Sarcomancy
Enchantment
When this enchantment enters, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are no Zombies on the battlefield, this enchantment deals 1 damage to you.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tempest
- Price
- $16.29
- EDHREC rank
- #26535
Sarcomancy puts a 2/2 Zombie on the board for one black mana — that's the best rate on a creature token in black, full stop. The upkeep damage clause only bites you if you control no Zombies, which any dedicated Zombie deck trivially avoids.
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 |
In Commander, Sarcomancy is a staple in any Zombie tribal deck — one mana for a 2/2 on turn one is ahead of curve, and the punishment clause is functionally blank once the engine is running. Legacy allows it, and historically it has seen play in Zombie-based aggressive shells where the one-mana floor matters and the token fuels sacrifice or tribal synergies. Vintage permits it as well, though the format's speed makes a 2/2 for one largely a footnote outside dedicated strategies. Sarcomancy is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so its competitive relevance is confined to the older formats where it's had a home since the beginning.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Gravecrawler is the closest spiritual analog — also one black mana, also a 2/2 Zombie, and it recurs itself from the graveyard at the cost of requiring another Zombie in play. If you want a pure token that skips any drawback entirely, Lazotep Reanimated and other cheap Zombie-generating spells exist, though none match Sarcomancy's raw efficiency of a 2/2 for one mana at instant or sorcery speed parity.
Price Context
Current price
$16.29 mid tier
At $16.29, Sarcomancy sits in mid-tier pricing for a reserved-list one-drop — the reserve list is the entire story here, since the card itself would otherwise be a bulk rare. It holds value because it can't be reprinted, not because it's irreplaceable in any given deck.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.