four-mana 3/3 with a conditional passive doesn't come close to the power bar — those formats are full of ways to end the game before this ever matters. Commander is where Ruthless Winnower earns its slot: multiplayer means more opponents losing creatures, tribal token decks hit its condition consistently, and a slow attrition tax compounds across three opponents in a way it never could in a one-on-one game.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$2.84 cheap tier
At $2.84, Ruthless Winnower sits in comfortable budget territory — you're not paying a premium to include it. Demand is niche enough to keep the price suppressed, so it's a clean pickup for Elf tribal lists without any budget anxiety.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Lathril, Blade of the Elves
- Abomination of Llanowar
- Tyvar the Bellicose
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.