Smoldering Butcher
Creature — Elemental Warrior
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Eventide
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #23603
Smoldering Butcher enters as a 4/3 with haste and deals 2 damage to each opponent when it dies — reasonable body, real damage on the way out. Six mana is the honest cost of that package, and you're paying it for redundancy in sacrifice loops, not for raw efficiency.
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 |
Smoldering Butcher is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but its home is Commander and Pauper — the formats where sacrifice synergies are dense enough to justify the slot. In Commander, it fits aristocrats shells that need another body to loop through Goblin Bombardment or Viscera Seer, and the two-damage trigger scales with four opponents in a way it simply doesn't in 1v1. In Pauper, the haste matters more — getting in for 4 before it trades or gets sacrificed is real incremental damage in an aggressive build. Modern and Legacy have no reason to touch it; the rate is too slow for those formats.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Smoldering Butcher is deep bulk — you're trading a dime for it in any collection swap. Bulk commons with niche Commander appeal don't appreciate, so pick it up because you need it, not because you're holding it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.