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Catalyst Elemental

Creature — Elemental

Sacrifice this creature: Add {R}{R}.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{R}
Color identity
R
Rarity
common
Set
Jumpstart 2022
Price
$0.11
EDHREC rank
#17391
Buy on TCGplayer
Catalyst Elemental card art
Catalyst Elemental trades itself for two red mana — a fair deal when your commander wants sacrifice fodder or a burst of mana at instant speed. In Ashling, the Limitless builds specifically, that two-mana burst on command is exactly the kind of fuel that turns a counters-loaded Ashling activation lethal ahead of schedule.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Catalyst Elemental is a Commander card almost exclusively — the combination of instant-speed sacrifice and two-mana payoff is too slow and too small for Legacy, Modern, or Pioneer, where purpose-built rituals and mana creatures do the same job faster. In Pauper it's legal and technically fits sacrifice synergy shells, but the format's efficient threats and removal make a 2/2 that just produces mana underwhelming. Commander is where Catalyst Elemental earns its slot: sacrifice-matters commanders value the creature type, the instant-speed timing, and the zero-setup requirement, and bulk pricing means there's no cost to trying it.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.11 bulk tier

At $0.11, Catalyst Elemental is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a commons box, not hunting it down. Price stability is essentially guaranteed at this floor; there's nowhere meaningfully lower to go, and it won't spike unless a specific combo deck pushes demand.

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Sources

Mentioned

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