Crippling Chill
Instant
Tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Jumpstart 2022
- Price
- $0.13
- EDHREC rank
- #19064
Crippling Chill taps a creature and keeps it tapped through the untap step — instant-speed pseudo-removal that also replaces itself with a card draw. Three mana for that effect is the ceiling of acceptable, not a bargain, and in most blue decks a cheaper tap effect or outright counterspell does more work.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Crippling Chill is a bulk common that sees essentially no competitive play across Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, or Vintage — formats where three mana at instant speed needs to do far more than delay one creature. Pauper is its most plausible home, where card draw stapled to any effect carries real weight and the creature-tap can buy a crucial turn. In Commander it occupies a narrow niche: tap-based strategies helmed by commanders like Merieke Ri Berit or Empress Galina can extract value from the "doesn't untap" clause, and the cantrip keeps the card from being a pure tempo loss.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.13 bulk tier
At $0.13, Crippling Chill is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a common box, not a singles list. That price is stable precisely because demand is low; it won't spike, but it also costs you almost nothing to slot into a janky tap-focused Commander build.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.