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Grinning Ignus

Creature — Elemental

{R}, Return this creature to its owner's hand: Add {C}{C}{R}. Activate only as a sorcery.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{R}
Color identity
R
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Strixhaven: School of Mages
Price
$0.17
EDHREC rank
#7940
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Grinning Ignus card art
Grinning Ignus is a combo piece first and a creature second — its ability to bounce itself by spending an extra colorless mana generates infinite storm count and infinite ETBs the moment you have a mana-positive engine underneath it, most cleanly Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty. Without that engine, it's a 2/2 for three that does nothing; with it, you're winning the game on the spot through Purphoros, God of the Forge or any other damage-on-ETB payoff.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

02
Norin the Wary

Norin the Wary

26.5% of decks · synergy 0.24

Norin the Wary decks want Grinning Ignus as a redundant ETB trigger that also serves as a combo piece — every cast of Grinning Ignus causes Norin the Wary to flicker, stacking whatever enters-the-battlefield payoffs the deck runs while the Ignus loop generates storm or damage on its own.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Grinning Ignus sees virtually no competitive play in Legacy, Modern, or Pioneer despite being legal in all three — the self-bounce loop requires too much setup to compete in faster formats where a three-mana 2/2 with no immediate impact is simply too slow. Pauper is the one non-Commander context worth noting: it's a legal common there, though it sees minimal play because the mana-positive enablers needed to break it aren't easily assembled at common. Commander is where Grinning Ignus actually belongs, specifically in red storm and ETB-trigger shells where the infinite-cast loop is a game-ending line rather than a cute trick.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.17 bulk tier

At $0.17, Grinning Ignus is deep bulk — one of the cheapest infinite-combo enablers in Commander relative to the power it contributes. That price is stable; it's widely printed and sees narrow enough competitive demand that there's no pressure pushing it higher.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.