Skeleton Key
Skeleton Key: Artifact - Equipment, Shadows over Innistrad. Equipped creature has skulk. Printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.
- Mana cost
- {1}
- Mana value
- 1
- Type
- Artifact - Equipment
- Colour identity
- Colourless
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Set
- Shadows over Innistrad (SOI)
- Released
- 2016-04-08
- Collector number
- 263
- Artist
- Daniel Ljunggren
- Keywords
- Equip
Build around this card with Grover
About Skeleton Key
Skeleton Key is a Magic: The Gathering card, an uncommon colourless artifact from Shadows over Innistrad (SOI), an expansion set released in April 2016. It is collector number 263 in that set, with art by Daniel Ljunggren. It costs {1} (one generic mana) to cast, for a mana value of 1. It has no colour identity. It is legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander and Oathbreaker. Shadows over Innistrad is its only printing so far. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.35 (normal finish, as of 2026-10-23).
Card text
Equipped creature has skulk. (It can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.)
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
Equip {2}
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.35 (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 Skeleton Key by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
| Pioneer | Legal |
|---|---|
| Modern | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
Official rulings
Two official rulings apply to Skeleton Key, newest first.
- Skulk matters only as blockers are chosen. Modifying either creature’s power after blockers are chosen won’t cause the attacking creature to become unblocked.
- If you cause a creature to have 0 power or less, use the actual value (which may be negative) to determine whether it can block or be blocked. A creature with skulk and 0 or less power most likely won’t be blocked, but it won’t deal combat damage and won’t trigger any abilities that trigger when combat damage is dealt.
Similar cards
Other artifact cards with no colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.