Kiku's Shadow
Sorcery
Target creature deals damage to itself equal to its power.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Saviors of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #24794
Kiku's Shadow deals damage to a creature equal to the number of Swamps you control — in a mono-black deck with 30+ Swamps, that routinely kills anything on the board for two mana at instant speed. The catch is symmetry: it's dead weight outside dedicated black-heavy builds, but inside them it's an efficient removal spell that scales harder than most.
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, Kiku's Shadow earns a slot only in mono-black or near-mono-black builds where Swamp count is high enough to reliably one-shot threats — think 30-plus basics after fetches and dual lands are excluded. It's a non-starter in two- or three-color decks where your Swamp count drops below the damage threshold for most threats. In Legacy and Vintage it's outclassed by unconditional removal like Fatal Push and Swords to Plowshares, so it sees no meaningful competitive play there. Commander is the one format where Kiku's Shadow actually does what it promises.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Kiku's Shadow is pure bulk — you're paying almost nothing for a card with a narrow but real use case. Price stability is likely since demand is limited to a specific mono-black niche, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.