Barbflare Gremlin
Creature — Gremlin
First strike, haste
Whenever a player taps a land for mana, if this creature is tapped, that player adds one mana of any type that land produced. Then that land deals 1 damage to that player.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander
- Price
- $0.24
- EDHREC rank
- #8085
Barbflare Gremlin forces each opponent to either spend mana or take damage every turn — a continuous tax that punishes anyone trying to develop their board on a tight curve. Yurlok of Scorch Thrash turns that forced mana-burn into a kill condition, which is why this two-drop shows up in 41% of those decks.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Yurlok of Scorch Thrash
Yurlok of Scorch Thrash converts unspent mana directly into life loss, so Barbflare Gremlin's forced-pay-or-burn effect becomes a repeatable damage vector every single turn cycle.
The Lord of Pain
The Lord of Pain triggers whenever opponents lose life from their own sources, and Barbflare Gremlin generates exactly that kind of self-inflicted pain, stacking triggers without requiring any combat.
Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence
Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence grows and gains abilities from life loss, and Barbflare Gremlin chips away at opponents each upkeep, feeding that engine for free while you develop the rest of your board.
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls draws cards whenever opponents lose life outside of combat, so Barbflare Gremlin's per-upkeep drain translates directly into card advantage over a long game.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Barbflare Gremlin earns its keep — three opponents multiplies the damage output every turn, and group-slug strategies have the density of payoffs to make each point matter. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; those formats move too fast for a two-mana do-nothing-immediately creature to compete. Oathbreaker gives it a second home in any burn-adjacent shell, though the two-player dynamic cuts the pressure roughly in half.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.24 bulk tier
At $0.24, Barbflare Gremlin is pure bulk — easy to grab as a four-of filler pickup without thinking twice. Bulk rares and uncommons at this price rarely spike unless a format-defining shell emerges, and group-slug is too niche in competitive play to threaten that.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.