Catalyst Stone
Artifact
Flashback costs you pay cost 
less.
Flashback costs your opponents pay cost more.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Odyssey
- Price
- $11.50
- EDHREC rank
- #12800
Catalyst Stone cuts the cost of flashback spells in half, turning already-efficient recursion into absurd value at the cost of two mana and a permanent slot. In any deck built around the graveyard as a second hand — Katilda and Lier chief among them — it's not a support piece, it's infrastructure.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Katilda and Lier
Katilda and Lier's entire game plan is casting spells twice, so Catalyst Stone directly halves the tax on every spell she lets you flash back — the synergy score of 0.39 reflects how central this discount is to the engine.
Neerdiv, Devious Diver
Neerdiv, Devious Diver wants to storm through the graveyard repeatedly, and Catalyst Stone compresses the mana required to do it, letting the deck chain flashback spells several turns ahead of schedule.
Iroh, Grand Lotus
Iroh, Grand Lotus generates value off of spells cast and cares about volume, so Catalyst Stone's cost reduction means more spells per turn cycle — the high deck count shows this is a widely recognized fit, not a niche pick.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Catalyst Stone earns its slot — flashback-heavy decks are a real archetype, and reducing that second-cast cost by half compounds over a long game in ways that shorter formats don't reward. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees essentially no competitive play; those formats care about speed that a two-mana static artifact rarely provides. Oathbreaker is the other home worth naming: the tighter spell focus of that format means a flashback-enabling commander can make Catalyst Stone feel mandatory rather than optional.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
There's no direct replacement that halves flashback costs the way Catalyst Stone does — that effect is unique. The closest functional substitute is leaning on cost-reduction pieces like Goblin Electromancer or Arcane Denial effects that keep mana open, but those don't replicate the permanent, stackable discount Catalyst Stone provides for every flashback spell in the deck.
Price Context
Current price
$11.50 mid tier
At $11.50, Catalyst Stone sits in mid-tier pricing for a card with a narrow but dedicated audience — it's not expensive enough to deter committed flashback players, but too costly to slot in speculatively. Its price is stable rather than rising; demand is real but capped by how few commanders make flashback a primary strategy.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Katilda and Lier
- Neerdiv, Devious Diver
- Iroh, Grand Lotus
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.