Pale Recluse
Creature — Spider
Reach (This creature can block creatures with flying.)
Forestcycling 
, plainscycling (, Discard this card: Search your library for a Forest or Plains card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- GW
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Archenemy
- Price
- $0.53
- EDHREC rank
- #21074
Pale Recluse puts a 3/3 reach body on the board and fetches a basic Forest or Plains — solid rate for a single card, but you're paying five mana at sorcery speed to do it. That cost is the whole argument: in most decks, two-mana ramp spells get you further faster, and the body rarely matters enough to justify the premium.
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, Pale Recluse occupies the low end of playable ramp — it fixes two colors, adds a blocker with reach, and replaces itself on the board, which matters in slower, more casual pods where card disadvantage is punishing. Pauper is where Pale Recluse actually earns its slot: at common rarity in a format starved of efficient fixing, the combination of a relevant body and land tutoring on one card is genuinely useful in Selesnya builds. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters — five mana for this effect doesn't exist in those formats.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.53 bulk tier
At $0.53, Pale Recluse is firmly bulk, and that price is stable — there's no demand spike coming for a five-mana common ramp spell. Buy it if you need it; don't expect it to move.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.