Hama, the Bloodbender
Legendary Creature — Human Warlock
When Hama enters, target opponent mills three cards. Exile up to one noncreature, nonland card from that player's graveyard. For as long as you control Hama, you may cast the exiled card during your turn by waterbending 
rather than paying its mana cost, where X is its mana value. (While paying a waterbend cost, you can tap your artifacts and creatures to help. Each one pays for 
.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Avatar: The Last Airbender
- Price
- $0.14
- EDHREC rank
- #17351
Hama, the Bloodbender lets you steal control of creatures by spending life — a repeatable, on-board threat that snowballs every combat step. The cost is real: you're paying life to fuel the ability, which punishes slower metas where that resource erodes before you can close.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Hama, the Bloodbender slots into life-gain and aristocrats shells that generate enough life to spend freely, turning the ability into a recurring engine across a long game. In 1v1 formats like Modern and Pioneer, the life cost hits harder since there's no cushion of three opponents draining each other, so Hama competes against tighter, faster threats and rarely makes the cut. Legacy and Vintage move too quickly for a three-plus-mana creature with a pay-to-use effect to matter. Standard is the most forgiving ground floor outside Commander — if a dedicated life-gain shell exists in the format at the time, Hama can find a home.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.14 bulk tier
At $0.14, Hama, the Bloodbender is deep bulk — easy to pick up as a four-of or Commander staple without budget concern. Bulk rares at this price point rarely climb unless a competitive shell adopts them, so treat it as a cheap inclusion, not a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.