Essence Scatter
Instant
Counter target creature spell.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic 2010
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #3023
Essence Scatter stops a creature cold before it ever touches the battlefield — no death trigger, no enters-the-battlefield effect, nothing. Two mana is the going rate for this kind of precision, and in any blue deck running Baral, Chief of Compliance, it costs one.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Baral, Chief of Compliance reduces Essence Scatter to a single blue mana and replaces itself with a loot whenever the counter lands — that's card-neutral interaction at one mana, which is why 38% of Baral builds run it.
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Every Essence Scatter you cast under Talrand, Sky Summoner manufactures a 2/2 Drake, turning a reactive counterspell into a creature threat on your opponent's turn.
Kykar, Zephyr Awakener
Kykar, Zephyr Awakener generates a Spirit token for every noncreature spell, so Essence Scatter does double duty — it answers a threat and fuels Kykar's mana engine in the same transaction.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Essence Scatter fills a clean role: it answers the most dangerous permanent type in the format at instant speed, and the creature-heavy nature of most Commander games means it's rarely a dead card. Compared to Counterspell, it's a strict downgrade in flexibility — it misses planeswalkers, artifacts, enchantments, and sorceries — so it belongs in builds that specifically want redundancy beyond the first few hard counters. In Pauper, Essence Scatter is a legitimate role-player in tempo and control shells where holding up two mana is standard operating procedure. In Modern and Pioneer, the format staples are narrower and more powerful, so Essence Scatter rarely makes the cut outside of budget builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Essence Scatter is deep bulk — easy to acquire in trade binders or bulk lots without a second thought. At that price point, there's no meaningful downside to owning copies, and the card's ubiquity across printings means the price isn't going anywhere interesting.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.