Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor: Creature - Vampire Warlock, Secrets of Strixhaven. This creature enters prepared. Prices and printings on Mana Grove.
Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor is a Magic: The Gathering card, a mythic rare black creature from Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS), an expansion set released in April 2026. It is collector number 80 in that set, with art by Jodie Muir. It costs {3}{B} (three generic and one black mana) to cast, for a mana value of 4. It is a 5/4 creature. Its colour identity is black. It is legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy and Gladiator. It has been printed in 2 sets. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $12.33 (normal finish, as of 2026-10-23).
Card text
This creature enters prepared. (While it's prepared, you may cast a copy of its spell. Doing so unprepares it.)
At the beginning of your end step, if two or more creatures died this turn, this creature becomes prepared.
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $12.33 (as of 2026-10-23).
The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.
Format legality
Legality of Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
Other printings of Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor
Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.
Printing
Rarity
Year
Secrets of Strixhaven Promos (PSOS) #80p
Mythic
2026
Secrets of Strixhaven (SOS) #324
Mythic
2026
Official rulings
The 8 most recent official rulings for Emeritus of Woe // Demonic Tutor, newest first.
Only the current controller of a prepared creature can cast the copy of its prepare spell in exile. It doesn't matter who owns that creature or who controlled it when it became prepared.
A creature without a prepare spell can't become prepared.
Emeritus of Woe's last ability will check as your end step starts to see if two or more creatures have died this turn. If they haven't, the ability won't trigger at all. It's not possible to cause creatures to die during your end step in time to have the ability trigger.
A creature with a prepare spell can't become prepared more than once at the same time. For example, Emeritus of Ideation is on the battlefield and is prepared. When it attacks, its last ability triggers. When that ability resolves, its controller may still exile eight cards from their graveyard, but doing so won't cause Emeritus of Ideation to become prepared a second time or create a second copy of Ancestral Recall in exile.
A preparation card is a creature card in every zone. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Emeritus of Ideation is a blue creature whose mana value is 5. It can't be the target of Zealous Lorecaster's triggered ability ("When this creature enters, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.").
If a prepared creature stops being a creature, it will still be prepared, and the copy of its prepare spell will remain in exile. That permanent's controller will still be able to cast it. The same is true if a prepared creature becomes a copy of something else, even if it's then a permanent without a prepare spell.
Being prepared isn't a copiable value. If a permanent becomes a copy of a prepared creature, it won't be prepared. That permanent will have the alternative characteristics, though, and some other effect could cause it to become prepared later.
Creating a copy of a creature's prepare spell in exile ignores copy exceptions applied to that creature that would affect the copiable values of that spell. For example, say a player casts Croaking Counterpart (a sorcery that says "Create a token that's a copy of target non-Frog creature, except it's a 1/1 green Frog.") targeting Goblin Glasswright. The token copy of Goblin Glasswright will enter prepared as a 1/1 green Frog creature, but the copy of Craft with Pride in exile will still be a red sorcery. The copy of Craft with Pride won't be green, a creature, or a Frog, and it won't have power or toughness.
Similar cards
Other creature cards with a black colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.