Hand of Cruelty
Creature — Human Samurai
Protection from white
Bushido 1 (Whenever this creature blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Saviors of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.56
- EDHREC rank
- #21103
Hand of Cruelty is a 2/2 first striker for two mana that can only be blocked by black creatures — a nearly unblockable body in most metas that demands black removal to answer. The cost is severe color restriction: it belongs exclusively in mono-black or near-mono-black shells, and even there it competes with black two-drops that do more than attack.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Hand of Cruelty is a niche include — mono-black aggro commanders like Drana, Liberator of Malakir or Sheoldred, the Apocalypse can exploit the evasion, but the card does nothing beyond being a hard-to-block body, which rarely wins at a 100-card table. Legacy and Vintage have no use for it; those formats have Phyrexian Dreadnought, Death's Shadow, and far more efficient threats that don't require opponents to be playing black to get value. Modern similarly passes — a 2/2 first striker with conditional evasion doesn't clear the bar when Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Grief exist. Hand of Cruelty is legal in Oathbreaker, where the faster clock makes an early evasive threat slightly more relevant, but again the payoff is narrow.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.56 bulk tier
At $0.56, Hand of Cruelty is deep bulk — buy it without hesitation if a deck calls for it, because there's no price risk. Demand is too narrow for it to appreciate meaningfully, so treat it as a one-of pickup and move on.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.