Foil
Instant
You may discard an Island card and another card rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target spell.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $1.91
- EDHREC rank
- #4250
Foil counters any spell for free — no mana required — at the cost of an island and a card from your hand. That's a real price, but in decks that want cards in the graveyard or draw enough to ignore the card disadvantage, Foil earns its slot; Rielle, the Everwise, for instance, turns the discard into a net draw.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Rielle, the Everwise
Rielle, the Everwise replaces the discarded card immediately, collapsing Foil's steep cost to just an island — free interaction that refuels itself is exactly the kind of engine Rielle is built to abuse.
Francisco, Fowl Marauder // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
Francisco, Fowl Marauder // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator runs Foil as a zero-mana way to protect its combat-damage triggers, keeping mana open for spells rather than holding up blue islands.
Kami of the Crescent Moon
Kami of the Crescent Moon floods the table with cards, so the two-card discard cost of Foil shrinks to almost nothing — being hand-rich is the whole point of the deck.
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Edric, Spymaster of Trest needs to keep its small attackers alive through the opponent's turn, and Foil's zero-mana cost means Edric never has to choose between deploying a threat and holding up countermagic.
Vnwxt, Verbose Host
Vnwxt, Verbose Host cares about instants and sorceries going wherever they go, and Foil slots in as a free piece of interaction that doesn't compete with the deck's mana on the turn it matters most.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Foil occupies a specific niche: decks that either draw enough to shrug off the two-card cost or actively want cards in the graveyard. Outside those shells, a hard counter that costs two cards is too steep when mana-efficient alternatives exist. In Legacy and Vintage, Foil sees occasional play as a pitch counterspell in decks with no access to blue mana or as a redundant Force of Will effect, though Force of Will itself is almost always preferable when available. Pauper is where Foil quietly earns respect — at common, it's one of the only free counterspells accessible to the format, and blue tempo and mill decks use it as real protection.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.91 cheap tier
At $1.91, Foil sits in the budget tier with no real barrier to picking it up for any deck that wants it. Demand is steady enough from Commander and Pauper players that the price is unlikely to crater, but don't expect it to spike — it's a role-player, not a chase card.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Rielle, the Everwise
- Francisco, Fowl Marauder // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
- Kami of the Crescent Moon
- Edric, Spymaster of Trest
- Vnwxt, Verbose Host
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.