MagicTheGathering.fyi

Rakdos Charm

Instant

Choose one —
• Exile target player's graveyard.
• Destroy target artifact.
• Each creature deals 1 damage to its controller.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{B}{R}
Color identity
BR
Rarity
special
Set
Time Spiral Remastered
Price
$6.37
EDHREC rank
#326
Buy on TCGplayer
Rakdos Charm card art
Rakdos Charm is three removal spells stapled to one card — exile a graveyard, blow up an artifact, or deal damage equal to the number of creatures an opponent controls, all at instant speed for two mana. It's the card Admiral Brass, Unsinkable players slot specifically because token swarms and reanimator piles are equally common threats at a four-player table.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable

53.9% of decks · synergy 0.39

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable runs a Pirate-tribal gameplan that regularly floods the board with creatures, making the 'deal damage equal to creature count' mode of Rakdos Charm a credible one-sided reset against anyone trying to go wider.

03
Queen Marchesa

Queen Marchesa

44.5% of decks · synergy 0.36

Queen Marchesa decks traffic in political tension and precise, multipurpose interaction — Rakdos Charm fits that gameplan perfectly because any one of its three modes can be the right answer depending on what threat emerges.

04
Hearthhull, the Worldseed

Hearthhull, the Worldseed

49.2% of decks · synergy 0.34

Hearthhull, the Worldseed decks tend to play a slower, inevitability-based game that needs flexible hate against graveyard recursion and artifact ramp, two of the three things Rakdos Charm cleanly answers.

05
Rakdos, Lord of Riots

Rakdos, Lord of Riots

72.5% of decks · synergy 0.29

Rakdos, Lord of Riots needs opponents to take damage before the commander can even be cast, and Rakdos Charm's creature-count mode conveniently doubles as both a combat trick and the trigger that opens the door for a turn-four Rakdos.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Rakdos Charm earns its slot — four opponents mean fuller graveyards, bigger artifact counts, and wider creature boards, so all three modes stay live deep into any game. In Legacy and Vintage it sees fringe sideboard play as graveyard hate that doesn't brick against decks running zero artifacts. Modern is the format where it has historically mattered most outside Commander, particularly against token strategies and Affinity-adjacent artifact decks, though dedicated hate like Engineered Explosives often edges it out. Pioneer playgroups occasionally reach for Rakdos Charm in sideboards targeting Greasefang or artifact-heavy shells, but the competition for two-mana instant slots is stiff. Pauper and Standard legality don't apply, so the card lives and dies on its multiformat sideboard ceiling and its Commander floor — and the Commander floor is high.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

If Rakdos Charm is out of range, Nihil Spellbomb covers the graveyard mode for a few cents and Smash to Smithereens handles artifacts with a bonus three damage, but running both costs you the flexibility of having all three effects on one card. The charm's real premium is the creature-count damage mode — there's no clean single-card budget replacement for that line, which is the main reason Rakdos Charm holds its slot rather than getting split into cheaper pieces.

Price Context

Current price

$6.37 mid tier

At $6.37, Rakdos Charm sits in the mid tier — reasonable for a three-mode instant that legitimately threatens a win out of nowhere against token decks. It's not a card you'd expect to spike or crater dramatically given steady Commander demand and multiple printings keeping supply healthy.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.