Sunken City
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this enchantment unless you pay 
.
Blue creatures get +1/+1.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Dark
- Price
- $0.38
- EDHREC rank
- #26798
Sunken City pumps all your blue creatures +1/+1 for as long as it stays in play — the catch is you pay 2 life per upkeep to keep it. That recurring cost makes it a bad deal in almost every shell; the pump is real, but two life per turn for a static anthem is not a trade worth making when better options exist.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Sunken City is a fringe inclusion — blue creature-heavy decks like Talrand, Sky Summoner or Orvar, the All-Form can extract some value from the anthem, but paying 2 life per upkeep in a multiplayer game means you're draining yourself every single turn while three opponents develop their boards. Pauper is where Sunken City has its most credible history, as the common restriction limits anthem access and a persistent pump on mono-blue tempo or Delver builds carries real weight at that card-quality floor. Legacy and Vintage have zero interest — the formats have Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, and far more efficient ways to buff creatures, so Sunken City never sees competitive play there. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander in this regard: the life cost is punishing, and the card simply doesn't make cuts in any optimized 60-card singleton list.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.38 bulk tier
At $0.38, Sunken City is deep bulk — you can pick up a copy for pocket change and it will likely stay there. The card sees no competitive demand and only niche casual play, so there's no meaningful floor to protect that price from drifting lower.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.