Culling Scales
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy target nonland permanent with the lowest mana value. (If two or more permanents are tied for lowest, target any one of them.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Mirrodin
- Price
- $0.53
- EDHREC rank
- #24973
Culling Scales is a slow-burn removal engine that, given enough upkeep steps, answers any nonland permanent with mana value 1 or less — and in Commander, there are always targets. The cost is real: three mana to deploy and an upkeep trigger that only hits the cheapest thing on the board, so it does nothing against the threats that actually win games.
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 |
In Commander, Culling Scales occupies a narrow role: it cleans up mana dorks, tokens, and utility creatures with low mana value, which is relevant in pods where those pieces enable degenerate engines. Outside of Commander, it sees no meaningful play — Legacy and Vintage have faster, less conditional answers, and the card has never found a Modern home because the floor of 'destroys a one-drop on your next upkeep' is simply too slow for those formats. Where it does show up in Commander, it tends to be in artifact-synergy decks that benefit from having a recursive artifact on the battlefield rather than from the destruction trigger itself.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.53 bulk tier
At $0.53, Culling Scales is bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not scarcity. That price is unlikely to move unless a specific Commander combo pushes demand, so grab it cheap if you have a home for it and don't think twice about it otherwise.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.