Summoner's Bane
Instant
Counter target creature spell. Create a 2/2 blue Illusion creature token.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Zendikar
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #22368
Summoner's Bane counters a creature spell and leaves a 2/2 Illusion token on the battlefield — two effects for four mana. That rate is too slow for most formats, but in Commander's slower environment it earns a slot in any blue deck that wants both interaction and a body.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Summoner's Bane sees essentially no play in Legacy or Vintage, where four mana for a counterspell is a death sentence and creatures worth stopping die to cheaper answers. Modern is the same story — the format is too fast for a four-mana counter to matter. Commander is where Summoner's Bane has a real argument: the token is immediately relevant on a board that stalls into combat math, and countering a commander before it lands is a tempo swing that compounds over the course of a long game. It's still a budget-tier pick rather than a staple, but the floor of leaving a body behind makes it meaningfully different from a vanilla Counterspell at four mana.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Summoner's Bane is pure bulk — you're not buying it for any reason other than needing the effect cheap. The price is unlikely to move in either direction given how many cleaner counterspells exist at the same or lower cost.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.