Swallowed by Leviathan
Instant
Choose target spell. Surveil 2, then counter the chosen spell unless its controller pays 
for each card in your graveyard. (To surveil 2, look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Final Fantasy
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #9533
Swallowed by Leviathan exiles a creature and returns it to the battlefield under its owner's control at end of turn — a flicker effect stapled to a permission-granting cost that turns your opponent into an unwilling collaborator. The catch is real: you need the target player's blessing, which makes this a political tool first and a reliable removal spell never. In Mirko, Obsessive Theorist shells it earns its slot by cycling permanents through exile to trigger mill and graveyard synergies, not by answering threats.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills on every exile trigger, so Swallowed by Leviathan generates value just by resolving — even if the creature walks back. The political ask is also lighter in Mirko builds that want to recur their own creatures through exile loops.
Emet-Selch, Unsundered
Emet-Selch, Unsundered cares about permanents entering and leaving exile, and Swallowed by Leviathan is a cheap way to move a permanent through that zone on demand. It threads directly into reanimation and ETB recursion lines that Emet-Selch decks are built around.
Sin, Spira's Punishment
Sin, Spira's Punishment rewards exiling opponents' permanents, and Swallowed by Leviathan is a temporary exile effect that still counts for those triggers even though the card returns end of turn. It's a low-investment way to hit the exile clause on a budget.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Swallowed by Leviathan is legal across Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Standard, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but outside of Commander it's effectively unplayable — a permission-dependent exile effect with no guaranteed outcome is nowhere near the bar for competitive 60-card formats. In Commander, the political angle is where it lives: multiplayer games create table dynamics where players genuinely consent to flickering their own creatures for value, making the cost less prohibitive than it reads in a vacuum. It finds its strongest home in graveyard and exile-matters decks that treat the exile trigger as the point, with the return clause as a feature rather than a flaw.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Swallowed by Leviathan is pure bulk — buy a copy without thinking twice if the deck wants it. At that price it won't hold or gain value, but that's irrelevant; you're buying the effect, not the card.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
- Emet-Selch, Unsundered
- Sin, Spira's Punishment
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.