Price$14.59 – $17.59
Buy on TCGplayerCabal Ritual
Instant
LegalRampRank #466
Add .
Threshold — Add instead if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard.
KeywordsThreshold
Why is this card good?
Cabal Ritual is one of the best black rituals for explosive, combo-oriented decks. At its base it's a wash-to-slight-loss (pay 2, get 3), but with threshold it nets you +3 mana — and in Commander, hitting seven cards in your graveyard is trivial by turn 4-5.
This is fast-mana for storm, cEDH combo, and reanimator/dredge-style decks. Decks running commanders like Tergrid, K'rrik, or any black combo shell use it to power out a key spell a turn early, fuel a big X-spell, or chain into a kill. It pairs naturally with self-mill, fetchlands, and cheap cantrips that stock the yard.
Don't play it in midrange or "good stuff" decks. Rituals are card disadvantage — you trade a card for temporary mana, which is only worthwhile if you're using that mana to win or generate a massive advantage right now. If you're not building toward an explosive turn that ends or dominates the game, this is just a worse Dark Ritual most of the time.
Related cards
Dark Ritual
Classic black ritual giving net mana burst for fast black spells.
Songs of the Damned
Adds black mana per creature in graveyard, scaling burst ritual.
Culling the Weak
Sacrifice creature for explosive black mana.
Cabal Coffers
Repeatable black mana scaling for big black payoffs.
Bubbling Muck
Doubles swamp mana for a one-time ritual-like burst.
Rain of Filth
Sacrifices lands for a large black mana surge.
Pact of Negation
No—skip
Jet Medallion
Reduces black spell costs, alternative mana acceleration in mono-black.
Printings (4)
Combos (8)
- Saw in Half + Cabal Ritual + Eternal Witness
→ Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers, Infinite ETB
- Displacer Kitten + Eternal Witness + Cabal Ritual
→ Infinite black mana, Cast a subset of spells in your graveyard, Infinite ETB
- Saw in Half + Cabal Ritual + Archaeomancer
→ Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers, Infinite ETB
- Displacer Kitten + Archaeomancer + Cabal Ritual + Dark Ritual
→ Infinite black mana, Infinite ETB, Infinite LTB
- Cormela, Glamour Thief + Saw in Half + Cabal Ritual
→ Infinite black mana, Infinite blue mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells, Infinite death triggers
- Saw in Half + Cabal Ritual + Timeless Witness
→ Infinite creature tokens, Infinite death triggers, Infinite ETB