Earthquake
Sorcery
Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without flying and each player.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- World Championship Decks 1997
- Price
- $0.61
- EDHREC rank
- #2717
Earthquake hits every non-flyer at the table and goes to the face — for X mana, that's a scalable board wipe and a life-total threat rolled into one spell. Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence turns every point of self-damage into a counter and a Shock, making Earthquake's symmetrical pain a one-sided engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence
Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence wants to take damage to distribute damage, and Earthquake delivers both in one swing — cast it for X=5, take 5, and watch Blyte fire off five triggered Shocks before the dust settles.
Firesong and Sunspeaker
Firesong and Sunspeaker gains life off every red instant and sorcery, so Earthquake hits the board and pads your life total in the same motion — the lifelink rider turns a mass-damage spell into a surprisingly lopsided exchange.
Syrix, Carrier of the Flame
Syrix, Carrier of the Flame rewards dealing damage to players with Phoenix recursion triggers, and Earthquake's face-targeting clause means a single cast can hit multiple opponents and stack multiple triggers simultaneously.
Neheb, the Eternal
Neheb, the Eternal converts post-combat damage to opponents into mana during the second main phase, and Earthquake before combat primes every opponent's life total to maximize that mana burst on the back end.
Lathliss, Dragon Queen
Lathliss, Dragon Queen goes wide with Dragons that naturally fly over Earthquake's damage floor, making it a clean asymmetrical wipe that leaves your board intact while wiping away the utility creatures threatening your Dragon engine.
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 |
Commander is where Earthquake earns its keep — four opponents means the face-damage clause threatens multiple life totals simultaneously, and the X-cost scales into the late-game mana surpluses that mono-red and big-mana strategies regularly produce. In Legacy and Vintage, Earthquake sits in the format but rarely sees play; Pyroclasm and Firestorm do the sweeper job faster and at fixed cost, and the sorcery speed is brutal in formats where tempo is everything. Modern is technically legal but practically irrelevant — the competition at every damage threshold is too stiff. Oathbreaker offers the same Commander-style appeal in a smaller game, and any Planeswalker that generates excess red mana will find Earthquake a natural fit.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.61 bulk tier
At $0.61, Earthquake is bulk by any measure — you're paying almost nothing for a card with genuine Commander utility. That price is stable; it's been widely reprinted and supply far outpaces casual demand, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.