Electrolyze
Instant
Electrolyze deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two targets.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RU
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Modern Masters
- Price
- $0.20
- EDHREC rank
- #6542
Electrolyze splits one or two damage across any targets and replaces itself with a card, making it one of the few removal spells that costs you nothing in hand equity. At three mana in Izzet colors it's never going to be a format staple, but in Commander — especially under Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot — it pulls double duty as a cantripping spell count and a board-presence answer.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot
Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot turns every instant and sorcery into a damage trigger, so Electrolyze does three things at once: it adds to the instant/sorcery count Lilah cares about, clears a blocker or pings a planeswalker, and draws a card to keep the chain going.
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph
Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph converts any source that deals exactly 1 damage into a 2-damage rider, so Electrolyze splitting its damage into two 1-damage packets triggers Ghyrson twice — turning a cantripping removal spell into a potential four-damage swing.
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 |
In Commander, Electrolyze earns its slot as a clean, low-cost spell that handles x/1 utility creatures, pings planeswalkers, and replaces itself — three things most removal spells do only one of. Modern saw occasional play in Izzet control shells during eras when weenie creatures dominated, but the format has since outpaced it; three mana is too much when Lightning Bolt exists. Legacy and Vintage are legal but realistic homes only in very specific spell-count or cantrip-chain builds. Electrolyze is at its best wherever the card draw clause matters most, which in practice means Commander and nowhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.20 bulk tier
At $0.20, Electrolyze is firmly bulk — cheap enough to throw into any Izzet Commander deck without a second thought. Supply is deep across multiple printings, so there's no scarcity pressure keeping the price up; this is the kind of card you pick out of a bulk box.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.