Annihilator MTG: How It Works, All 14 Cards, the Sacrifice Math and a $99 Ulamog Deck (2026)

Annihilator is the Magic: The Gathering keyword that makes the biggest Eldrazi feel as bad as they look. “Annihilator N” means “Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices N permanents.” The trigger goes on the stack when the creature is declared as an attacker, so the permanents are gone before blocks. The defending player chooses which ones, and any kind of permanent counts: lands, artifacts, tokens, creatures.

It is also a small keyword. Only 14 cards have ever had it, and they average 9.5 mana. Most guides stop at “it’s very strong”, but the useful questions are how much mana each sacrificed permanent costs and how long the creature has to survive to get there. Eleven of the 14 can’t attack until every opponent has had a turn to answer them. The card that does the most per mana isn’t even on the keyword list: Ulamog, the Defiler averaged annihilator 7.5 when we shuffled all 181 official Commander precons and exiled half of each library.

This guide covers the annihilator rules, the sacrifice math, all 14 annihilator cards and the five that grant it, how to attack sooner, the best annihilator commanders, how to play against it, legality in every format and a $99 Ulamog, the Defiler Commander deck.

What is annihilator in MTG?

Annihilator is rule 702.86 of the Comprehensive Rules. Rule 702.86a gives the definition above, and rule 702.86b adds that multiple instances on one creature trigger separately. Four parts of that one line decide how it plays:

• It triggers on attacking, not on dealing damage. A chump block, a Fog or a removal spell in response doesn’t stop it. The sacrifice has already been decided by the time blocks happen.
• It happens before blocks. The rulings on Kozilek, Butcher of Truth say so directly: a creature sacrificed to annihilator can’t block. The defender often has to choose between keeping a blocker and keeping a land.
• The defending player chooses. Annihilator isn’t targeted removal. They will give up their worst permanents first, which is why the first trigger usually hurts far less than the third.
• It hits one player. In a multiplayer game, “defending player” means one specific player (rule 508.5a), the one that creature is attacking. A Commander pod doesn’t all lose permanents because one Eldrazi swung.

Annihilator rules: 14 common situations

The annihilator math: mana per permanent

Annihilator looks like a rate, so we measured it as one: mana value divided by N. Here is every card with the keyword, cheapest rate first. Mana value tells you how hard the card is to cast, and N tells you what each attack takes.

The table says three things:

• The rate runs from 2.5 to 10 mana per permanent. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn share the best rate at 2.5, and Spawnsire of Ulamog is four times worse at 10. Annihilator 1 on an expensive body is mostly a footnote.
• These are genuinely rare mana costs. Half of the 14 cost 10 or more. Only 64 of the 17,920 Commander-legal creatures do, or 0.36%, and only 331 (1.8%) cost 8 or more.
• It’s cheap to buy. Seven of the 14 have a printing under $2. Artisan of Kozilek, the second most played, is $0.43. The two annihilator 4 creatures are the most expensive, at $43.08 and $35.03.

Nine of the 14 arrived in Rise of the Eldrazi in 2010. Nothing else had the keyword until Flayer of Loyalties in Commander Masters in 2023, and Modern Horizons 3 and its Commander decks added the last four in 2024.

What one attack takes from a board

Divide the board by N and round up, and you get how many attacks clear it. A Commander board in the mid-game can easily reach 15 or 20 permanents, so annihilator 1 or 2 rarely ends a game alone. Annihilator 4 and up starts removing lands and real cards quickly.

This is why annihilator is much scarier in a two-player game. On turn eight of a duel, a defender may have 10 permanents and one player to worry about. In Commander the same creature has to get through a bigger board, and the other two opponents still have their whole boards to answer it with. Token decks feel it least: about 3,300 Commander-legal nonland cards mention creating a token, and 347 mention Treasure. A 1/1 Goblin pays for annihilator just as well as a land does.

The commander damage clock

Annihilator’s other job in Commander is making the combat damage connect. Sacrificing blockers before blocks helps a big creature hit, and 21 commander damage ends the game regardless of life total. Three of these creatures are legal as commanders with annihilator built in:

Ulamog, the Defiler: the biggest annihilator in Commander

Scryfall doesn’t list annihilator as one of this card’s keywords, because the text reads “Ulamog has annihilator X, where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on it.” It’s the most interesting annihilator card printed, and the one Commander players should look at first. Here is the sequence:

1. When you cast it, target opponent exiles the top half of their library, rounded up.
2. It enters with +1/+1 counters equal to the greatest mana value among all cards in exile.
3. Whenever it attacks, the defending player sacrifices that many permanents.

