Skullclamp
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/-1.
Whenever equipped creature dies, draw two cards.
Equip 
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Commander 2011
- Price
- $5.64
- EDHREC rank
- #43
Skullclamp is the most efficient card draw in Commander — one mana to equip, and any 1/1 becomes two cards. The only real trade-off is that it demands a steady supply of small creatures, so commanders like The Locust God that generate tokens continuously extract full value while controlling decks mostly don't.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | banned |
| modern | banned |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Skullclamp carries two restrictions that got it banned in Legacy and Modern: it costs one mana to cast and one to equip, making it trivially repeatable on any board with small creatures. Those formats have the redundant 1/1 producers — Goblin tokens, Elves, Thopters — to turn it into a same-turn draw engine that warps games as early as turn two. Commander gives it a pass for two reasons: the 100-card singleton structure means you see it in roughly one in three games, and the four-player threat assessment slows the payoff enough that the raw card advantage rarely translates into a lock before the table can answer it.
Where It Shines
Where the extra mana on turn one matters most
Combos featuring The Locust God + Ashnod's Altar
Skullclamp on a Locust God insect loop turns each sacrifice into two fresh cards, which make two more insects, which feed Ashnod's Altar for two more colorless mana — the engine sustains itself and draws you to a win condition without needing any additional setup.
Combos featuring The Locust God + Cryptolith Rite
Skullclamp keeps the insect count growing fast enough that Cryptolith Rite converts the board into a mana engine before opponents can stabilize, letting you cash in tokens for cards and mana simultaneously on the same turn.
Big-mana shells like Edgar Markov
Edgar Markov floods the board with 1/1 Vampire tokens on every creature cast, and Skullclamp converts any surplus attacker — one that would trade in combat anyway — into two cards for a single mana, giving the deck a draw engine that costs no additional card slots beyond the equipment itself.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
The Locust GodSkullclampAshnod's Altar
Infinite card draw; Near-infinite colorless mana; Near-infinite creature tokens with haste; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →
The Locust GodSkullclampCryptolith Rite
Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite colored mana; Near-infinite creature tokens with haste; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB
View combo details →
The Locust GodSkullclampPhyrexian Altar
Infinite card draw; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers
View combo details →
Myr BattlesphereEldrazi DisplacerAshnod's AltarSkullclamp
Infinite card draw; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite blinking of most creatures; Infinite blinking
View combo details →
Jan Jansen, Chaos CrafterDross ScorpionSkullclampLiquimetal Torque
Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Near-infinite LTB
View combo details →Price Context
Current price
$5.64 mid tier
At $5.64, Skullclamp sits in the mid tier — affordable enough that there's no budget excuse to omit it, expensive enough that reprints matter. It has been reprinted several times and the price reflects that supply; this is close to the floor for a card that slots into roughly a third of all Commander decks.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.