Whip of Erebos
Legendary Enchantment Artifact
Creatures you control have lifelink.
, 
: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate only as a sorcery.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #714
Whip of Erebos gives your entire team lifelink and a reanimation outlet on one four-mana artifact — the lifegain alone justifies the slot in most black creature decks. The exile-on-leave clause is a real cost, but shells built around enter-the-battlefield triggers or Volcano Hellion-style burst damage don't care, and Winter, Cynical Opportunist decks actively weaponize the temporary recursion.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Winter, Cynical Opportunist
Winter, Cynical Opportunist builds around flickering and recurring creatures for value, and Whip of Erebos slots in as both a lifelink anthem and a reanimation engine that feeds the loop — the exile clause is irrelevant when Winter's already blinking things out before end of turn.
Rendmaw, Creaking Nest
Rendmaw, Creaking Nest wants creatures entering and leaving the battlefield to generate Insects, and Whip of Erebos delivers exactly that — reanimate a creature, trigger Rendmaw on entry, let it exile at end of turn for another trigger, all while the lifelink keeps your life total healthy.
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter benefits from recurring high-value creatures on the cheap, and Whip of Erebos provides a repeatable reanimation source that also pads your life total against aggressive tables.
Be'lakor, the Dark Master
Be'lakor, the Dark Master helms Demon-heavy lists that run large, expensive creatures, and Whip of Erebos pulls double duty — it recovers a fallen Demon mid-game and gives the whole board lifelink to offset the life costs that Demon payoffs routinely demand.
G'raha Tia, Scion Reborn
G'raha Tia, Scion Reborn cares about creatures entering from zones outside the hand, making Whip of Erebos a natural fit as a repeatable graveyard-to-battlefield effect that also shores up the life total G'raha lists often spend down aggressively.
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 |
Commander is where Whip of Erebos does its best work — 100-card singleton tables give you plenty of high-value creatures worth reanimating, and the global lifelink can swing a game's math dramatically against aggro or burn-heavy pods. In Pioneer and Modern it's legal but sees virtually no competitive play; four mana for an effect that only triggers once per turn can't keep up with the tempo of those formats, and dedicated reanimator strategies have faster, more consistent options. Legacy and Vintage are likewise legal but uninterested — the power ceiling in those formats is simply too high for Whip of Erebos to earn a slot outside of fringe casual builds. Stick to Commander and Oathbreaker, where the slower pace and creature-heavy gameplay let it shine.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Volcano HellionWhip of ErebosCoalhauler Swine
Infinite damage; Infinite lifegain
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Whip of Erebos isn't available at the moment, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for a current figure. Historically it's landed in the $1–3 range — inexpensive enough that it's rarely a budget concern even if it creeps up slightly.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.