Cauldron of Souls

Cauldron of Souls card image

Cauldron of Souls: Artifact, Commander Anthology Volume II. Tap: Choose any number of target creatures. Printings, prices, and format legality on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{5}
Mana value
5
Type
Artifact
Colour identity
Colourless
Rarity
Rare
Set
Commander Anthology Volume II (CM2)
Released
2018-06-08
Collector number
180
Artist
Ron Brown
Commander rank
4,323 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)

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About Cauldron of Souls

Cauldron of Souls is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare colourless artifact from Commander Anthology Volume II (CM2), a Commander product released in June 2018. It is collector number 180 in that set, with art by Ron Brown. It costs {5} (five generic mana) to cast, for a mana value of 5. It has no colour identity. It is legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, PreDH and Penny Dreadful. It has been printed in 4 sets, from Shadowmoor (2008) to The List (2020). The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $7.98 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-12).

Card text

{T}: Choose any number of target creatures. Each of those creatures gains persist until end of turn. (When it dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $7.98 (as of 2026-11-12).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Cauldron of Souls by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

ModernLegal
LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PreDHLegal
Penny DreadfulLegal

Other printings of Cauldron of Souls

Cauldron of Souls has been printed in 4 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

PrintingRarityYear
The List (PLST) #CM2-180Rare2019
Commander 2016 (C16) #246Rare2016
Shadowmoor (SHM) #248Rare2008

Official rulings

The 8 most recent official rulings for Cauldron of Souls, newest first.

  • If a token with no -1/-1 counters on it has persist, the ability will trigger when the token is put into the graveyard. However, the token will cease to exist and can’t return to the battlefield.
  • If a permanent has multiple instances of persist, they’ll each trigger separately, but the redundant instances will have no effect. If one instance returns the card to the battlefield, the next to resolve will do nothing.
  • If a creature with persist that has +1/+1 counters on it receives enough -1/-1 counters to cause it to be destroyed by lethal damage or put into its owner’s graveyard for having 0 or less toughness, persist won’t trigger and the card won’t return to the battlefield. That’s because persist checks the creature’s existence just before it leaves the battlefield, and it still has all those counters on it at that point.
  • When a permanent with persist returns to the battlefield, it’s a new object with no memory of or connection to its previous existence.
  • If multiple creatures with persist are put into the graveyard at the same time (due to combat damage or a spell that destroys all creatures, for example), the active player (the player whose turn it is) puts all of their persist triggers on the stack in any order, then each other player in turn order does the same. The last trigger put on the stack is the first one that resolves. That means that in a two-player game, the nonactive player’s persist creatures will return to the battlefield first, then the active player’s persist creatures do the same. The creatures return to the battlefield one at a time.
  • If a creature with persist stops being a creature, persist will still work.
  • The persist ability triggers when the permanent is put into a graveyard. Its last known information (that is, how the creature last existed on the battlefield) is used to determine whether it had a -1/-1 counter on it.
  • If a nontoken creature that gains persist this way is put into a graveyard, that card will be returned to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it. However, because it’s a new object with no relation to its previous existence, the returned creature will not have persist.

Similar cards

Other artifact cards with no colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Cauldron of Souls is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

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