Esper Battlemage
Artifact Creature — Human Wizard
, 
: Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to you this turn.
, : Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BUW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Shards of Alara
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #30211
Esper Battlemage offers repeatable -1/-1 output and artifact recursion on a single body, but both abilities cost additional mana on top of the creature's own cost, making the total investment steep for effects this modest. It sees play only in decks that specifically reward activating multiple abilities or care about the Wizard creature type.
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 |
Esper Battlemage is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it sees essentially no competitive play in any of them. In Commander, the two activated abilities are too mana-intensive relative to what dedicated removal spells or artifact recursion pieces accomplish for less; you are paying three mana to cast it and then additional blue and white mana each turn to do things that single-use spells handle more efficiently. Legacy and Modern have no interest in a three-mana creature whose ceiling is a conditional -1/-1 effect. Oathbreaker is the only context where a reusable on-board effect might occasionally justify the slot, and even there Esper Battlemage is a fringe inclusion at best.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Esper Battlemage is deep bulk, and the price reflects the demand accurately. It is not a card that carries hidden utility waiting to be unlocked — what you see is what you get, and the market has priced it accordingly.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.