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Brain Freeze

Instant

Target player mills three cards.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The List
Price
$12.01
EDHREC rank
#797
Buy on TCGplayer
Brain Freeze card art
Brain Freeze mills an entire table when you've cast enough spells in a turn — storm count 10 or higher puts every opponent in lethal range, and in the right shell that's trivially achievable. It's the primary win condition in Underworld Breach loops and shows up in 92% of Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept lists for exactly that reason.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Rograkh, Son of RohgahhSilas Renn, Seeker Adept

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept

91.6% of decks · synergy 0.84

Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh // Silas Renn, Seeker Adept is the canonical Brain Freeze home — the deck assembles an Underworld Breach loop through Silas's artifact recursion, then fires Brain Freeze at storm count high enough to mill all three opponents simultaneously.

02
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorVial Smasher the Fierce

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator // Vial Smasher the Fierce

68.9% of decks · synergy 0.61

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator // Vial Smasher the Fierce runs a spell-chaining storm package where Malcolm generates treasure to keep the chain live, and Brain Freeze closes the game once the storm count is deep enough to be lethal across all opponents.

03

Ral, Monsoon Mage

59.6% of decks · synergy 0.50

Ral, Monsoon Mage triggers on every instant and sorcery cast, letting you chain cheap spells through Ral's discount and damage effects, then convert that storm count into a lethal Brain Freeze to finish what the triggers started.

05
Krark, the ThumblessSakashima of a Thousand Faces

Krark, the Thumbless // Sakashima of a Thousand Faces

51.7% of decks · synergy 0.42

Krark, the Thumbless // Sakashima of a Thousand Faces copies spells on a coin flip, and with multiple Krark triggers in play Brain Freeze can storm off to absurd numbers — each copy the Krarks generate pushes the original's storm count higher before it even resolves.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Brain Freeze does its real work — storm count scales with the number of opponents, so what would mill 15 cards in a duel mills 45 across a table of four, turning modest spell chains into a one-shot win. In Legacy it sees fringe play in storm shells as a secondary kill alongside Tendrils of Agony, though the format's faster combo decks rarely need the redundancy. Vintage is legal but similarly niche — the power ceiling is high enough that storm decks there close with more reliable lines. Brain Freeze is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, which means Commander and the older eternal formats are its only homes.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

No card fully replicates Brain Freeze at a lower price point — the combination of storm and mill-all-opponents is unique — but Grapeshot fills the storm slot as a damage-based finisher for under $1 if you just need a storm payoff that closes games. Maddening Cacophony mills each opponent for eight or sixteen without any storm requirement, which misses the combo ceiling entirely but costs a fraction and functions fine as a redundant mill threat in decks that aren't built around storm count.

Price Context

Current price

$12.01 mid tier

At $12.01, Brain Freeze sits in the mid tier — notable enough to sting for a single uncommon but justifiable given its role as a primary win condition in some of Commander's most popular storm builds. It's a staple in a narrow archetype rather than a universal include, so the price is stable rather than speculative.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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