Square Up
Instant
Target creature has base power and toughness 4/4 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- GU
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Strixhaven: School of Mages
- Price
- $0.03
- EDHREC rank
- #26639
Square Up sets a creature's power and toughness to 4/4 until end of turn — a combat trick that can save an outmatched blocker or push a small attacker through a wall — all for a single green mana. It's a fine limited card and a bulk roleplayer, but it rarely earns a slot outside of formats where cheap combat tricks do real work.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Square Up is a one-mana combat trick, which means its ceiling is highest in formats with fast, creature-dense games where a surprise 4/4 swing can decide a race — think Pauper, where it's legal and cheap tricks genuinely matter. In Modern and Pioneer it faces stiff competition from pump spells with broader upside, and the +4/+4 baseline rarely trades up enough to justify the slot. In Commander, Square Up is too low-impact to reliably pull weight across a 100-card singleton format — the 4/4 floor is modest when opponents are deploying 6/6s and 10/10s, and the effect disappears at end of turn.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.03 bulk tier
At $0.03, Square Up is deep bulk — you'll find it in a common box before you find a reason to buy it. That price reflects real demand: it sees narrow play and isn't a staple in any major format.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.