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Sifter of Skulls

Creature — Eldrazi

Devoid (This card has no color.)
Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies, create a 1/1 colorless Eldrazi Scion creature token. It has "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}." ({C} represents colorless mana.)

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Oath of the Gatewatch
Price
$0.91
EDHREC rank
#3272
Buy on TCGplayer
Sifter of Skulls card art
Sifter of Skulls turns every non-token creature death into a free 1/1 Eldrazi Scion, which means any loop that kills creatures repeatedly — think Reassembling Skeleton dying over and over — generates unlimited mana without any extra setup. In Yawgmoth, Thran Physician decks especially, that mana fuels the engine before opponents can answer it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

39.2% of decks · synergy 0.35

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician sacrifices creatures as a cost, so Sifter of Skulls converts every Yawgmoth activation into a Scion that replaces the creature you just spent — the engine feeds itself.

02
Teysa Karlov

Teysa Karlov

32.9% of decks · synergy 0.30

Teysa Karlov doubles death triggers, which means Sifter of Skulls produces two Scions per non-token creature death instead of one, dramatically accelerating the mana and token count available for follow-up plays.

03

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER

20.8% of decks · synergy 0.17

Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER cares about creatures dying to stack counters toward his win condition, and Sifter of Skulls ensures those deaths also generate Scion tokens that can be sacrificed for additional triggers or mana.

04
Massacre Girl

Massacre Girl

12.7% of decks · synergy 0.09

Massacre Girl's ability wipes the board through a cascade of -1/-1 effects, and Sifter of Skulls converts the entire creature massacre into a flood of Eldrazi Scions — leaving you as the only player with a meaningful battlefield after the dust settles.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Sifter of Skulls is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its home is Commander by a wide margin — the four-mana 4/3 body is too slow for competitive non-rotating formats where the game is often decided before it attacks. In Commander, the death-trigger payoff scales with the number of players and the frequency of sacrifice loops, making it dramatically better than its raw stats suggest. Pioneer and Modern could theoretically support it in aristocrats shells, but there are cheaper and more redundant options at that price point in those formats, so it rarely makes the cut.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.91 bulk tier

At $0.91, Sifter of Skulls sits firmly in bulk territory, and that price is unlikely to climb given its narrow archetype home and lack of competitive demand outside Commander. It's an easy include on budget — you're paying almost nothing for a card that pulls real weight in the right shell.

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Sources

Mentioned

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