Spectral Deluge
Sorcery
Return each creature your opponents control with toughness X or less to its owner's hand, where X is the number of Islands you control.
Foretell 
(During your turn, you may pay 
and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Kaldheim Commander
- Price
- $5.09
- EDHREC rank
- #4075
Spectral Deluge bounces all non-Spirit creatures at instant speed for three mana — that's a one-sided wrath in the right shell. Ranar the Ever-Watchful turns every foretell cast into a free 1/1 Spirit, so the card that clears the board also fuels the army replacing it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ranar the Ever-Watchful
Spectral Deluge is one of the premier payoffs for Ranar the Ever-Watchful: foretelling it triggers Ranar's Spirit token, and when it resolves it sweeps the board while leaving your Spirit tokens untouched.
Eluge, the Shoreless Sea
Eluge, the Shoreless Sea cares about casting spells with the same name or foretold cards, and Spectral Deluge's foretell mechanic feeds that engine while pulling double duty as a tempo reset.
Minn, Wily Illusionist
Minn, Wily Illusionist builds an Illusion army that survives Spectral Deluge's bounce, making it a clean one-sided sweep that preserves your board while gutting everyone else's.
Charix, the Raging Isle
Charix, the Raging Isle is itself an Islandwalk threat with built-in protection, and Spectral Deluge clears defenders in blue-heavy metas so Charix punches through unblocked.
Alandra, Sky Dreamer
Alandra, Sky Dreamer rewards casting multiple instants and sorceries in a turn, and Spectral Deluge is a high-impact spell that earns its slot while keeping the drake-generation engine fed.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Spectral Deluge is a Commander card through and through — the foretell mechanic is slow and telegraphed, which is a real cost in faster formats, but at a three-player table that setup turn rarely matters. In Commander it's strongest in Spirit and foretell-matters builds, where the one-sided nature of the bounce is the point rather than a bonus. It's legal in Legacy and Vintage but sees no play there; at three mana, bounce-all is not competitive in formats where threats rebuild in a single turn and counterspells do the heavy lifting. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it could see genuine use, particularly in a Spirit-tribal shell with a foretell-synergy planeswalker.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Aetherspouts and Engulf the Shore both handle similar board-clear duties for less money — Engulf the Shore in particular is under $1 and can sweep just as completely in an Islands-heavy deck, though it lacks the foretell setup and doesn't select for creature type the way Spectral Deluge does. If the Spirit-tribal synergy isn't the reason you're running it, Engulf the Shore is the clean swap; if the one-sided text is the whole point, there's no direct replacement at a lower price point.
Price Context
Current price
$5.09 mid tier
At $5.09, Spectral Deluge sits in the mid tier — expensive enough that you're making a deliberate inclusion, cheap enough that it doesn't require budget justification in most 99s. It's a narrow enough card that demand stays tied almost entirely to Ranar the Ever-Watchful decks, which keeps the ceiling low but also keeps the price stable.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.