Restore Balance
Sorcery
Suspend 6—
Each player chooses a number of lands they control equal to the number of lands controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. Players sacrifice creatures and discard cards the same way.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Time Spiral
- Price
- $1.09
- EDHREC rank
- #17987
Restore Balance equalizes lands, hands, and creatures across the table — but because it has suspend 0, you can only cast it for free off effects that cheat suspend costs, making it a build-around rather than a flex slot. In the right shell it's a one-card wrath plus hand-and-land leveler; outside that shell it's uncastable.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Restore Balance earns its slot in dedicated suspend or cascade decks — cascade hits it for free off any spell with a mana value of 1, which is the engine most builds exploit. Legacy and Vintage both allow it, but it sees negligible play there; the suspend mechanic is too slow for those formats without specific enablers, and other balance effects are more reliable. Modern is where Restore Balance made its mark historically, powering out asymmetric board states via cascade spells, though the archetype is fringe-competitive at best today. It's legal in Oathbreaker as well, where the faster clock makes the cascade-cheat even more punishing if you can pair it with the right signature spell.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.09 cheap tier
At $1.09, Restore Balance sits in impulse-buy territory — cheap enough to pick up speculatively, but the price reflects its narrow demand rather than broad playability. The ceiling is limited by how many players are actually building cascade or suspend lists, so don't expect significant movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.