Kraken's Eye
Artifact
Whenever a player casts a blue spell, you may gain 1 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Magic 2011
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #15488
Kraken's Eye gains you 1 life per blue spell cast by anyone — a passive trickle that never threatens to stabilize a board or close a game. Two mana to deploy, zero impact on the board state: this is a life-gain trophy, not a life-gain engine.
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 |
Kraken's Eye is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legality and playability are different things. In Commander, blue-heavy decks see the most triggers, but 1 life per spell is noise in a 40-life format where threats routinely deal damage in chunks of 10 or more. Legacy and Vintage move too fast for a two-mana do-nothing artifact to matter. Oathbreaker's 20-life starting total makes the math marginally more relevant, but there are still cleaner ways to gain life in any of these formats.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Kraken's Eye sits firmly in bulk territory — you're paying for cardboard, not card power. The price reflects the card's role: filler that rarely makes a final cut, so demand stays flat and there's no reason to expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.