Aether Burst
Instant
Return up to X target creatures to their owners' hands, where X is one plus the number of cards named Aether Burst in all graveyards as you cast this spell.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Odyssey
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #29585
Aether Burst bounces one or more creatures for a single blue mana — the catch is that the copies in your graveyard determine how many targets you get. Without setup, it's a one-mana Unsummon; with two or three copies already in the bin, it becomes a tempo swing that can set an opponent back several turns.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Pauper is where Aether Burst has the most legitimate history, slotting into tempo and mill shells that can realistically stock the graveyard with multiple copies to fire off a multi-bounce turn. In Legacy and Vintage it's too slow against the threats those formats present — a one-mana Unsummon is fine but redundant, and the graveyard-count condition is hard to satisfy consistently when games end on turn two or three. Commander is the toughest sell: the singleton rule caps you at one copy, so Aether Burst is always just a one-mana bounce with no upside, competing against staples like Cyclonic Rift that do far more work.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Aether Burst is deep bulk — a penny-bin staple with essentially no floor to drop through. It holds that price because pauper players occasionally need copies, not because demand is strong enough to expect any movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.