Psychic Barrier
Instant
Counter target creature spell. Its controller loses 1 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- New Phyrexia
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #19963
Psychic Barrier counters a spell and makes its controller discard a card — two-for-one pressure at instant speed for two mana. It's a strict upgrade over Counterspell in any deck that values hand disruption, and a clean role-player in blue control shells that want every interaction to pull double duty.
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 |
Psychic Barrier is a niche piece in Commander, where countering one spell for two mana is baseline acceptable and the discard rider gains real teeth against graveyard-hungry opponents or decks that sculpt their hand carefully. In Pauper, where the card is legal and commons are the ceiling, it competes directly with Counterspell at the same cost — the discard can matter more in that format's tighter resource games, but straight Counterspell usually wins the slot. Legacy and Vintage give Psychic Barrier no compelling home; those formats run free countermagic and efficiency that makes a two-mana discard-rider irrelevant. Oathbreaker is where it surfaces most comfortably, particularly in low-curve blue builds that want cheap interaction with incidental reach.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Psychic Barrier is deep bulk — buy a dozen without thinking about it. Don't expect the price to move; it's a common with a narrow audience and no shortage of supply.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.