Polukranos, Unchained
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
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What it does
Polukranos enters with six +1/+1 counters on it. It escapes with twelve +1/+1 counters on it instead.
If damage would be dealt to Polukranos while it has a +1/+1 counter on it, prevent that damage and remove that many +1/+1 counters from it.
1: Polukranos fights another target creature.
Escape—4, Exile six other cards from your graveyard.
Combos with Polukranos, Unchained
The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.
- Vigor Crystalline Crawler Infinite
- Infinite colored mana
- Infinitely large creatures
- Sage of Hours Altar of Dementia Resourceful Defense Infinite
- Lock
- Near-infinite turns
Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.
Rulings
10 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2020-01-24
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying (such as an escape cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was and no matter whether an alternative cost was paid.
- 2020-01-24
If you cast a spell with its escape permission, you can't choose to apply any other alternative costs or to cast it without paying its mana cost. If it has any additional costs, you must pay those.
- 2020-01-24
If a card with escape is put into your graveyard during your turn, you'll be able to cast it right away if it's legal to do so, before an opponent can take any actions.
- 2020-01-24
Once you begin casting a spell with escape, it immediately moves to the stack. Players can't take any other actions until you're done casting the spell.
- 2020-01-24
Escape's permission doesn't change when you may cast the spell from your graveyard.
- 2020-01-24
If the target creature is an illegal target when Polukranos's activated ability tries to resolve, the ability doesn't resolve. If Polukranos is no longer on the battlefield, the target creature won't deal or be dealt damage.
- 2020-01-24
If an amount of damage would be dealt to Polukranos greater than the number of +1/+1 counters on it, all of that damage is prevented, and all of those counters are removed. In most cases, this will result in Polukranos having 0 toughness, so it will be put into its owner's graveyard.
- 2020-01-24
After an escaped spell resolves, it returns to its owner's graveyard if it's not a permanent spell. If it is a permanent spell, it enters the battlefield and will return to its owner's graveyard if it dies later. Perhaps it will escape again—good underworld security is so hard to come by these days.
- 2020-01-24
If a card has multiple abilities giving you permission to cast it, such as two escape abilities or an escape ability and a flashback ability, you choose which one to apply. The others have no effect.
- 2020-01-24
If damage that can't be prevented is dealt to Polukranos, the damage is dealt and you'll simultaneously remove that many +1/+1 counters from it, all before the game checks for lethal damage.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
In the 99
Every deck whose current list includes Polukranos, Unchained, whatever its commander.
Most played under
| Commander | Decks | Games | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nethroi, Apex of Death | 1 | 0 | — |
Colors it shows up in
- Abzan 1 deck
Polukranos, Unchained price history
The Theros Beyond Death #224 printing, as Scryfall reports the TCGplayer market. Updated nightly. Click any version below to chart its price.
Every recorded price change
| Date | Non-foil | Foil |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 26, 2026 | $0.76 | $1.44 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | $0.76 | $1.43 |
| Oct 21, 2026 | $0.75 | $1.43 |
| Oct 19, 2026 | $0.74 | $1.41 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | $0.73 | $1.41 |
| Oct 10, 2026 | $0.74 | $1.41 |
| Oct 8, 2026 | $0.74 | $1.43 |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $0.73 | $1.43 |
| Sep 28, 2026 | $0.75 | $1.43 |
A row is recorded only on nights the price moved, so each price held until the row above it.
Every version of Polukranos, Unchained
4 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly. A printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall publishes none for some of them. Click a card's art to chart that version's price above.
- Normal
- $0.76
- Foil
- $1.44
Promo
Theros Beyond Death Promos
- Normal
- $2.87
- Foil
- $4.46
Promo
Theros Beyond Death Promos
- Foil
- $3.74
Extended Art
- Normal
- $4.61
- Foil
- $5.75
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Polukranos, Unchained. It runs a name search across every version, which covers the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.
Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only. No individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.