Cleansing Beam
Instant
Radiance — Cleansing Beam deals 2 damage to target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Commander 2011
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #26053
Cleansing Beam deals 2 damage to every creature that shares a color with its target — in a four-player Commander game, that routinely means wiping an entire board for five mana. The catch is that your creatures get hit too, so you run it because your commander or your team is colorless, a different color, or has protection that makes the blowout one-sided.
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 |
Cleansing Beam is a Commander card — full stop. In Legacy and Vintage, five mana for conditional 2-damage is nowhere near playable when Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt exist at a fraction of the cost. Commander is where the math flips: one spell hitting 30 or 40 creatures across three opponents is the kind of asymmetric effect the format is built around, especially in dedicated colorless or tribal builds that can fire Cleansing Beam without touching their own team. It's also legal in Oathbreaker, where the smaller table and lower life totals make 2 damage more meaningful, though the format's faster pace makes five mana a steeper ask.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Cleansing Beam is pure bulk — it sees just enough Commander play to stay in print and in binders, but not enough to move the price needle. It holds that floor indefinitely; there's no spike risk and no reason to pay more than a dime for it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.