Glacial Ray
Instant — Arcane
Glacial Ray deals 2 damage to any target.
Splice onto Arcane 
(As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Arena League 2004
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #20797
Glacial Ray deals 2 damage for two mana — fine on its own, but the splice onto arcane ability is the whole point, stapling that damage onto any arcane spell you cast for just one more mana. Without a deck built around arcane and splice, it's a below-rate burn spell; inside one, it's free value on every trigger.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Glacial Ray is a Pauper staple in Izzet Arcane shells, where chaining spliced copies onto Peer Through Depths or Desperate Ritual turns a single turn into a damage avalanche. In Legacy and Vintage it's too slow and too narrow to compete with the raw efficiency of the format's burn options. Commander is a tough sell — arcane tribal is a fringe theme, and 2 damage doesn't scale to 40-life tables without a dedicated splice engine behind it; if you're building Sokenzan Spellblade or a Kamigawa arcane commander, Glacial Ray earns a slot, otherwise skip it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Glacial Ray isn't currently available in the system, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number. Given its Pauper-only competitive relevance, it typically sits at bulk or near-bulk pricing and is easy to pick up as a casual inclusion.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.