Angelheart Vial
Artifact
Whenever you're dealt damage, you may put that many charge counters on this artifact.
, 
, Remove four charge counters from this artifact: You gain 2 life and draw a card.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.39
- EDHREC rank
- #17251
Angelheart Vial converts damage you take into card draw, but the five-mana entry cost and the requirement to tap and spend two counters per card means you're paying a steep premium for a slow, conditional engine. It's not a bad effect — in the right life-loss-matters shell it does real work — but five mana for a draw engine that doesn't trigger itself is a hard sell in most Commander pods.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Angelheart Vial is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it sees essentially no play outside of casual Commander. In Legacy, Modern, and Vintage, five mana for a conditional draw engine is unplayable — those formats end before Angelheart Vial generates meaningful value. Commander is the only home where the effect is realistic: games go long enough that you'll take damage repeatedly, and multiplayer means you're often eating hits from multiple opponents, loading the Vial faster than a duel would allow. Even in Commander, it earns a slot mainly in decks that already care about life loss or damage triggers — Boros punishment strategies, Vito or Sanguine Bond lifegain mirrors, or any commander that wants to weaponize the damage it's soaking.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.39 bulk tier
At $0.39, Angelheart Vial is deep bulk — you're not paying a premium for it, and there's no meaningful financial downside to picking one up. Don't expect the price to move; it's a niche casual piece with no competitive demand to drive it anywhere.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.