Fading Hope
Instant
Return target creature to its owner's hand. If its mana value was 3 or less, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
- Price
- $0.33
- EDHREC rank
- #7196
Fading Hope bounces any creature for one blue mana and draws a card if that creature's mana value was three or greater — that's a premium rate for a tempo play. In Zethi, Arcane Blademaster decks it pulls double duty as interaction and card advantage, which is exactly what a one-mana instant should be doing.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zethi, Arcane Blademaster
Zethi, Arcane Blademaster imprints instants and recasts them repeatedly, so Fading Hope becomes a recurring bounce-plus-draw engine that resets the board's most threatening creature every combat cycle.
Neera, Wild Mage
Neera, Wild Mage wants cheap instants to cast before flipping into something expensive, and Fading Hope fills that slot perfectly — one mana to slow an opponent down and replace itself on the way to a cascade hit.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Fading Hope earns its slot as unconditional single-target bounce that replaces itself against anything with a mana value of three or greater, which covers the majority of threatening commanders and haymakers you need to answer. The tempo loss it inflicts is real — returning a resolved threat to hand while drawing a card for one mana is a strong exchange in a format where removal is scarce and board states snowball. In Modern and Pioneer, it sees play in tempo and control shells where the card-draw clause tips it over the line compared to costlier bounce spells. Legacy's card-quality bar is higher, but Fading Hope remains a competitive option in blue tempo strategies that want cheap interaction without card disadvantage.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.33 bulk tier
At $0.33, Fading Hope sits firmly in bulk rare territory despite being genuinely playable across multiple formats. That price reflects supply more than demand — pick up copies freely, because a card this efficient has no business costing less than a pack of gum for long.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Zethi, Arcane Blademaster
- Neera, Wild Mage
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.