Cruel Finality
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Aether Revolt
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #28138
Cruel Finality kills a creature and scrys 1 — two effects stapled together for two mana at instant speed. It's a fine piece of cheap interaction, but it competes in a format crowded with removal that does more, and the scry rarely changes the calculus enough to push it above the median.
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 |
In Commander, Cruel Finality is serviceable but unremarkable — a two-mana instant that handles a creature and smooths your next draw, which is exactly what a 99-card deck occasionally needs at the bottom of its curve. Pauper is where it has the most legitimate claim to a slot, since the card pool narrows and two-for-one efficiency at common rarity is genuinely scarce. In Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, and Vintage the competition from stronger removal makes Cruel Finality a non-starter for any tuned list. Oathbreaker functions close enough to Commander that the same read applies: playable, never impressive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Cruel Finality is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a common box rather than buy singles. That price is stable by default; there's no spike catalyst on the horizon for a two-mana conditional removal spell.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.