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Ethereal Ambush

Instant

Manifest the top two cards of your library. (To manifest a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{G}{U}
Color identity
GU
Rarity
common
Set
The List
Price
$0.11
EDHREC rank
#25552
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Ethereal Ambush card art
Ethereal Ambush puts two 1/1 manifest tokens onto the battlefield at instant speed — the surprise blocker play is real, and the face-down cards carry combo potential in the right shell. The five-mana cost is steep for that body count, but Kitsa, Otterball Elite turns every manifest trigger into additional value and makes the math much friendlier.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Ethereal Ambush is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but it only earns a slot in Commander, where the singleton format and longer games give manifest synergies room to breathe. In Pauper it's technically playable, but five mana for two 1/1s at common is a tough sell against faster, more efficient options. Ethereal Ambush is a Commander card first and foremost — outside that format, leave it in the binder.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.11 bulk tier

At $0.11, Ethereal Ambush is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not card. Price stability is essentially guaranteed at this floor, though demand will never push it meaningfully higher outside a specific manifest-focused Commander spike.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.