Olivia's Midnight Ambush
Instant
Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. If it's night, that creature gets -13/-13 until end of turn instead.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Innistrad: Double Feature
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #25964
Olivia's Midnight Ambush trades one mana and a Vampire for a -2/-2 debuff on any creature until end of turn — cheap interaction that doubles as tribal fuel. It's a role-player, not a staple: useful in dedicated Vampire lists, invisible everywhere else.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Olivia's Midnight Ambush is a niche inclusion — Vampire tribal decks that can recur or mass-produce creatures treat the sacrifice as a resource, but in any other shell the cost is too steep for a -2/-2 until end of turn. Pauper is the format where instant-speed debuffs at one mana get the most scrutiny, and even there the sorcery-adjacent restriction of requiring a creature sacrifice keeps it fringe. In Modern and Legacy, the effect simply doesn't clear the bar — Fatal Push, Unholy Heat, and their peers exist at the same price point with no strings attached. Pioneer is similarly hostile territory. Olivia's Midnight Ambush is a Commander card wearing cross-format legality as a technicality.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Olivia's Midnight Ambush is deep bulk — pick it up for pennies if you're building Vampires and don't expect the price to move. Narrow tribal instants at this price point rarely appreciate unless a new, high-profile commander makes the effect mandatory.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.