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Sneak Attack

Enchantment

{R}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. That creature gains haste. Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the next end step.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{R}
Color identity
R
Rarity
rare
Set
Urza's Saga
Price
$23.40
EDHREC rank
#1453
Buy on TCGplayer
Sneak Attack card art
Sneak Attack lets you slam any creature into play for one red mana, attack immediately, and trigger every enters-the-battlefield ability in the process — the sacrifice clause at end of turn is almost irrelevant when the damage is already done. The catch is that keeping the creatures requires a workaround, but pair it with Obeka, Brute Chronologist to skip the end step entirely and the enchantment becomes a permanent cheat engine with no downside — or just accept the trade and bury opponents in Palinchron loops and combat triggers before cleanup ever arrives.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Obeka, Brute Chronologist

Obeka, Brute Chronologist

73.1% of decks · synergy 0.69

Obeka, Brute Chronologist is the premier Sneak Attack commander precisely because her ability to end the turn on demand means the sacrifice trigger never resolves — anything you cheated in with Sneak Attack stays on the battlefield permanently, turning a one-shot cheat into a free Elvish Piper with no strings attached.

02
Herigast, Erupting Nullkite

Herigast, Erupting Nullkite

56.8% of decks · synergy 0.53

Herigast, Erupting Nullkite has an evoke-style triggered ability that fires when it enters the battlefield, so Sneak Attack is a single red mana to get the full Herigast trigger, swing for massive flying damage, and sacrifice it at end of turn — efficient enough that the loss doesn't sting.

03

Eddie Brock

51.2% of decks · synergy 0.47

Eddie Brock churns through large creatures and rewards putting them into play from unconventional zones, making Sneak Attack a natural fit for flooding the board with high-power bodies and maximizing the symbiote triggers Eddie Brock cares about.

04
Brion Stoutarm

Brion Stoutarm

47.4% of decks · synergy 0.46

Brion Stoutarm wants the biggest creature on the board so he can fling it at an opponent's face for a lethal chunk of damage — Sneak Attack supplies that creature for one red mana, and Brion sacrifices it before end step anyway, so the mandatory sacrifice clause aligns perfectly with the game plan.

05
Feldon of the Third Path

Feldon of the Third Path

50.3% of decks · synergy 0.46

Feldon of the Third Path reanimates from the graveyard repeatedly, and Sneak Attack feeds the graveyard with whatever expensive creature it just cheated in — the two cards form a loop where Sneak Attack drops a threat, end step kills it, and Feldon brings it back the following turn.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Sneak Attack does its best work — 100-card singleton means the creatures worth cheating in are everywhere, and the four-player game gives the enchantment time to generate multiple activations across a long midgame. In Legacy, Sneak Attack anchors the Sneak and Show archetype alongside Show and Tell, where cheating an Emrakul or Griselbrand into play on turn one or two ends games before interaction can matter. Vintage is technically legal but the format's speed makes a four-mana enchantment that needs a turn to activate mostly redundant next to faster reanimation. Oathbreaker is legal and the 20-life starting total means a single Sneak Attack activation into a large creature can close the game immediately.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Ilharg, the Raze-Boar fills a similar role — he cheats a creature into play on attack and returns it to hand rather than sacrificing it, which is often cleaner, and as a creature he's easier to recur when removed. Possibility Storm and Through the Breach are worth naming too: Through the Breach is a one-shot sorcery version of Sneak Attack at a fraction of the price, while Possibility Storm is a different axis entirely; neither replicates the repeatable, instant-speed activation that makes Sneak Attack the premium choice, but Through the Breach in particular handles the same role in decks that only need one big swing to win.

Price Context

Current price

$23.40 premium tier

At $23.40, Sneak Attack sits at the high end of Commander staples but well below reserved-list absurdity — it's a premium enchantment with a narrow but extremely powerful effect. The price reflects genuine demand from Legacy Sneak and Show alongside Commander adoption, and it's held stable enough that buying in for a long-term deck is reasonable.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.