Caustic Exhale
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, behold a Dragon or pay 
. (To behold a Dragon, choose a Dragon you control or reveal a Dragon card from your hand.)
Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Tarkir: Dragonstorm
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #16573
Caustic Exhale is a one-mana instant that exiles a nonland permanent with no power — tokens, mana rocks, utility creatures, planeswalkers sitting at zero loyalty — and replaces itself with a scry 1. Clean, cheap, and immediate; the only cost is the narrow targeting restriction.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Caustic Exhale punches above its mana cost specifically because the format is full of zero-power permanents that matter: mana rocks like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, token generators, and stax pieces. Outside Commander, Caustic Exhale is legal everywhere but rarely worth a slot — competitive 1v1 formats demand removal that hits any threat, and the power-restriction is often a dealbreaker when you need to answer a 3/3 on turn two. Pauper is the one exception where it could see niche play against artifact-heavy or token-centric builds, but even there better options exist at the same cost.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Caustic Exhale is pure bulk — the kind of card you pick up in a trade binder without thinking twice. It won't appreciate, but it doesn't need to: the value is purely functional, and at this price the question is whether it earns a slot, not whether it earns a dollar.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.