Sinister Starfish
Creature — Starfish
: Surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Modern Horizons 2
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #9631
Sinister Starfish offers repeatable scry on a one-mana blue body — cheap enough to slot in without a second thought, impactful enough to matter when you need to find specific pieces. Matoya, Archon Elder and Mirko, Obsessive Theorist both exploit the scry trigger actively, but even outside those shells the card pulls its weight as a low-cost consistency engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills cards equal to the amount of life an opponent lost, then lets you exile instants and sorceries from graveyards to draw — Sinister Starfish keeps the top of your deck clean so Mirko's triggers hit the cards you actually want to mill or recur, and the 76% inclusion rate across over 9,000 decks confirms this is a near-automatic include.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sinister Starfish is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, though it only sees meaningful play in Commander and Pauper. In competitive non-rotating formats like Legacy and Modern, a one-mana 0/3 that scries one per turn is simply too slow — those formats close out games before the incremental advantage accrues. Pauper is where Sinister Starfish has the most non-Commander upside, since the common card pool rewards cheap, durable blockers that generate card selection over time. Commander is the real home: the longer game gives the Starfish enough turns to meaningfully shape your draws, and it pairs cleanly with any blue commander that cares about the top of the library or incremental value.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Matoya, Archon ElderMind Over MatterSinister Starfish
Infinite self-discard triggers; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Matoya, Archon ElderNadir KrakenIntruder AlarmSinister Starfish
Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Near-infinite creature tokens; Near-infinite untap of all creatures; Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Matoya, Archon ElderThe Locust GodIntruder AlarmSinister Starfish
Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Near-infinite creature tokens with haste; Near-infinite untap of all creatures
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Sinister Starfish sits firmly in bulk territory — the kind of card you pick up as an afterthought and never worry about replacing. Bulk commons with active combo and synergy roles rarely spike dramatically, so don't expect this price to move; just grab a copy and move on.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.