Hisoka's Defiance
Instant
Counter target Spirit or Arcane spell.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Champions of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #30728
Hisoka's Defiance counters a Spirit or Arcane spell and replaces itself — that's a two-mana hard counter with a cantrip stapled on, conditional on the target type. Outside dedicated Spirit or Arcane builds where the condition is nearly always live, skip it.
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 |
In Commander, Hisoka's Defiance slots cleanly into Spirit-tribal builds — Kamigawa-flavored decks running Arcane spells or Spirit payoffs will trigger the cantrip often enough to make this genuinely good. In Pauper, the Arcane subtype appears frequently enough in certain combo shells that Hisoka's Defiance can pull real weight as cheap interaction that replaces itself. Legacy and Vintage have far stronger unconditional options, so it sees no meaningful play there. The card is legal in Oathbreaker but faces the same condition problem — unless the metagame leans heavily Spirit or Arcane, you're better off with Force of Will.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Hisoka's Defiance is deep bulk — it costs less than a sleeve. There's no meaningful price floor to fall through, and Spirit-tribal demand is too narrow to push it higher.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.