Sea Serpent
Creature — Serpent
This creature can't attack unless defending player controls an Island.
When you control no Islands, sacrifice this creature.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Intl. Collectors' Edition
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #27817
Sea Serpent is a six-mana 5/5 with a situational evasion clause that requires your opponent to control an Island — a condition you can't reliably enforce and most tables won't satisfy. The only context where it earns a slot is a dedicated gift-giving shell like Jon Irenicus, Shattered One, where donating an unblockable 5/5 restriction to an opponent becomes a punishing political weapon rather than a liability you're stuck with.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sea Serpent is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different things. In Pauper it competes with far more efficient common threats and sees no meaningful play. In Legacy and Vintage the bar for a six-mana creature is effectively "win the game," and Sea Serpent does not. Commander is the only format where its quirky restriction has any narrative value — specifically in group-slug or donation strategies — but even there it sits firmly at the bottom of the candidate pool.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Sea Serpent at this time, but as a decades-old bulk common it reliably shows up in bulk bins and collection lots for pennies. There is no competitive demand driving the price up, so if you need a copy for a themed or casual build, expect to pay essentially nothing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.