Scent of Nightshade
Instant
Reveal any number of black cards in your hand. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards revealed this way.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Urza's Destiny
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #28288
Scent of Nightshade deals damage equal to the number of swamp cards you reveal from your hand — a burst of direct damage that scales with how black-heavy your hand is. The floor is zero and the ceiling is rarely above four or five, which makes this too unreliable to compete with actual removal.
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 |
Scent of Nightshade is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but sees essentially no play in any of them. In Commander, where opponents start at 40 life and the game rewards consistency, a spell that might deal three damage to a single target is close to unplayable. Legacy and Vintage have access to nearly every card ever printed, so Scent of Nightshade never makes the cut when real burn and removal exist. Pauper is the only format where budget constraints tighten the card pool, but even there, damage-based removal at common has far more reliable options.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Scent of Nightshade is deep bulk — the kind of price that reflects demand near zero rather than scarcity. There is no meaningful floor to fall through, but there is also no catalyst that would push it higher.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.