Cut Down
Instant
Destroy target creature with total power and toughness 5 or less.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Dominaria United
- Price
- $1.44
- EDHREC rank
- #4532
Cut Down kills the majority of relevant creatures in Commander for a single black mana — that's the whole pitch. It misses fatties with high combined power and toughness, but any threat with 2 power or less and 4 toughness or less is just gone at instant speed for one mana, and Toshiro Umezawa decks get to flash it back for free.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa's ability triggers whenever an opponent's creature dies, letting him cast instant spells like Cut Down from the graveyard — so this card effectively removes two creatures for one mana once Toshiro is online.
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth converts black mana symbols to life, meaning Cut Down costs 0 mana and 2 life under K'rrik, which is as close to free interaction as black gets at instant speed.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Cut Down earns a slot in any black deck that wants cheap interaction — the one-mana ceiling is rare in the format and the instant speed matters for leaving shields up. The ceiling condition (combined power and toughness of 10 or less) sounds restrictive but catches a surprising percentage of utility creatures, mana rocks with legs, and early-game threats that actually need answering. In Modern and Legacy it competes in a crowded field of one-mana removal, and the combined-stat ceiling bites harder against those formats' threat density — Fatal Push does more work in those environments. Pioneer is a reasonable home if the meta skews toward small-to-medium creatures. Vintage has better options but Cut Down is at least playable.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.44 cheap tier
At $1.44, Cut Down sits firmly in the cheap tier — it's the kind of staple you throw in a deck without agonizing over the budget. Supply is healthy and the price is unlikely to move much in either direction; just buy the copy and move on.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Toshiro Umezawa
- K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.