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Spawning Pit

Artifact

Sacrifice a creature: Put a charge counter on this artifact.
{1}, Remove two charge counters from this artifact: Create a 2/2 colorless Spawn artifact creature token.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
C
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Jumpstart 2022
Price
$5.40
EDHREC rank
#4234
Buy on TCGplayer
Spawning Pit card art
Spawning Pit converts any creature into a charge counter and then cashes those counters for a 2/2 Spawn token — a free sacrifice outlet that also generates board presence. Gravecrawler loops, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder's thrull overflow, and any death-trigger engine all get a free sacrifice outlet that pays you back in bodies.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

19.2% of decks · synergy 0.18

Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder self-destructs if you accumulate too many thrulls, and Spawning Pit solves that problem elegantly — sacrifice excess thrulls to bank charge counters, then convert them into 2/2 tokens that don't threaten Endrek's survival clause.

02
Yedora, Grave Gardener

Yedora, Grave Gardener

16.6% of decks · synergy 0.16

Yedora, Grave Gardener turns every nontoken creature death into a land entering tapped, and Spawning Pit provides the on-demand sacrifice outlet that triggers that loop repeatedly without needing combat.

03
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker

15.7% of decks · synergy 0.14

Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker returns creatures with power 1 or less at end of turn, and Spawning Pit lets you sacrifice them freely during the turn to bank counters — those same creatures come back and are ready to do it again.

04
Atla Palani, Nest Tender

Atla Palani, Nest Tender

11.1% of decks · synergy 0.10

Atla Palani, Nest Tender needs Eggs to die to cheat creatures into play, and Spawning Pit is a zero-mana-activation outlet that sacrifices Eggs whenever you want and converts the counters into fresh fodder.

05
Teysa Karlov

Teysa Karlov

11.1% of decks · synergy 0.09

Teysa Karlov doubles death triggers, so every creature fed to Spawning Pit fires twice — the Pit becomes a doubling engine that translates any expendable creature into two triggers and a stockpiled charge counter.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Spawning Pit earns its keep — sacrifice outlets on artifacts are rare, free to activate is rarer, and the token generation makes it non-parasitic enough to fit in any black or colorless creature shell. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but competes against faster, more redundant combo infrastructure and rarely makes the cut outside of fringe Recurring Nightmare or Goblin-pile brews. Modern sees it occasionally in budget sacrifice lists, though dedicated combo decks there tend to prefer outlets that do more work in a single activation. Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper are off the table entirely. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's dynamic — tight deck sizes reward cheap, multi-functional permanents, and Spawning Pit pulls weight without demanding colored mana.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Viscera Seer fills the free-sacrifice-outlet role for a single black mana and adds a scry, though it dies to removal and doesn't generate board presence the way Spawning Pit does. Altar of Dementia is a similar artifact outlet and can serve as a win condition in mill strategies, but it costs nothing to activate only after you've already paid the two mana to cast it — Spawning Pit's token-generation upside is worth the slight premium if your deck wants a body at the end of the chain.

Price Context

Current price

$5.40 mid tier

At $5.40, Spawning Pit sits in the mid tier — affordable enough to include without agonizing, but not a throwaway bulk pickup. It holds price well because free artifact sacrifice outlets are structurally scarce and it sees steady demand across Aristocrats, token, and creature-combo builds.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.