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The Book of Vile Darkness

Legendary Artifact — Book

At the beginning of your end step, if you lost 2 or more life this turn, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
{T}, Exile The Book of Vile Darkness and artifacts you control named Eye of Vecna and Hand of Vecna: Create Vecna, a legendary 8/8 black Zombie God creature token with indestructible and all triggered abilities of the exiled cards.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
mythic
Set
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#14754
Buy on TCGplayer
The Book of Vile Darkness card art
The Book of Vile Darkness is a three-piece artifact that, once assembled, creates a 9/9 creature with trample and a backbreaking triggered ability that hits every opponent at once — the payoff is real. The cost is assembling three separate card types on the battlefield, which makes it slower than Eye of Vecna and more dependent on support pieces than standalone threats like Acererak the Archlich.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Acererak the Archlich

Acererak the Archlich

23.8% of decks · synergy 0.23

Acererak the Archlich generates Dungeon tokens naturally as a core part of his game plan, and The Book of Vile Darkness specifically cares about having a Dungeon in your graveyard as one of its three assembly conditions — Acererak clears that bar almost automatically while advancing the rest of the deck's strategy.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

The Book of Vile Darkness is legal across Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its home is Commander — a 40-life multiplayer format gives you the time to assemble all three pieces and the payoff scales well against multiple opponents. In 60-card formats like Modern and Legacy, the assembly cost is prohibitive; three-piece artifact win conditions don't compete with the format's speed and targeted disruption. Oathbreaker offers a middle ground if your signature spell accelerates the setup, but the raw card investment still demands a dedicated shell.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing data for The Book of Vile Darkness isn't available in this snapshot, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for live figures before buying. Given its niche demand — heavily concentrated in Dungeon-matters Commander builds — it tends to sit in the affordable-to-mid range, but confirm before assuming.

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Sources

Mentioned

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