Skyfire Kirin
Legendary Creature — Kirin Spirit
Flying
Whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may gain control of target creature with that spell's mana value until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Saviors of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.48
- EDHREC rank
- #21756
Skyfire Kirin taps your opponents' permanents whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell — a repeatable soft lock that compounds fast in the right shell. The cost is real: five mana for a 3/3 flier with no immediate board impact means it earns its slot only if you're triggering it multiple times.
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 |
Commander is where Skyfire Kirin actually functions — Spirit tribal and Arcane-heavy builds generate enough triggers to make the tap ability a recurring threat rather than a one-off. In Legacy and Vintage it's simply too slow and too narrow; no competitive deck is building around a five-mana enchantment-creature that doesn't win the game on its own. Modern has the Spirit payoffs to support it in theory, but five mana is a ceiling most Modern decks never reach in a meaningful gamestate. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: if your signature spell or commander is a Spirit or has Arcane, Skyfire Kirin can generate real value, but you're doing a lot of deckbuilding work to justify it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.48 bulk tier
At $0.48, Skyfire Kirin sits firmly in bulk territory — easy to acquire, easy to cut without regret. It's a niche card serving a niche role, so don't expect the price to move unless Spirit tribal gets a major pushed printing that drags old synergy pieces along with it.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.