Desperate Lunge
Instant
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn. You gain 2 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Foundations Jumpstart
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #24212
Desperate Lunge gives a creature +2/+2 and lifelink until end of turn for one white mana — instant speed, cheap, and it can flip the math on any combat. The catch is that it does nothing outside of combat, so it earns a slot only in decks that consistently want to attack or need to survive a specific blocker.
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, Desperate Lunge is a niche include — combat tricks are generally underpowered in a multiplayer format where board presence matters more than a one-turn pump, but go-wide or Voltron decks that swing big can use it to close out a player or blank a blocker. In Pauper, where the card is legal and one-mana tricks are competitively relevant, Desperate Lunge has the most potential, particularly in white aggro shells that want to win through combat math. Modern and Pioneer have access to more efficient options at the same cost, so it rarely sees play there. Legacy and Vintage are simply too fast for a combat trick without a cantrip stapled to it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Desperate Lunge is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard and nothing else. It's stable at that floor and unlikely to move unless a future Commander precon pushes a combat-trick archetype into the spotlight.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.