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Dark Sphere

Artifact

{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: The next time a source of your choice would deal damage to you this turn, prevent half that damage, rounded down.

CMC
0
Mana cost
{0}
Color identity
C
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The Dark
Price
$6.68
EDHREC rank
#11611
Buy on TCGplayer
Dark Sphere card art
Dark Sphere is a free sacrifice outlet that halves the damage from one source — the entire value proposition is that it costs zero mana and zero cards when you're already running it for artifact synergies. In decks built around Emry, Lurker of the Loch or Fblthp, Lost on the Range that want cheap artifacts in the graveyard or on top of the library, Dark Sphere earns its slot without asking anything extra from your mana.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Fblthp, Lost on the Range

Fblthp, Lost on the Range

45.1% of decks · synergy 0.44

Fblthp, Lost on the Range casts spells from the top of the library, and Dark Sphere as a free zero-mana artifact means you can cast it off the top without disrupting the chain — it's a free trigger that also happens to live in the graveyard for recursion loops.

02
Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

21.1% of decks · synergy 0.21

Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire tutors to the top of the library, and Dark Sphere fills the zero-slot in artifact-heavy black shells that want cheap fodder for sacrifice or threshold effects — it costs nothing to deploy before you swing with Varragoth.

03
Maralen of the Mornsong

Maralen of the Mornsong

12.9% of decks · synergy 0.13

Maralen of the Mornsong locks opponents out of drawing and tutors for her controller, and Dark Sphere is the kind of free artifact that can be fetched or held to absorb a lethal damage trigger on a turn where you can't otherwise protect her.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Dark Sphere is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's essentially the full picture — it's not Modern or Pioneer legal, and Pauper doesn't have it either. In Commander, the card lives almost entirely in zero-cost artifact strategies: decks that want cheap permanents in the yard, free storm fodder, or a surprise damage-halving trick to survive a board state. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but rarely want it; those formats have more efficient ways to spend zero mana. The real home is Commander, specifically artifact-recursion commanders who want the density of free artifacts more than they want the actual damage prevention.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

If you want the zero-mana artifact slot but don't care about the damage prevention, Tormod's Crypt and Mishra's Bauble fill similar structural roles — both cost zero, both are artifacts that replace themselves or offer some upside, and both run under a dollar. Dark Sphere's specific ability to halve damage from a single source doesn't have a clean budget equivalent; if that protection matters, there's no cheaper card that does the same thing, and you should just run Dark Sphere.

Price Context

Current price

$6.68 mid tier

At $6.68, Dark Sphere sits in mid-tier pricing for a niche zero-mana artifact — it's not expensive enough to be a budget obstacle, but it's priced above bulk because of concentrated demand from Fblthp and artifact-combo lists. The price reflects a narrow but real use case; it won't crater, but it also won't climb without a new commander pushing zero-cost artifacts back into the spotlight.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.