Silumgar, the Drifting Death
Legendary Creature — Dragon
Flying, hexproof
Whenever a Dragon you control attacks, creatures defending player controls get -1/-1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2017
- Price
- $0.80
- EDHREC rank
- #4970
Silumgar, the Drifting Death hits the board as a 3/7 flying, hexproof Dragon that shrinks every creature an opponent controls by -1/-1 for each Dragon you attack with — a passive board-suppression engine that punishes creature-based strategies without requiring any setup. Six mana is the honest cost: you need a Dragon-dense board to maximize the debuff, so it underperforms in the early game and in decks that don't commit to the tribe.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sivitri, Dragon Master
Sivitri, Dragon Master tutors Silumgar, the Drifting Death directly from the library, making the hexproof Dragon a reliable threat rather than a late draw — the -1/-1 anthem scales cleanly with every other Dragon Sivitri assembles.
The Ur-Dragon
The Ur-Dragon rewards attacking with Dragons, which is exactly when Silumgar, the Drifting Death's debuff fires — in a five-color pile already swinging with eight or more Dragons, the -1/-1 effect routinely wipes out token armies and neuters mana dorks before damage resolves.
Indominus Rex, Alpha
Indominus Rex, Alpha wants a hand full of creatures with diverse keywords to splice together, and Silumgar, the Drifting Death supplies both flying and hexproof — two high-value keywords that make Indominus a harder-to-answer threat.
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 |
Commander is where Silumgar, the Drifting Death belongs: multiplayer means more opponents running creature boards, the Dragon tribal density needed to weaponize the -1/-1 effect is achievable, and hexproof protects the six-mana investment from targeted removal. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but effectively unplayed — six mana is a non-starter in formats where games end on turn one or two, and the effect doesn't compensate for the cost in a fair-game context. Pioneer and Modern are similarly hostile to a six-mana Dragon with no immediate enter-the-battlefield impact; aggressive and midrange decks will simply kill you before Silumgar matters. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home if the signature spell supports a Dragon-attack gameplan, but the 60-card singleton constraint makes assembling enough Dragons to abuse the anthem harder than in Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.80 bulk tier
At $0.80, Silumgar, the Drifting Death sits firmly in bulk territory — a 76% inclusion rate in Sivitri decks and nearly 47,000 Ur-Dragon lists haven't pushed the price, which tells you supply is deep and demand is steady but not spiking. It's a safe pickup at this price: you're not speculating, you're just buying a Dragon tribal staple for less than a pack of sleeves.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Sivitri, Dragon Master
- The Ur-Dragon
- Indominus Rex, Alpha
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.