Artful Dodge
Sorcery
Target creature can't be blocked this turn.
Flashback 
(You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Dark Ascension
- Price
- $0.48
- EDHREC rank
- #4042
Artful Dodge makes a creature unblockable for one blue mana — and then does it again for free from the graveyard, giving you two triggers off a single card. Commanders like Atemsis, All-Seeing that need a guaranteed hit to fire their win condition, or Neerdiv, Devious Diver that rewards spell-slinging and evasion, run this because the flashback means one card slot does double duty.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Neerdiv, Devious Diver
Neerdiv, Devious Diver appears in 68% of decks running Artful Dodge because the card is nearly purpose-built for it — Neerdiv wants instants and sorceries cast to power its own evasion engine, and Artful Dodge delivers two separate spell casts from one card slot, doubling the trigger count while also making a creature unblockable on the turn it matters most.
Octavia, Living Thesis
Octavia, Living Thesis turns the eighth instant or sorcery cast each turn into an 8/8 beater, and Artful Dodge counts twice toward that quota while also ensuring that beater connects unblocked the turn it arrives.
Muddle, the Ever-Changing
Muddle, the Ever-Changing accrues value by copying and transforming spells, so Artful Dodge is attractive both for the two cast events it generates and for the cheap, reusable evasion it provides whenever Muddle needs to push damage through.
Melek, Reforged Researcher
Melek, Reforged Researcher rewards running cheap instants and sorceries that do real work, and Artful Dodge earns its slot by being a one-mana spell that effectively casts itself twice — relevant for triggering Melek's payoffs and closing the game through blockers.
Elsha, Threefold Master
Elsha, Threefold Master lets you cast instants and sorceries from the top of the library, and Artful Dodge's flashback means you get a second window to use it even after it hits the graveyard, keeping the spell-chain alive while setting up a lethal unblocked swing.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Artful Dodge is a role-player in a narrow but committed archetype — spellslinger commanders that need cheap, recastable evasion to close games, particularly those rewarding spell count like Octavia, Living Thesis or Neerdiv, Devious Diver. In Pauper, Artful Dodge sees real competitive play in Kiln Fiend and Delver-style combo-aggro shells, where the flashback lets it fuel two instances of prowess or power boost for a single card. Legacy and Vintage allow it but the card rarely earns a slot in those formats, where raw power demands are higher and evasion spells compete with cantrips for the same slots. Artful Dodge is not legal in Pioneer or Standard. Across formats, the honest verdict is the same: it's a fine card in decks built to abuse spell count or deliver one big unblockable hit, and a blank in any deck that isn't.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Atemsis, All-SeeingLivewire LashArtful Dodge
Each opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.48 bulk tier
At $0.48, Artful Dodge sits firmly in bulk territory — you're paying almost nothing for a card that does exactly what it says. Bulk commons with a specific niche tend to hold this floor stably, so there's no price pressure to acquire it quickly or slowly.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.