Dark Bargain
Instant
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the other into your graveyard. Dark Bargain deals 2 damage to you.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.07
- EDHREC rank
- #15390
Dark Bargain digs three cards deep at instant speed and puts two in hand — that's real card selection for four mana. The life payment stings, but in black that's a resource, and instant speed is the whole reason to run it over slower alternatives.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa triggers off instants that kill creatures, and Dark Bargain slots cleanly into that engine — cast it in response to a combat step, refuel your hand, and set up the next flash-back opportunity on the same turn.
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, Dark Bargain earns its slot in decks that want instant-speed card selection at a low deck-building cost — particularly black spellslinger builds where the instant type matters as much as the effect. In Pauper it's legal and the four-mana cost is steep enough that it competes against tighter options, making it a fringe inclusion at best. Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer all have access to faster and cheaper card draw, so Dark Bargain doesn't crack those formats outside of highly specific shell requirements. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander logic: the instant timing is the argument, and the life loss is manageable in a 20-life format only if your deck is already leaning into self-damage payoffs.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.07 bulk tier
At $0.07, Dark Bargain is deep bulk — you'll find it in any commons box or picked up as throw-in. That price is stable by definition; there's no demand spike coming for a four-mana cantrip with narrow application.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Toshiro Umezawa
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.