Cost of Brilliance
Sorcery
Target player draws two cards and loses 2 life. Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target creature.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #17938
Cost of Brilliance draws you two cards for two mana — the catch is that your opponent draws one too, and the card only targets creatures you control. In Killian, Ink Duelist builds where halving that cost is trivial, that's a one-mana Divination stapled to an Aura slot, and that's a good deal.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Killian, Ink Duelist
Killian, Ink Duelist cuts Cost of Brilliance to a single white or black mana, making it the cheapest draw spell in the deck that also counts as an Aura for any Aura-matters payoffs — that combination of cost reduction and type is why it shows up in over a third of Killian lists.
Felisa, Fang of Silverquill
Felisa, Fang of Silverquill wants Auras on creatures she can later watch die and convert into Inklings, so Cost of Brilliance pulls double duty as a cantrip engine and a token setup piece in her lists.
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 |
Cost of Brilliance is a Commander card almost exclusively — the opponent card-draw clause is a real cost in 1v1 formats where giving your opponent a free draw can swing a close game, and two-mana sorceries that draw two exist in much stronger forms in Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer. In Commander, the symmetrical draw is diluted across three opponents and the raw efficiency at one mana under Killian, Ink Duelist makes it genuinely playable. Outside of dedicated Aura or Silverquill builds, it doesn't have a home even in Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Cost of Brilliance is deep bulk — it costs less than a sleeve. That price is stable; demand is narrow enough that it won't spike, but anyone building Killian, Ink Duelist should just pick up a copy without thinking twice about it.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.