Spirit Flare
Instant
Tap target untapped creature you control. If you do, it deals damage equal to its power to target attacking or blocking creature an opponent controls.
Flashback—
, Pay 3 life. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Torment
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #29148
Spirit Flare taps a creature to deal damage equal to its power to a target creature or player — useful rate on paper, but the flashback cost of tapping a creature plus paying mana a second time makes it awkward to recur efficiently. It's a budget role-player in tap-synergy shells and a near-blank everywhere else.
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 |
In Commander, Spirit Flare finds its niche in tap-synergy decks — primarily white-red or mono-white builds that already want to tap creatures for value, where the flashback gives a second activation without drawing a card. Outside of that specific context, five mana across two casts for a non-guaranteed kill is too inefficient for a 100-card singleton format where competition for slots is fierce. In Pauper, the tap-a-creature requirement makes it unreliable at common depth, where better direct damage exists. Legacy and Vintage are legal but wholly irrelevant — Spirit Flare will never see play there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Spirit Flare is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not the effect. There's no demand driver that pushes this above bulk pricing, so treat it as a free include or a free cut depending on whether your deck actually wants it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.