Rapid Decay
Instant
Exile up to three target cards from a single graveyard.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- World Championship Decks 1999
- Price
- $0.48
- EDHREC rank
- #27201
Rapid Decay wipes all counters off every permanent on the battlefield — no targeting, no selection, just a clean slate for a single black mana at instant speed. If your deck cares about counters at all, this card can blow up your own engine as badly as your opponent's, so run it only when the symmetry works for you.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Rapid Decay is a highly situational hoser — it punishes proliferate decks, Atraxa builds, and any strategy leaning on +1/+1 or loyalty counters, but it's a liability in any deck that runs its own counters synergies. Legacy and Vintage both technically permit it, but the card sees no meaningful play there; those formats move too fast for a one-mana symmetrical effect that doesn't advance your board. Oathbreaker is the one place Rapid Decay earns a closer look, since planeswalker-focused pods make counter removal genuinely disruptive.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.48 bulk tier
At $0.48, Rapid Decay is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. The price reflects exactly how narrow the card is; it won't climb unless a dominant counter-based archetype emerges and makes this a sideboard staple somewhere.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.