With the rise of Premodern, a lot of long-forgotten MTG cards are finally getting their time in the spotlight. Cavern Harpy is one such MTG card, hailing from the now quarter-century-old Planeshift. In Premodern, this is a defining card in a competitive combo deck. In Commander, however, it’s barely played at all, despite offering the same services to Dimir decks in the format.
Cavern Harpy MTG
Right out of the gate, Cavern Harpy is a pretty efficient self-bounce option. It’s rare to see creatures like this at low mana costs, so even with the Dimir color restriction, it’s incredibly useful. Bouncing value creatures like Baleful Strix or Ravenous Chupacabra back to your hand for another go is a timeless play, and Harpy lets you pull it off cheaper than most.
Of course, what really sets Cavern Harpy apart from the pack is that it’s a self-bounce creature that can also bounce itself. This elevates it from a one-off instance of value to a full-on engine in its own right. Clone creatures, like Spark Double, benefit hugely from this, since you can ‘reset’ them whenever a better target comes along. If you throw a Flash granter like High Fae Trickster into the mix, you can even use Harpy as a repeatable protection spell to keep your Commander safe.
Thanks to this potent skillset, Cavern Harpy makes an excellent addition to a number of beloved Commander decks. Commanders that rely on their powerful enters abilities, like Kefka, Court Mage and Atraxa, Grand Unifier, can make great use of it as a value piece. It’s also nice with Commanders that build up resources over time, like The Master, Formed Anew and Mairsil, the Pretender. If you’re feeling particularly nasty, Harpy is an easy way to trigger Circu, Dimir Lobotomist, slowly whittling away your opponents’ decks and their options, on the cheap.
Combos In The Cavern
Playing Cavern Harpy for value is all well and good, but, as those who have faced it in Premodern will tell you, this is a card that’s really all about the combos. Harpy is the centerpiece of Aluren decks in that format, and those combo lines work just as well in Commander. By themselves these two cards create an infinite loop, where you cast Harpy for free and bounce it back with its own ability over and over. Throw in a cheap drain creature, like Parasitic Strix or Ukkima, Stalking Shadow, and you have an easy instant-speed win.
If you’re not in the Sultai colors necessary for Aluren, Harpy can also go infinite with Panharmonicon and a land untapper like Peregrine Drake. Drop Drake with Panharmonicon out, and you can generate 10 mana from land untaps. You can then cast Harpy, bounce both creatures back with the doubled trigger, and repeat for infinite mana. From here, a simple Walking Ballista or Torment of Hailfire will finish the job. This combo also works with Great Whale if you’re deeper into the game, or with Yarok, the Desecrated as a stand-in for Panharmonicon.
Interestingly, Cavern Harpy actually unlocks further combos outside of its bounce ability, simply by serving as an unlimited life payment outlet. Having an easy way to get your life as low as you’d like opens up infinite turn combos with Second Chance, for example. It also lets you wipe out the whole table at once by paying all of your life with a Phyrexian Unlife or Platinum Angel active, then slamming a Repay in Kind. While these combos are risky, they’re also surprisingly reliable, with redundancy available in cards like Axis of Mortality and Magus of the Mirror.
Making The Leap
While Cavern Harpy has certainly seen success in the MTG Premodern format, so far, it has failed to make the leap to Commander. According to EDHREC data, only around 3,540 decks in the format run the card. This is a surprising statistic indeed: while it’s a little clunky at times, Harpy is nevertheless a fantastic value piece and combo enabler for many decks.
Fortunately, this lack of attention means that Cavern Harpy is incredibly budget-friendly right now. Near-mint original copies of this classic can be had for just $0.15 on TCGplayer, with The List version coming in even cheaper at $0.10. At these prices, giving this underplayed gem a bash in your next Dimir Commander deck is a no-brainer.
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