Tidepool Turtle
Creature — Turtle
: Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Foundations Jumpstart
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #20784
Tidepool Turtle enters tapped and keeps every other permanent on the battlefield tapped until it leaves — a board-wide stax effect that costs two mana. Outside of an Archelos, Lagoon Mystic shell where that tap clause becomes a combo engine, it's too narrow to justify a slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic
Archelos, Lagoon Mystic cares deeply about whether permanents enter tapped or untapped, and Tidepool Turtle's continuous tap-lock gives Archelos a cheap, persistent enabler that keeps the engine running without burning extra cards.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Tidepool Turtle is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Pauper, Oathbreaker, and Vintage, but only Commander gives it a real home. In Pauper it's a common, so the mana cost is on-curve, but stax creatures need a payoff loop to matter and Pauper lacks the commanders to provide one. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more punishing stax pieces, so Tidepool Turtle doesn't compete. Commander is where the card lives — specifically in the roughly 4,000 Archelos decks that want exactly this effect stapled to a cheap body.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Tidepool Turtle is deep bulk — pick it up for pennies and don't think twice about the financial side. Its price reflects its extremely narrow home; outside Archelos, Lagoon Mystic, demand dries up fast, so don't expect it to climb.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.