Tainted Isle
Land
: Add 
.: Add 
or 
. Activate only if you control a Swamp.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Midnight Hunt Commander
- Price
- $1.10
- EDHREC rank
- #494
Tainted Isle enters untapped whenever you control a Swamp — which in any black-blue deck is almost always — making it a dual land that costs nothing in tempo. The Wise Mothman decks in particular run it at over 50% inclusion because a free untapped source of both colors is exactly the kind of infrastructure a four-color-adjacent strategy can't afford to skip.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Wise Mothman
The Wise Mothman spreads -1/-1 counters whenever players draw, and the engine needs every land entering untapped to keep pace — Tainted Isle delivers blue and black with zero tempo loss in a shell that almost always has a Swamp in play.
Aminatou, Veil Piercer
Aminatou, Veil Piercer is a four-mana commander in Esper, and landing her on curve demands clean, untapped mana — Tainted Isle provides both black and blue for free as long as a Swamp is in play, which in a black-heavy shell is a near-certainty.
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist mills opponents at end step and wants to keep shields up, which means every land entering untapped matters — Tainted Isle shows up in nearly three-quarters of Mirko builds because it just works in any deck with a basic Swamp.
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor
Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor runs a dense Faerie package that needs to hold up instant-speed mana for flash creatures, and Tainted Isle entering untapped for blue and black is exactly the kind of painless fixing that keeps the interaction engine live on opponents' turns.
Captain N'ghathrod
Captain N'ghathrod mills and steals, and the deck is almost always swamp-heavy enough that Tainted Isle enters untapped without any deckbuilding concession — it's one of the cleanest dual-land fits in a UB shell that can't afford to spend life on shocklands every game.
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 |
Tainted Isle is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its real home is Commander. In Commander, the condition — controlling a Swamp — is trivially satisfied in any deck with black in the color identity, and the payoff is a dual land that never costs you a turn, which is remarkable at its price point. Legacy and Vintage have access to Underground Sea and Underground River for free, so Tainted Isle rarely competes there unless budget is the constraint. Oathbreaker shares Commander's singleton structure, so the same logic applies: any black-blue Oathbreaker pairing runs this without a second thought.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.10 cheap tier
At $1.10, Tainted Isle sits in the budget dual tier — the kind of land you pick up without deliberating. It's a staple in enough high-volume commanders that demand stays steady, so the price is unlikely to dip meaningfully lower.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.