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Scythe of the Wretched

Artifact — Equipment

Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Whenever a creature dealt damage by equipped creature this turn dies, return that card to the battlefield under your control. Attach this Equipment to that creature.
Equip {4}

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Mirrodin
Price
$8.74
EDHREC rank
#13285
Buy on TCGplayer
Scythe of the Wretched card art
Scythe of the Wretched turns every combat kill or damage-triggered wipe into a graveyard vacuum — creatures you destroy come back under your control, equipped to the Scythe and ready to swing. The 2-mana equip cost is the catch, but in Ashling the Pilgrim builds that repeatedly nuke the board, the return on that mana is absurd.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ashling the Pilgrim

Ashling the Pilgrim

32.5% of decks · synergy 0.32

Ashling the Pilgrim deals damage to all creatures when she detonates, and Scythe of the Wretched triggers on each creature that dies to a source it's equipped to — meaning a single Ashling activation can reanimate every creature that died to her damage, handing you a board full of stolen threats all wearing the Scythe.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Scythe of the Wretched is a Commander card — the combination of a multiplayer board and creature-heavy strategies gives it enough targets to make the reanimate trigger matter. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; four-mana equipment that requires a creature to die before it does anything is too slow and too conditional against the interaction density in those formats. Oathbreaker can support it in the right aggro shell, but the smaller starting life total compresses games before the engine gets rolling. Stick to Commander, specifically any deck that deals non-combat damage to multiple creatures at once.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

No single card fully replicates Scythe of the Wretched's steal-and-equip loop, but Victimize and Goblin Bombardment together can approximate the "kill your stuff, take it back" rhythm at a fraction of the cost. If the goal is simply snowballing off board wipes, Dawn of the Dead or Lifeline fill the recursive slot without needing the equip infrastructure.

Price Context

Current price

$8.74 mid tier

At $8.74, Scythe of the Wretched sits in mid-tier pricing — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it won't break a focused build. It's a narrow card with a devoted audience in Ashling and similar damage-wipe commanders, so the price is stable rather than climbing.

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Sources

Mentioned

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