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Shallow Grave

Instant

Return the top creature card of your graveyard to the battlefield. That creature gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Mirage
Price
$68.37
EDHREC rank
#10113
Buy on TCGplayer
Shallow Grave card art
Shallow Grave puts a creature from any graveyard onto the battlefield at instant speed for two mana — haste included, exile trigger deferred until end of turn, which is all the time most combo decks need. Engines like Inalla, Archmage Ritualist can clone the entering creature before the delayed exile ever resolves, and loops involving Scholar of the Ages can simply loop the card back to hand before cleanup.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

16.1% of decks · synergy 0.15

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist pays one generic to copy any entering Wizard, so Shallow Grave reanimates a Wizard at instant speed and Inalla immediately tokens it — the original gets exiled at end of turn, the copy stays.

02
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth

13.1% of decks · synergy 0.12

K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth converts black mana costs to life, meaning Shallow Grave costs zero mana and two life in a K'rrik shell — fast enough to set up a reanimation line on the same turn K'rrik hits the board.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Shallow Grave earns its price tag: singleton graveyards fill fast, targets are enormous, and the instant speed lets it operate as a combat trick or a response to a removal spell that already put your best creature in the bin. In Legacy and Vintage, it sees fringe play in reanimator strategies that want redundancy beyond Reanimate and Exhume, though the exile rider makes it worse in non-combo fair shells. It is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, or Standard, and Pauper is out by rarity.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

973 decks
Scholar of the AgesSacrificeShallow Grave

Scholar of the AgesSacrificeShallow Grave

Infinite black mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count; Return all instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
45 decks
Cormela, Glamour ThiefShallow GravePhyrexian Altar

Cormela, Glamour ThiefShallow GravePhyrexian Altar

Infinite blue mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite red mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
45 decks
Cormela, Glamour ThiefShallow GraveAshnod's Altar

Cormela, Glamour ThiefShallow GraveAshnod's Altar

Infinite blue mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite red mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite storm count

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Apprentice Necromancer covers the haste-reanimation role at a fraction of the cost, though it requires the creature to already be in your graveyard and taps the Necromancer rather than operating freely at instant speed. If the core appeal of Shallow Grave is the surprise factor, Goryo's Vengeance is a strict sorcery-speed upgrade path for legendary targets and costs significantly less — though it also exiles at end of turn and is restricted to legendaries.

Price Context

Current price

$68.37 premium tier

At $68.37, Shallow Grave sits firmly in the premium tier, driven almost entirely by Commander demand in combo-heavy black builds. It has held this range because it is not easily reprinted into Standard-legal sets, but nothing guarantees stability — a Commander precon or Secret Lair inclusion would move the price fast.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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