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Baral's Expertise

Sorcery

Return up to three target artifacts and/or creatures to their owners' hands.
You may cast a spell with mana value 4 or less from your hand without paying its mana cost.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Aether Revolt
Price
$0.33
EDHREC rank
#3781
Buy on TCGplayer
Baral's Expertise card art
Baral's Expertise bounces up to three permanents and then casts a spell from your hand for free — that's a tempo swing and a free spell stapled together for five mana. The combo ceiling is real: pairing it with Dualcaster Mage off the free cast creates infinite copies, and Hinata, Dawn-Crowned slashes the cost down to two mana by taxing each target separately.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

58.4% of decks · synergy 0.55

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned reduces the cost of Baral's Expertise by one mana per target, meaning a three-target bounce can cost as little as two mana — turning an already strong tempo play into a nearly free spell that still casts something off the top.

02
Shiko and Narset, Unified

Shiko and Narset, Unified

55.4% of decks · synergy 0.52

Shiko and Narset, Unified care about casting noncreature spells and rewarding spell chains, and Baral's Expertise delivers both a disruption event and an immediate follow-up cast on the same turn.

03

Ashling, Rekindled

38.0% of decks · synergy 0.34

Ashling, Rekindled builds around high-impact instants and sorceries, and Baral's Expertise earns its slot by clearing blockers or resetting threats while loading the stack with a second spell for Ashling to leverage.

04
Stella Lee, Wild Card

Stella Lee, Wild Card

27.7% of decks · synergy 0.24

Stella Lee, Wild Card triggers off casting spells multiple times per turn, and Baral's Expertise naturally produces two cast events — the Expertise itself and the spell it cheats into play — making it a reliable way to fire her ability.

05
Eris, Roar of the Storm

Eris, Roar of the Storm

25.2% of decks · synergy 0.22

Eris, Roar of the Storm rewards instants and sorceries with creature creation and power growth, so Baral's Expertise pulls double duty by clearing the board of blockers and immediately triggering Eris with the free cast.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Baral's Expertise earns its keep — the free spell clause does things that raw bounce spells simply don't, and the format's singleton structure means every deck running it is looking to cheat something expensive into play or assemble a combo. In Modern and Pioneer the five-mana cost is a real obstacle; dedicated Expertise shells exist but are fringe, and most tempo decks prefer cheaper, more reliable interaction. Legacy and Vintage have access to so many broken free spells that Baral's Expertise can be genuinely explosive, but those formats rarely need a five-mana setup piece when faster lines exist. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander experience at a smaller scale, where the free cast clause pairs naturally with signature spells.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.33 bulk tier

At $0.33, Baral's Expertise sits firmly in bulk territory, which undersells how often it does real work in Commander. Bulk rares with this kind of combo ceiling tend to stay cheap precisely because casual players overlook them — pick up copies freely.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.