Gush
Instant
You may return two Islands you control to their owner's hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Draw two cards.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- World Championship Decks 2001
- Price
- $9.23
- EDHREC rank
- #5970
Gush draws two cards for free — the return-two-Islands cost is the price, not a mana cost, which means it slots into storm turns, Doomsday piles, and any engine that rewards casting spells without spending mana. Glarb, Calamity's Augur decks run it as a reliable zero-mana trigger that replaces itself and keeps the chain going.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | banned |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | restricted |
| pauper | banned |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Gush carries three restrictions that explain its ban history: it costs zero mana, it draws two cards, and the land-bounce cost is trivially irrelevant in decks that don't need those Islands in play. That combination broke Pauper storm and Legacy combo badly enough to earn bans in both, and Vintage restricts it to one copy for the same reason. Commander gives it a pass because the singleton rule limits you to one copy, the 100-card deck dilutes consistency, and four opponents mean the game typically doesn't end on turn two — the conditions that made Gush oppressive in 60-card formats simply don't translate at a multiplayer table.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Glarb, Calamity's Augur
Glarb, Calamity's Augur triggers off casting spells with no mana in their mana cost, and Gush fits that criterion exactly — you bounce two Islands, draw two cards, and fire the trigger, all without touching your mana pool.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
No direct budget replacement draws two cards for free, but Careful Study and Frantic Search both offer cheap, high-velocity card selection in blue spell-slinger shells. Frantic Search is the closest functional cousin — it untaps lands to offset its cost much like Gush offsets its bounce — but it does cost three mana, which matters on the turns where Gush's zero cost is the whole point.
Price Context
Current price
$9.23 mid tier
At $9.23, Gush sits in mid-tier pricing — meaningful enough to feel in a budget build, low enough that it's a straightforward include in any Commander deck that can actually exploit zero-mana spells. The price is stable given its Commander legality and narrow but loyal audience; it's not climbing, but it's not going anywhere either.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.