Scent of Cinder
Sorcery
Reveal any number of red cards in your hand. Scent of Cinder deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of cards revealed this way.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Urza's Destiny
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #28590
Scent of Cinder deals X damage to any target and gains you X life, where X is the number of red cards in your hand — ceiling is high, but the card requires a full grip to matter. It's a niche payoff that earns its slot only in decks that draw aggressively and rarely drop below five cards in hand.
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, Scent of Cinder is a fringe inclusion in red storm or wheel-heavy builds where hand size spikes reliably — outside those shells, the damage output is too inconsistent to justify a slot over unconditional burn. Pauper is its most competitive home; common-card constraints make flexible X-damage spells more valuable, and red decks there can sequence around keeping cards in hand. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient burn, so Scent of Cinder sees no meaningful play in either format despite being legal. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read — playable only if the commander actively refills your hand every turn.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Scent of Cinder is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. That price is stable because nothing about the current metagame is pushing players toward it.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.