Burning Oil
Instant
Burning Oil deals 3 damage to target attacking or blocking creature.
Flashback 
(You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Dark Ascension
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #28000
Burning Oil kills a creature at instant speed and, if you paid the flashback cost, does it twice. Two removal spells on one card is real value, but four mana total across two turns for one damage apiece makes this strictly a constructed-format afterthought unless you're in a pinch.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Burning Oil is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different things. In Commander, the card occupies the very bottom tier of single-target removal — you're almost always better served by Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, or even a basic Doom Blade. Legacy and Vintage have no use for it whatsoever; the card would need to cost zero and cantrip to see a sideboard slot in those formats. Modern similarly has no room for a two-mana conditional ping with a flashback tax. Burning Oil is effectively a Commander bulk-bin card, and even there it's a placeholder until you find something better.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Burning Oil is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a collection box, not a store shelf. That price will hold because it's a floor, not because demand exists.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.