Five-Alarm Fire
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage, put a blaze counter on this enchantment.
Remove five blaze counters from this enchantment: It deals 5 damage to any target.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Gatecrash
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #18456
Five-Alarm Fire accumulates blaze counters whenever a creature it targets deals combat damage, then cashes them in for direct damage at any time — a slow-burn engine that becomes a laser pointer once it loads up. The cost is real: three mana, enchantment-speed setup, and total dependence on creatures connecting repeatedly before it does anything.
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, Five-Alarm Fire wants a wide, aggressive board that swings every turn — it rewards go-wide red or Gruul strategies and punishes anyone who draws it with nothing attacking. Competitive pods rarely give enchantments the time to mature, so it fits best at mid-power tables where games go long enough for the counter math to pay off. In Modern and Legacy it has never found a home; those formats move too fast for a three-mana enchantment that doesn't affect the board the turn it lands. Pioneer is the same story — burn spells there close games faster than a setup card that asks you to attack several times first. Oathbreaker is the one fringe format where a permanent damage outlet attached to a low-life total could matter, but even there, faster finishers crowd it out.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Five-Alarm Fire is deep bulk — you'll find it in dollar boxes long before you'd pay shipping to source it. Price stability is a non-issue at this tier; it won't spike and it won't disappear, so grab it when you see it and don't think twice.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.