Precise Strike
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Aether Revolt
- Price
- $0.03
- EDHREC rank
- #26386
Precise Strike gives a creature first strike and trample until end of turn for a single red mana — all the combat math you need to guarantee a trade up or push damage through a blocker. It's a functional combat trick, but one mana instants need to do more than this to earn a Commander slot.
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 |
Precise Strike is legal across every relevant format but earns a slot in almost none of them. In Commander, one-shot combat tricks are near-unplayable — you're spending a card to win one combat, which doesn't scale against three opponents and a 40-life total. In Pauper and aggressive Pioneer or Modern shells, Precise Strike competes with Temur Battle Rage, which costs the same and hits harder with trample plus double strike. The only context where it pulls any weight is a hyper-budget draft or kitchen-table environment where the redundancy past Battle Rage actually matters.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.03 bulk tier
At $0.03, Precise Strike is deep bulk — you're buying it out of a common box, not a store listing. That price is stable because demand is essentially zero; nothing about the card's function is likely to change that.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.