Piston-Fist Cyclops
Creature — Cyclops
Defender
As long as you've cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, this creature can attack as though it didn't have defender.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RU
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Guilds of Ravnica
- Price
- $0.04
- EDHREC rank
- #27637
Piston-Fist Cyclops is a 4/3 defender that loses defender whenever you cast an instant or sorcery — a payoff that requires consistent spell-slinging just to become a mediocre attacker. The cost in deck-building overhead and the fragility of a three-toughness body make it a hard sell over almost any alternative.
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 |
Piston-Fist Cyclops is legal across Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but sees essentially no competitive play in any of them. In Pauper it has the most theoretical room — Izzet spells shells do exist — but even there the card asks too much for too little, since a 4/3 that needs an instant or sorcery each turn to attack trails behind purpose-built threats at the same mana cost. In Commander, four mana for a conditional beater with no enters-the-battlefield effect and no immediate board impact is simply below the format's power threshold.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.04 bulk tier
At $0.04, Piston-Fist Cyclops is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in collection boxes, not trade binders. There is no meaningful demand driver that would change that trajectory.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.