Forbid
Instant
Buyback—Discard two cards. (You may discard two cards in addition to any other costs as you cast this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Counter target spell.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- World Championship Decks 1998
- Price
- $0.80
- EDHREC rank
- #8015
Forbid locks opponents out of the game entirely once you have a discard outlet feeding your hand — hard counter, reusable, no cap on activations. The buyback cost of discarding two cards is steep enough that it belongs only in decks that treat the graveyard as a resource, with Rielle, the Everwise being the clearest home.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Rielle, the Everwise
Rielle, the Everwise draws a card for each discard, so paying Forbid's buyback cost replaces itself twice over — the 'cost' becomes card advantage, and the lock becomes nearly free to maintain.
Damia, Sage of Stone
Damia, Sage of Stone refills your hand to seven at the start of each turn, which means the two-card discard to rebuy Forbid rarely depletes resources — you spend down to counter something, Damia tops you back up.
Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer
Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer casts nonland cards discarded from your hand, so the two cards pitched to Forbid's buyback aren't gone — they're spells waiting to fire off the graveyard.
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 |
Commander is where Forbid earns its keep: multiplayer games run long, buyback scales with redundant hand-refill effects, and a reusable hard counter applies pressure to all three opponents simultaneously. In Legacy and Vintage, the competition is fierce — Force of Will, Mana Drain, and Counterspell all cost less mana with no additional tax, so Forbid only shows up in dedicated discard-matters shells where the buyback is actually free. It's not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, which narrows the conversation considerably. Oathbreaker is a viable home if your planeswalker generates card advantage on its own, but the three-mana base cost is harder to justify in that faster format.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.80 bulk tier
At $0.80, Forbid is bulk — low enough to include speculatively and low enough that there's no real financial argument against picking up a copy if the deck fits. The price reflects its narrow application: it's generically strong but only exceptional in specific discard-matters builds, which keeps demand modest.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.