Irradiate
Instant
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each artifact you control.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mirrodin
- Price
- $0.03
- EDHREC rank
- #26829
Irradiate kills a creature and the price you pay scales with how many artifacts you control — in the right deck, that's a one-mana removal spell. Outside of artifact-heavy shells, it's a clunky four-mana sorcery that belongs nowhere near a 99.
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, Irradiate earns a slot only in dedicated artifact decks — think Breya, Etherium Shaper or Emry, Lurker of the Loch — where a board full of tokens or rocks routinely drives the cost to zero or one mana. In Pauper it sees niche play in artifact synergy shells for the same reason, though the format's fast enough that sorcery speed hurts. Legacy and Vintage have access to better cheap removal at every turn, so Irradiate doesn't compete there. It's a build-around common, not a generically playable card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.03 bulk tier
At $0.03, Irradiate is pure bulk — you'll spend more on a sleeve than the card. That price won't move; it's a common with a narrow home and no scarcity to speak of.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.