How big does X get? We took all 181 official Commander precon lists on our precons page, shuffled each 20,000 times, and exiled 40 of the 99 cards, which is half of an 80-card library. That’s 3.62 million exiles, and X is the highest mana value in each one:

The average X was 7.52, and 77% of exiles gave annihilator 7 or more. At 1.43 mana per permanent, that’s a better rate than any card in the keyword table. The precon lists ranged from an average of 4.79 (Arm for Battle) to 11.38 (Eldrazi Unbound), so a low-curve opponent is the worse target. Two limits on our number: it only counts that one library, so anything already in exile can raise X, and real Commander decks may play heavier or lighter than precons. Ulamog also isn’t a cheat target: put onto the battlefield without casting, it skips the exile, and X depends on whatever is already in exile.

It also has ward, and the ward cost is sacrificing two permanents. That turns a removal spell into an annihilator trigger the opponent chooses to pay for. If you control It That Betrays, those two nontoken permanents come to you. The ruling on It That Betrays confirms it triggers on any sacrifice, including one paid as a cost, and the trigger resolves before the spell does.

The five cards that grant annihilator

Our count of 14 only includes cards with the actual keyword. Five more give it to a creature, or to themselves under a condition.

Eldrazi Conscription is the one to know. It’s +10/+10 and trample for eight mana on any creature, and it’s the reason a small commander can suddenly threaten lethal in two swings. On a creature that already has annihilator, the instances trigger separately. Nazgûl Battle-Mace is the odd one: annihilator 1 on any creature for 8 mana in total, with It That Betrays stapled on unless the defender pays 3 life per permanent.

How to attack sooner

The cost of annihilator isn’t only the mana. In a four-player game, an ordinary creature with no haste has to survive three opposing turns before its first trigger. Only three of the 14 attack, or steal an attacker, before anyone else gets a turn. Hideous Taskmaster has haste and takes up to one creature from each opponent, each gaining annihilator 1. Flayer of Loyalties takes one creature and makes it a 10/10 with annihilator 2 and haste. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn gives you an extra turn. Everything else needs help:

Two traps here. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn all shuffle their owner’s graveyard into their library when they go to a graveyard from anywhere, so discarding them to reanimate them doesn’t work. That same line means Sneak Attack doesn’t lose them: sacrificed at the end step, they’re shuffled back into your library. And cheating them out skips “when you cast this spell”, so Kozilek draws no cards and Ulamog destroys nothing. Nulldrifter’s evoke cost is no route either: an evoked creature is sacrificed on arrival, so it never attacks.

Doubling the trigger

Echoes of Eternity ($2.39) is the best budget multiplier here: “If a triggered ability of a colorless spell you control or another colorless permanent you control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.” Annihilator is a triggered ability, and nearly all of these creatures are colorless. Ulamog’s Crusher takes 4 per attack with it out, Kozilek takes 8, and Ulamog, the Defiler at X=7 takes 14. It also doubles the cast triggers and copies your colorless spells. A legendary copy still runs into the legend rule, so you keep one of the two.

All 14 annihilator cards at a glance

By Commander play on EDHREC, the keyword holds 858,883 deck slots. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth leads at 143,778, about 1.4% of the 10.49 million decks it could go in, followed by Artisan of Kozilek at 133,257 and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre at 118,692. Here is what the best ones actually do:

• Kozilek, Butcher of Truth draws four when cast, even if countered, because the trigger resolves first. It’s the best card in the group on rate and on value.
• Artisan of Kozilek returns a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield when cast. It costs under 50 cents and is usually the first one to buy.
• It That Betrays turns each nontoken sacrifice into a permanent for you, from any source. Two nontoken sacrifices is a swing of four permanents.
• Pathrazer of Ulamog can only be blocked by three or more creatures, and annihilator 3 strips blockers first.
• Ulamog’s Crusher must attack each combat if able, which suits annihilator but can be a problem at a table with deathtouch blockers. It’s $0.21 and one of the two legal in Pauper.

Best annihilator commanders

Almost no one plays the annihilator creatures as commanders. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth leads only 866 decks on EDHREC and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre leads 201. The keyword does most of its work from the 99, in colorless decks led by a cheaper engine.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is banned in Commander, so annihilator 6 isn’t available there. Its legal cousins from later sets, Emrakul, the Promised End and Emrakul, the World Anew, don’t have annihilator.

Is annihilator legal in Standard, Modern and Commander?

Budget Ulamog, the Defiler annihilator deck ($99)

This is a real, legal 100-card list priced at each card’s cheapest ordinary printing on 5 November 2026, at $99.35 with 29 Wastes counted at zero. It runs eight of the 11 colorless keyword cards that are legal in Commander, plus Eldrazi Conscription and Idol of False Gods, under a commander with annihilator X of its own. The nonland cards average 4.61 mana, even with 15 of them at mana value 7 or more.

