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Steelfin Whale

Creature — Whale

Affinity for artifacts (This spell costs {1} less to cast for each artifact you control.)
Whenever an artifact you control enters, untap this creature.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{5}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
common
Set
Modern Horizons 2
Price
$0.10
EDHREC rank
#20304
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Steelfin Whale card art
Steelfin Whale puts a 4/4 islandwalk body on the board that doubles as a zero-cost bounce engine the moment you pair it with Retraction Helix. The setup cost is real — you need the Helix and something free to replay — but when the engine is live, it goes infinite with the right pieces.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper legal
oathbreaker legal

Steelfin Whale sees essentially zero competitive play in Legacy, Vintage, or Modern — a 5-mana 4/4 with a conditional tap ability doesn't clear the bar in those formats. Pauper is its most honest home outside Commander, where common-legal combo shells can exploit the bounce trigger on a budget. In Commander, Steelfin Whale is a niche include: it shows up in artifact-synergy or untap-loop decks that can assemble the full combo, and it's a dead card in any list that can't reliably feed it free permanents to bounce.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.10 bulk tier

At $0.10, Steelfin Whale is deep bulk — a throw-in card with no price floor worth worrying about. It holds that price because demand is narrow and supply is abundant; pick up as many copies as your combo shells need without a second thought.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.