First printed in Dominaria United (2022)
All 5 prints
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Creature — Phyrexian Kavu
First strike
As an additional cost to cast red permanent spells, you may pay 2 life. Those spells cost 
less to cast if you paid life this way. This effect reduces only the amount of red mana you pay.
Whenever you cast a red permanent spell, this creature deals 1 damage to any target.
4/4
- Illustrated by
- Steven Belledin
Legality
- Legal in
- Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Penny Dreadful, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Competitive Brawl
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pauper, Future Standard, Alchemy, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH, Tiny Leaders, Standard Brawl
Rulings (2)
- You may only pay the additional cost once per permanent spell.
- Some players may make the mental shortcut that the Defilers effectively turn one of the colored mana symbols in the spell’s cost into a Phyrexian colored mana symbol. Despite the similarity in function, this ability does not cause the spells to have Phyrexian mana symbols in their costs. Sorry, Rage Extractor!
Prices
MTGO price: 0.006 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).
In Limited on MTG Arena
Win rates in Arena drafts and sealed, retrieved from 17Lands (CC BY 4.0).
| Set | GIH WR | vs set | IWD | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominaria United (DMU), Premier Draft | 58.9% | +2.4 | +3.1 | 13232 |
| Dominaria United (DMU), Sealed | 56.7% | +0.6 | +1.1 | 1320 |
- GIH WR
- win rate of the games in which the card was in the opening hand or drawn
- vs set
- points above or below the average win rate of all decks in the set
- IWD
- improvement when drawn: GIH WR minus the win rate when the card stayed in the library
- Games
- games in which the card was seen
Combos
7 combos, the most popular first:
- Infinite creature tokens, Infinite damage…: Aetherflux Reservoir + Cloudstone Curio + Defiler of Instinct
- Infinite damage, Infinite creature ETB…: Defiler of Instinct + Grinning Ignus + Healer of the Pride
- Infinite damage, Infinite lifegain triggers…: Danitha Capashen, Paragon + Defiler of Instinct + Faith Healer + Fiery Mantle
- Infinite damage, Infinite lifegain triggers…: Defiler of Instinct + Faith Healer + Fiery Mantle + Starnheim Courser
- Infinite damage, Infinite lifegain triggers…: Cloud Key + Defiler of Instinct + Faith Healer + Fiery Mantle
- Infinite +1/+1 counters on a creature, Infinite damage…: Defiler of Instinct + Faith Healer + Fiery Mantle + Hero of Iroas
- Infinite card draw, Infinite commander casts…: Aetherflux Reservoir + Dargo, the Shipwrecker + Defiler of Instinct + Razaketh, the Foulblooded