Blood Lust
Instant
If target creature has toughness 5 or greater, it gets +4/-4 until end of turn. Otherwise, it gets +4/-X until end of turn, where X is its toughness minus 1.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $12.88
- EDHREC rank
- #20391
Blood Lust turns a 1/1 into a 5/1 and a 3/3 into a 7/3 for a single red mana — the ceiling on this pump spell is legitimately high. The catch is permanence: the boost lasts only until end of turn, so every point of that power investment vanishes if the creature doesn't connect.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Blood Lust is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker. In Commander it's a fringe inclusion — one-shot pump on a creature without trample or evasion rarely closes games at a 40-life table, and the slot competes with permanent buffs or damage doublers. Pauper is where Blood Lust sees its most credible use, slotting into aggressive red strategies that need cheap burst damage to push lethal in the early turns. Legacy and Vintage have no realistic interest in it given the density of more efficient threats and disruption.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Giant Growth effects in red like Titan's Strength or Balduvian Rage offer comparable burst for similar or lower cost and see far more play — Balduvian Rage in particular replaces itself when it resolves. If the goal is purely maximizing a creature's power for one attack, Blood Lust's unique +4/−0 floor-raise effect is niche enough that most decks will be better served by pump spells that also grant trample or draw a card.
Price Context
Current price
$12.88 mid tier
At $12.88, Blood Lust sits in the mid tier — a steep ask for a card with no competitive presence in any format where it's legal. The price is driven entirely by collector demand and scarcity of the original printing, not gameplay utility, so it holds value as a collectible but not as a functional deck piece.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.