Burning Hands
Instant
Burning Hands deals 2 damage to target creature or planeswalker. If that permanent is green, Burning Hands deals 6 damage instead.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #20439
Burning Hands deals 2 damage to a creature — or 6 if it's green — and gives that creature -4/-4 until end of turn, making it one of the cleanest answers to the Craterhoof Behemoths and Cultivator Colossi that dominate green-heavy tables. Two mana at instant speed is the right price for that effect.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Burning Hands earns its slot specifically in red decks that expect to sit across from green at nearly every table — the -4/-4 clause kills threats that pure burn can't reach, and the 6-damage mode handles most green creatures outright. In Modern and Pioneer, it sees sideboard play as a hedge against green stompy and Tron-adjacent shells where large green creatures are the primary threat. Legacy and Vintage are too fast and too spell-dense for a conditional creature answer to matter. Burning Hands is a metagame card: the more green is in the room, the better it gets.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Burning Hands is deep bulk — a full playset costs less than a dollar. That price is stable; it's widely printed and demand is narrow enough to sideboard copies that it won't spike.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.