Boiling Blood
Instant
Target creature attacks this turn if able.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Weatherlight
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #17574
Boiling Blood forces a target creature to attack this turn — useful for cracking open a stalled board or baiting a block you want. The catch is that it only works in red decks that can target their own creatures meaningfully, and outside of Zada, Hedron Grinder shells, one mana to make one creature swing is rarely worth a card slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Zada, Hedron Grinder copies Boiling Blood onto every creature you control, turning a one-mana cantrip-tier spell into a full alpha strike enabler — suddenly your whole board is forced to attack, and that's exactly the engine the deck wants.
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 |
In Commander, Boiling Blood is a niche role-player with a narrow but real home: Zada, Hedron Grinder decks that want cheap red instants to copy across the board. Outside that specific shell, forcing one creature to attack for one mana doesn't generate enough value to justify the slot against 99-card competition. Pauper is its most interesting non-Commander home, where cheap combat tricks carry more weight and the card pool is shallow enough that Boiling Blood can find a role in aggressive red strategies. Legacy and Vintage are legal but irrelevant — neither format is looking for this effect at any price.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
Boiling Blood sits at $0.08, firmly in bulk territory, and that's exactly where it belongs. Supply is deep and demand is narrow enough that there's no meaningful price floor to hold — pick it up for pennies if the Zada deck calls for it, and don't think twice about the cost.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.