Sonar Strike
Instant
Sonar Strike deals 4 damage to target attacking, blocking, or tapped creature. You gain 3 life if you control a Bat.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Bloomburrow
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #13396
Sonar Strike grants a creature flying and lifelink until end of turn — a combat trick that lets you trade up in the air or close out a race. At one mana, the cost is negligible; the limiting factor is that Zoraline, Cosmos Caller decks are the primary home that makes this worth a deck slot.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller cares about gaining life on your opponents' turns, and Sonar Strike stapled onto a flash-speed lifelink enabler means every attack step is an opportunity to trigger her engine — 52% of Zoraline builds already run it for exactly that reason.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sonar Strike is legal everywhere but does nothing in formats where combat tricks compete with counterspells and removal — in Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer, a one-mana trick that doesn't generate card advantage or tempo is a non-starter. Pauper is similarly uninterested; the format has tighter, more redundant answers to anything this protects. In Commander, Sonar Strike earns its slot almost exclusively in Zoraline, Cosmos Caller builds, where the incidental lifelink trigger on an opponent's attack step is the actual payoff, not the flying.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Sonar Strike is deep bulk — buy the four copies you need without a second thought. Bulk commons with narrow synergy homes don't appreciate, so treat it as a throw-in, not a pickup.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.