Forked Lightning
Sorcery
Forked Lightning deals 4 damage divided as you choose among one, two, or three target creatures.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #27010
Forked Lightning deals 4 damage split any way you choose across up to three targets — creatures, players, or planeswalkers — for three mana at sorcery speed. It's a niche card: occasionally useful for token-heavy metas, but outclassed by nearly every other red removal spell at the same price point.
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 |
Forked Lightning is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but sees virtually no competitive play in any of them. In Commander, the bar for a three-mana sorcery is high — Forked Lightning can't cleanly kill a single large threat, and splitting 4 damage across small creatures is rarely a game-changing turn. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient burn, so it doesn't register there either. Oathbreaker shares Commander's power-level ceiling concerns, making it equally unattractive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Forked Lightning isn't currently available, but given its minimal competitive presence and niche application, copies tend to sit in the bulk-rare or bulk-uncommon range. It's not a card to seek out — if your local shop has it in a dollar bin, that's about where it belongs.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.