Tainted Adversary
Creature — Zombie
Deathtouch
When this creature enters, you may pay 
any number of times. When you pay this cost one or more times, put that many +1/+1 counters on this creature, then create twice that many 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens with decayed. (A creature with decayed can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
- Price
- $1.23
- EDHREC rank
- #10800
Tainted Adversary enters as a 2/3 deathtouch that can flood the board with Zombie tokens on the spot — pay two mana per trigger as many times as you want at cast time. It's the kind of card Zul Ashur, Lich Lord was built around: scalable, recursive threat that rewards having mana to sink.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord
Zul Ashur, Lich Lord turns every Zombie entering the battlefield into fuel, so Tainted Adversary's ability to produce multiple Decayed tokens in a single cast is exactly the engine Zul Ashur wants — more bodies means more triggers, more mana, more gas.
The Scarab God
The Scarab God cares about Zombies dying and recurring them as 4/4 copies, and Tainted Adversary's Decayed tokens feed that loop directly — cast it for four or six mana and immediately give The Scarab God two or three fresh bodies to work with.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Tainted Adversary is a staple in any Zombie tribal build — the mana sink clause scales with the ramp your deck generates, and dropping four or six mana into it on the stack can end a board stall immediately. In Modern and Pioneer, it sees fringe play in dedicated Zombie shells where the combination of deathtouch and token production at instant speed provides both a blocker and a threat. Legacy has better options at the two-mana slot, so Tainted Adversary rarely makes the cut there. Commander is where it truly earns its slot, especially once you're generating the kind of mana that makes the kicker-style triggers absurd.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.23 cheap tier
At $1.23, Tainted Adversary sits comfortably in the cheap tier — easy to pick up as a four-of or as a singleton without budget stress. Demand from Zombie tribal keeps a floor under the price, so it's unlikely to crater further.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.