Scald
Enchantment
Whenever a player taps an Island for mana, this enchantment deals 1 damage to that player.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Urza's Saga
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #24595
Scald taxes every blue player at the table — each Island they control costs them 1 life per turn, turning their mana base into a liability. It's a narrow punisher that does real work in red-heavy metas loaded with blue control decks, but it's a dead card the moment no one across the table is running Islands.
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, Scald is a political tool in red decks that expect to face multiple blue players — it generates steady life drain across a table and can deter Island-heavy opponents from tapping out carelessly. Legacy and Vintage both allow it, but in those formats Scald sees essentially no play; the presence of faster, more impactful hate pieces makes it irrelevant in competitive 60-card contexts. Modern, Pioneer, Pauper, and Standard don't have Scald legal at all. It's a Commander-only pickup in practice, and even there it earns a slot only if blue is the dominant threat in your pod.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Scald is firmly bulk — you're paying almost nothing for a highly situational enchantment. The price reflects its narrow application accurately and is unlikely to move unless a breakout blue-punisher Commander suddenly makes it ubiquitous.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.