Scourge of the Skyclaves
Creature — Demon
Kicker
When you cast this spell, if it was kicked, each player loses half their life, rounded up.
Scourge of the Skyclaves's power and toughness are each equal to 20 minus the highest life total among players.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #11308
Scourge of the Skyclaves enters as an X/X where X is 20 minus the highest life total among your opponents — at a table where someone's still at 40, that's a 20/20 for two mana. The cost is real: your own life total feeds the formula, so you need to have taken damage first, and Bloodletter of Aclazotz style redundancy or a Nethroi, Apex of Death reanimation shell keeps it from being a one-shot gamble.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy

Nethroi, Apex of Death
Nethroi, Apex of Death reanimates Scourge of the Skyclaves for free as part of its mutate trigger, and since Scourge has zero power by default until the life-total math resolves, it qualifies for Nethroi's 'total power 10 or less' ceiling — letting you recur it alongside a full board of other zero-power creatures and arrive at a massive threat without paying the two-mana kicker a second time.
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, Scourge of the Skyclaves regularly enters as a 15/15 or larger by the midgame — four players means at least one opponent has taken damage, and the card's ceiling scales directly with how aggressive the table has been. Modern and Legacy have run it in Death's Shadow shells, where the pilot deliberately shreds their own life total to land a massive threat on turn two or three alongside Shadow itself. Pioneer is the weakest home; the format's aggressive decks don't reliably drop life totals fast enough to make Scourge a consistent threat, and the lack of fetchlands limits the self-damage infrastructure. Vintage has the raw speed to enable it but rarely needs a two-mana beater when the format ends on turn one.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card


Bloodletter of AclazotzScourge of the Skyclaves
Each opponent loses the game; Infinite lifeloss
View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Scourge of the SkyclavesWarlock Class
Each opponent loses the game; Near-infinite lifeloss
View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Astarion, the DecadentScourge of the Skyclaves
Near-infinite lifeloss; Target opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
No current price data is available for Scourge of the Skyclaves in this context — check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for the live number. Given its role as a staple in Death's Shadow strategies across multiple formats and as a high-synergy Commander inclusion, it has historically held above bulk rare territory and is worth picking up if you're building around it rather than waiting.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.

