Graveyard Hate in Commander: Some Forgotten Gems.
In Commander, graveyards are more than just discard piles, they’re powerful zones full of recursion, value, and combo potential. Without interaction, you risk letting an opponent win off the back of their second hand. This article highlights 10 efficient and incremental ways to fight back, across all colors.
10 Graveyard Hate Cards You May Have Forgotten
🟢 1. Scavenging Ooze
What it does:
A 2-mana creature that lets you pay {G} to exile a card from any graveyard. If it’s a creature, you gain 1 life and put a +1/+1 counter on the Ooze.
Why it’s good:
It provides repeatable, selective graveyard hate at instant speed and turns that disruption into meaningful board presence. The life gain and growth make it excellent in long games.
Where it fits best:
Green decks that like to sit on open mana or care about counters, life gain, or hate with upside. Particularly great in +1/+1 counter decks and casual midrange pods.
✅ Best for: Mono-green midrange, Golgari value, +1/+1 counter decks.
🟢 2. Deathgorge Scavenger
What it does:
A 3-mana 3/2 Dinosaur that exiles a card from any graveyard when it enters or attacks. If it’s a creature, you gain 2 life. If it’s noncreature, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Why it’s good:
Zero mana activation required. It’s aggressive, passive hate that’s easy to miss until it’s removed key pieces. Plus, the modal utility lets you choose between survivability and pressure.
Where it fits best:
Aggro-to-midrange green decks that want to keep swinging, Gruul, Naya, or Dinosaur builds especially.
✅ Best for: Aggro green builds, Dinosaur tribal, or decks that like combat-triggered value.
🟢 3. Endurance
What it does:
A 3/4 creature with flash and reach. When it enters, a target player shuffles their graveyard into their library. Can be evoked by pitching a green card.
Why it’s good:
It offers surprise, full-yard disruption and can be cast for free, stopping combos or recursion chains instantly. It also doubles as a protection tool to save your own yard.
Where it fits best:
Decks that can afford to pitch green cards or need high-impact flash interaction, green tempo/control, toolbox builds, or any deck that hates Living Death.
✅ Best for: Green tempo decks, creature-heavy toolbox builds, anti-combo metas.
⚪⚫ 4. Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
What it does:
Planeswalker that can exile up to two cards from a graveyard each turn with her +1. Her -1 drains opponents based on exile count. Her ultimate turns that exile into massive damage.
Why it’s good:
Kaya provides consistent, turn-by-turn graveyard hate while advancing your game plan. Few hate cards scale this well into late game.
Where it fits best:
BW/x decks, aristocrats, or control builds looking for passive disruption and a scaling clock.
✅ Best for: Orzhov control, Esper stax, or enchantment-heavy exile builds.
⚫ 5. Graveyard Trespasser
What it does:
A 3-mana 3/3 with ward (discard a card), that exiles a card from a graveyard on ETB and attack. Flips into Graveyard Glutton, which exiles two at a time.
Why it’s good:
A resilient threat with built-in graveyard disruption. Difficult to remove and consistently applies pressure to recursion decks without needing support.
Where it fits best:
Midrange black decks, Zombie lists, or any Rakdos/Golgari build that wants disruption stapled to a creature body.
✅ Best for: Mono-black midrange, sacrifice decks, Rakdos creature value builds.
🟢 6. Nightsoil
What it does:
Nightsoil is a 2-mana enchantment that lets you pay two generic mana to exile two creature cards from any graveyard and make a 1/1 green Saproling token.
Why it’s good:
This is one of the oldest and most overlooked graveyard hate cards that doubles as a token engine. It doesn’t just hate out recursion strategies, it turns them into board presence.
Where it fits best:
In any green deck that:
- Runs token synergy (Cathars' Crusade, Parallel Lives)
- Wants repeatable graveyard exile
- Can take advantage of the low mana activation cost
✅ Best for: Golgari, Selesnya, or token-centric green decks.
⚫ 7. Cling to Dust
What it does:
This 1-mana instant exiles a card from a graveyard, and either gains you 3 life (if it's a creature) or lets you draw a card. It has escape, meaning you can cast it again by exiling cards from your own graveyard.
Why it’s good:
Cling to Dust offers flexibility, you can disrupt key cards in someone’s graveyard, or cycle it into your next draw. The escape cost means you can use it repeatedly, and unlike many hate cards, it fits smoothly into draw-heavy or self-mill decks.
Where it fits best:
Any black deck that wants:
- Utility in the early game
- Instant-speed interaction with graveyard threats
- A non-committal, repeatable hate spell
✅ Best for: Mono-black control, Dimir reanimator, or any deck with card draw engines.
🔘 8. Scavenger Grounds
What it does:
This land taps for colorless mana, but its real value lies in its activated ability: by sacrificing a Desert, it exiles all graveyards.
Why it’s good:
It doesn’t take a spell slot, works in literally any deck, and acts as a panic button when graveyards get out of control. You can also bluff its use and force opponents to change their lines.
Where it fits best:
Since it’s colorless and nonbasic, it can go into:
- Any 2 or less colour mana base with ease
- Artifact decks, budget decks, or land recursion shells
✅ Best for: Any deck with even minor room for utility lands.
🔘 9. Warping Wail
What it does:
A colorless instant with three modes:
- Exile a creature with CMC 1
- Counter a sorcery spell
- Make a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion token
Why it’s good:
This isn’t pure graveyard hate, but it’s amazing against graveyard-reliant sorceries like:
- Living Death
- Reanimate
- Yawgmoth’s Will
- Past in Flames
The ability to counter only sorceries might sound narrow, but those are often the biggest threats to recur something from the graveyard.
Where it fits best:
Decks that:
- Consistently generate colorless mana
- Want tempo disruption
- Need low-curve instant interaction
✅ Best for: Eldrazi, artifact decks.
🔘 10. Soul-Guide Lantern
What it does:
Enters the battlefield and exiles one card from an opponent’s graveyard. Can be sacrificed to exile all graveyards. Alternatively, you can sacrifice it to draw a card.
Why it’s good:
It’s low-commitment, flexible, and doesn’t disrupt your own graveyard unless you choose to nuke everything. Plus, it fits in every deck and replaces itself with card draw if needed.
Where it fits best:
Truly universal:
- Artifact decks
- Decks that want 1-mana interaction
- Any list looking to hedge against graveyard combos
- Any Blue/Red based deck that struggles with graveyard hate
✅ Best for: All decks, especially budget or high-efficiency brews.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need to run five graveyard nukes to stay safe, but you should never run zero. Just 2–3 hate pieces like these can stop a combo, slow a value engine, or keep the recursion decks honest. Choose pieces that align with your deck’s colors, style, and mana base and you’ll always have the answer when someone gets graveyard greedy.