Rouse
Instant
If you control a Swamp, you may pay 2 life rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mercadian Masques
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #25564
Rouse gives your entire graveyard a +1/+1 boost and trample until end of turn — at instant speed, for a single black mana. It's a niche payoff for dedicated reanimator and graveyard-go-wide builds, irrelevant everywhere else.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Rouse earns a slot only in decks that reliably fill the graveyard and attack with multiple reanimated threats at once — think Karador, Ghost Chieftain or The Scarab God strategies where the graveyard is a second hand. Pauper is the more natural home: graveyard-based token and dredge strategies exist at common, and a one-mana instant that grants trample across the board can close games that would otherwise stall. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but would never run it — the competition at one mana is simply too dense. Rouse is a bulk role-player in the formats that want it, invisible in the ones that don't.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Rouse is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not the effect. That price won't move; graveyard decks have better top-end finishers at every price point, so demand stays low.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.