Smuggler Captain
Creature — Human Pirate
Draft this card face up.
As you draft a card, you may reveal it, note its name, then turn this card face down.
When this creature enters, you may search your library for a card with a name you noted for cards named Smuggler Captain, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Conspiracy: Take the Crown
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #30907
Smuggler Captain enters and immediately trades a card for the best card in any opponent's hand — a clean, immediate two-for-one that doesn't wait for combat. The cost is giving that opponent the card you discard, but in Commander, hitting the right target justifies the symmetry every time.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Smuggler Captain earns its slot — a 75-card singleton format with three opponents means the card you steal is almost always better than average, and the discard cost hits only one player while the intel benefit is yours alone. In Legacy and Vintage, hand disruption is dominated by zero-and-one-mana spells like Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach, and a three-mana 2/2 that hands the opponent their best card back is far too slow to compete. Oathbreaker follows a similar logic to Commander and is the only other format where Smuggler Captain is realistically playable, though the smaller deck size compresses the card-quality gap between your hand and your opponent's.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Smuggler Captain is deep bulk — you can pick up a playset for under a dollar without thinking twice. Bulk rares with narrow applications tend to stay in this range indefinitely, so there's no urgency either way.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.