Repel the Darkness
Instant
Tap up to two target creatures.
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ultimate Masters
- Price
- $0.06
- EDHREC rank
- #19860
Repel the Darkness taps up to three creatures and replaces itself with a card draw, all on one instant-speed spell. Five mana is too much for that effect in nearly every competitive context, but the self-replacing clause keeps it from being a total blank in slower, casual metas.
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 |
In Commander, Repel the Darkness occupies the bottom shelf of white interaction — the draw staples that slot in here are almost always better on rate, and five mana at instant speed competes with actual removal. Pauper is the one format where the math changes slightly: the common card pool is shallow enough that a tapping effect plus a free card has marginal viability in slower creature-stall decks. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters — the effect is nowhere near powerful enough to see play in formats defined by the first three turns. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: fine filler if you're budget-building, but not a card you're excited to see.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.06 bulk tier
At $0.06, Repel the Darkness is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not the card. It won't hold or gain value, so grab it only if you genuinely need a placeholder and have nothing better on hand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.