Ambuscade
Instant
Target creature you control gets +1/+0 until end of turn. It deals damage equal to its power to target creature an opponent controls.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Hour of Devastation
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #19102
Ambuscade trades one of your creatures into any target creature at instant speed — three mana for a combat trick that doubles as removal. It's a role-player in go-wide green decks, not a staple, but it earns its slot when your board is wide enough to make the fight favorable.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Ambuscade is filler-tier removal — green has better options at three mana, but budget builds and creature-dense strategies can use it to pick off utility creatures at instant speed. In Pauper it sees occasional play in green aggro and stompy shells where common-legal fight effects are scarce and the instant speed genuinely matters. Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer have enough efficient interaction that Ambuscade doesn't compete; it's too slow and too conditional to see meaningful play in those formats. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander — serviceable in the right shell, not a priority include.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Ambuscade is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a commons box, not paying for it deliberately. Bulk commons don't appreciate, so there's no value angle here; run it because it fits your deck, not because of the price tag.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.