Fire Bowman
Creature — Human Soldier Archer
Sacrifice this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Portal Three Kingdoms
- Price
- $10.39
- EDHREC rank
- #30018
Fire Bowman trades a tap and one red mana to deal 1 damage to any target — a repeatable ping on a 1/1 body for two mana. The effect is narrow and the rate is poor; you run Fire Bowman in decks that explicitly reward pinging or untapping creatures, not as a general inclusion.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Fire Bowman is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but sees essentially no competitive play in any of them. In Commander, the only home is a dedicated ping-matters or tap-trigger shell — think Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Aria of Flame strategies where each point of damage carries extra weight. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient damage dealers, so Fire Bowman never makes the cut there. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander: niche role-player at best, cut in most lists.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Prodigal Pyromancer does the same job — tap to deal 1 damage to any target — on a 1/1 for three mana with no mana activation required, which is strictly better in most untap-abuse lines. Goblin Sharpshooter costs one more mana but untaps itself whenever any creature dies, making it a far more powerful engine in creature-heavy metas; if Fire Bowman is on your radar, Goblin Sharpshooter is almost always the correct upgrade.
Price Context
Current price
$10.39 mid tier
At $10.39, Fire Bowman sits in the mid tier — steep for a card with such a narrow use case and minimal competitive demand. The price is driven almost entirely by collector interest and low reprint availability, not gameplay power, so don't treat it as a functional investment.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.