Midnight Oil
Enchantment
This enchantment enters with seven hour counters on it.
At the beginning of your draw step, draw an additional card and remove two hour counters from this enchantment.
Your maximum hand size is equal to the number of hour counters on this enchantment.
Whenever you discard a card, you lose 1 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Kaladesh
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #16352
Midnight Oil hands you a full grip every turn — and then drains you for the hand size that benefit created, turning your own card advantage into a liability. In Blim, Comedic Genius decks the drain flips to an opponent's problem, which is the only context where that cost becomes the entire point.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Blim, Comedic Genius
Blim, Comedic Genius exists to donate permanents that punish their new controller, and Midnight Oil is the engine at its nastiest — give an opponent a card-drawing machine that eats their life total for every card they're forced to hold.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Midnight Oil is a Commander card through and through. The drain-for-hand-size clause is a political weapon in multiplayer, and Blim, Comedic Genius turns it into a kill condition by passing it around the table. In Legacy and Vintage it competes against strictly faster draw engines and the life loss is a genuine liability with no donate payoff, so it sees no real play there. Modern and Pioneer are the same story — symmetrical or one-sided draw at this mana cost has too much competition for Midnight Oil to crack any serious list. Stay in the 100-card format.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Midnight Oil is deep bulk — easy to pick up in any trade binder or bulk bin. It's a niche enough card that the price is unlikely to move unless Blim, Comedic Genius sees a sudden surge in popularity, so don't expect it to hold any speculative value.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.