• Ramp is the whole first half of the game. Ten mana artifacts, including Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Basalt Monolith and Dreamstone Hedron, plus Palladium Myr, Hedron Crawler and Forsaken Monument, which doubles every {C} you tap for. Eldrazi Temple and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods add more. Colored ramp isn’t an option in a colorless deck. For the ramp in other decks, read our ramp guide.
• Haste for the turn it lands. Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Crashing Drawbridge and Assault Suit. Assault Suit gives haste, +2/+2 and “can’t be sacrificed” for four mana and {3} to equip. Its other line can hand the creature to an opponent during their upkeep. That’s optional, and you shouldn’t usually choose it.
• Exile matters twice. Oblivion Sower exiles four cards and takes the lands. Ulamog’s Despoiler returns two exiled opposing cards to their graveyards to grow by four counters, so play it after Ulamog has counted them.
• Answers are colorless. All Is Dust is one-sided here, since it only makes players sacrifice colored permanents. Oblivion Stone, Meteor Golem, Scour from Existence, Titan’s Presence, Warping Wail, Spatial Contortion and Null Elemental Blast cover the rest. Geode Golem casts Ulamog for free after one connection.

The ten most expensive cards are 70% of the price:

Upgrades worth buying first: Kozilek, Butcher of Truth ($43.08), Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre ($35.03) and Spawnsire of Ulamog ($9.21) complete the colorless keyword set for $87.32. Paste any list into our free deck analyzer to check the curve, look up current prices on our card finder, or browse more builds in community decks.

How the deck plays

Spend the first four or five turns on mana and hold your expensive creatures. Around six mana, Conduit of Ruin finds a threat and reduces the next creature’s cost by two, and Artisan of Kozilek can bring back something that’s been answered. Aim to cast Ulamog with Greaves ready, attack the player with the fewest permanents or the best board, and let the ward cost make removal awkward. Put Eldrazi Conscription on whatever survives. It adds trample as well. On Ulamog at X=7 that’s 24 power, which is lethal commander damage in one swing if it connects. Move Lightning Greaves off first, since its shroud stops you targeting the creature; Swiftfoot Boots doesn’t have that problem (see our equip guide).

How to beat annihilator

Answer the creature before it attacks. Killing it after the trigger is on the stack is too late for that trigger, so spot removal in your own turn, or at the beginning of combat, is what works. Exile beats destroy, since Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is indestructible and these creatures often come back. Rather than removal, these cards stop the sacrifice:

When the trigger is on the stack, you still have choices. Tap the lands you plan to lose for mana first and use it on instants during the declare attackers step, because mana empties at the end of the step, not when the land goes. Sacrifice tokens and spent permanents before lands, and keep a land count that lets you cast your best answer on your turn. And if you have a sacrifice outlet, remember the permanents you sacrifice in response no longer count toward your N, so you’d only do it for value.

Annihilator FAQ

What does annihilator do in MTG?

Whenever a creature with annihilator N attacks, the defending player sacrifices N permanents of their choice. It triggers on the attack and resolves before blockers are declared.

Who chooses what gets sacrificed?

The defending player. Any permanent counts, including tokens and lands, and they can pick their worst ones first.

Does annihilator hit every opponent in Commander?

No. “Defending player” means one player, the one that creature is attacking (rule 508.5a). Two annihilator creatures attacking two different players each make their own defender sacrifice.

Does annihilator trigger if the creature enters attacking?

No. Rule 508.3a says “whenever this creature attacks” abilities only trigger when it’s declared as an attacker. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar putting Kozilek in attacking gets no annihilator trigger.

Can I respond to annihilator?

Yes. It’s a triggered ability on the stack, so you can cast instants, tap permanents for mana or sacrifice things for value. Killing the attacker won’t stop that trigger (rule 113.7a).

Does annihilator stack?

Yes. Multiple instances on one creature trigger separately (rule 702.86b), so a Kozilek enchanted with Eldrazi Conscription triggers for 4 and for 2.

Do tokens count for annihilator?

Yes. A token is a permanent, so a Treasure or a 1/1 satisfies the sacrifice as well as a land does. That’s the cheapest way to absorb a trigger.

What is the highest annihilator in Magic?

Among fixed numbers, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has annihilator 6, and it’s banned in Commander. Ulamog, the Defiler has annihilator X and regularly goes higher: X averaged 7.52 in our 181-precon test.

Is annihilator good in Commander?

Yes, on the big ones, with the right ramp. It’s weaker than in a two-player game because it hits one player and Commander boards are larger. It’s at its best on annihilator 4 or more, or with Echoes of Eternity doubling the trigger.

What is the best annihilator card?

By play, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth (143,778 Commander decks on EDHREC on 5 November 2026). By rate in Commander, Ulamog, the Defiler. On a budget, Artisan of Kozilek at $0.43.