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Sanguine Spy

Creature — Vampire Rogue

Menace, lifelink
{1}, Sacrifice another creature: Surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card into your graveyard.)
At the beginning of your end step, if there are five or more mana values among cards in your graveyard, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Streets of New Capenna Promos
Price
$0.30
EDHREC rank
#12691
Buy on TCGplayer
Sanguine Spy card art
Sanguine Spy gives you a free scry-1 every time a creature enters your graveyard from the battlefield — in a deck that cycles through creatures, that's constant top-deck manipulation at zero mana. The cost is a two-mana 1/2 with lifelink, which means it does almost nothing on its own, and the payoff only materializes if you're already built around sacrifice or death triggers; pair it with Mortuary to loop the effect and the engine becomes genuinely oppressive.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Sanguine Spy is a Commander card through and through — the free scry-1 on death is incremental value that compounds over a 40-life, multiplayer game in a way it simply doesn't in a 20-life, best-of-one race. In Legacy and Vintage it's too slow and too fragile; a 1/2 lifelinker for two has no business competing in those formats. Modern and Pioneer are marginally more forgiving, but without a dedicated aristocrats shell running it as a four-of, Sanguine Spy never rises above a fringe role-player. Stick to Commander, where sacrifice synergies are everywhere and every incremental scry is a real advantage.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.30 bulk tier

At $0.30, Sanguine Spy is deep bulk — pick it up without thinking twice if the shell fits. Niche combo pieces at this price point rarely spike unless a new commander pushes the archetype into the spotlight, so grab copies now if you're building around it.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.