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Witherbloom Apprentice

Creature — Human Druid

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{B}{G}
Color identity
BG
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The List
Price
$0.42
EDHREC rank
#4636
Buy on TCGplayer
Witherbloom Apprentice card art
Witherbloom Apprentice drains an opponent for 1 every time you cast a spell, and paired with Chain of Smog it becomes an infinite loop that kills the table before anyone untaps. The two-mana body is the cost — it does nothing alone — but Dina, Soul Steeper doubles the drain and turns that loop into a one-shot.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Dina, Soul Steeper

Dina, Soul Steeper

46.7% of decks · synergy 0.42

Dina, Soul Steeper is the canonical home: her triggered ability stacks on top of Witherbloom Apprentice's drain, so the Chain of Smog loop kills the table twice as fast and Dina's own life-loss clause gives you a second payoff in the command zone.

02
Witherbloom, the Balancer

Witherbloom, the Balancer

39.0% of decks · synergy 0.35

Witherbloom, the Balancer runs a life-payment and life-gain engine that triggers constantly, and Witherbloom Apprentice turns every spell in that engine into incremental drain that compounds quickly at a three- or four-player table.

03
Beledros Witherbloom

Beledros Witherbloom

15.9% of decks · synergy 0.12

Beledros Witherbloom generates life as a resource to spend, and Witherbloom Apprentice converts that spell-heavy gameplan into chip damage that accumulates into a meaningful clock over a long game.

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

In Commander, Witherbloom Apprentice is a role-player with a hard ceiling: it slots into Golgari life-drain shells and enables one of the most compact two-card infinite combos in the format, but outside that specific line it's a 2/2 that drains for 1 and rarely wins games on its own. In Legacy and Vintage, the Chain of Smog combo is technically live but far too slow and fragile against counterspell-dense environments — the formats have faster and more resilient kill conditions. Modern and Pioneer see almost no play; the combo requires two specific cards, has no redundancy, and there are cleaner infinite loops available to dedicated combo decks. Commander is the only format where Witherbloom Apprentice earns a regular slot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.42 bulk tier

At $0.42, Witherbloom Apprentice is firmly bulk — cheap enough to pick up as a throw-in without a second thought. The price reflects its narrow role: high demand from one specific combo deck keeps it from bottoming out entirely, but it will never climb while Chain of Smog remains the only reason to run it.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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