Starstorm
Instant
Starstorm deals X damage to each creature.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- World Championship Decks 2003
- Price
- $0.45
- EDHREC rank
- #2871
Starstorm clears the board for X red mana at instant speed — that combination of scalability and flexibility is rare on a sweeper. Gavi, Nest Warden turns it free on the first cast each turn, which changes the math entirely: a cost-zero instant wipe is a different card than a cost-X sorcery.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gavi, Nest Warden
Gavi, Nest Warden's replacement effect makes the first cycling spell each turn cost nothing, so Starstorm becomes a free instant-speed board wipe — you cycle it, pay zero, and sweep the table without touching your mana.
Firesong and Sunspeaker
Firesong and Sunspeaker gains life equal to damage dealt by red spells, so Starstorm hitting five creatures for four each means twenty life on top of the clear — that life total swing can be backbreaking.
The Swarmlord
The Swarmlord rewards every instance of dealing damage to opponents with a counter payoff, and Starstorm pinging multiple players in a single cast turns one removal spell into a stacking advantage engine.
Magus Lucea Kane
Magus Lucea Kane copies spells with X in their cost for free, and doubling Starstorm's X means twice the damage to every creature on board for no additional mana investment.
Bello, Bard of the Brambles
Bello, Bard of the Brambles cares about instants and sorceries that deal damage, and Starstorm's instant-speed, scalable damage makes it one of the cleanest ways to both clear a board and trigger Bello's spellslinger payoffs simultaneously.
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 |
Commander is where Starstorm actually lives — instant-speed scalable sweepers are scarce in red, and the ability to set X exactly where you need it makes it useful from the early game through the late game. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes against faster and more efficient interaction, so it sees essentially no play there. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander: the singleton, multiplayer environment rewards flexible sweepers, and Starstorm fits that mold.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.45 bulk tier
At $0.45, Starstorm is firmly bulk — you're picking it up as a throw-in or $1 bin find. The price reflects its niche role as a cycling-payoff piece and red sweeper rather than a broadly demanded staple, so don't expect it to move significantly in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.