Swat
Instant
Destroy target creature with power 2 or less.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Onslaught
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #25142
Swat trades one of your creatures for one of theirs at instant speed, and cycling means it's never a dead card in hand. At two mana it's a fine rate, but it competes with a crowded field of unconditional removal that doesn't ask you to sacrifice anything.
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, Swat fills the low end of the removal slot — the sacrifice requirement costs you a body, and the format's card pool usually offers cleaner options at similar cost. Pauper is where it earns genuine consideration, since instant-speed removal with a cycling escape valve is a meaningful combination when unconditional answers are scarce. Legacy and Vintage are both legal but irrelevant; neither format touches Swat. The cycling clause is the card's real selling point regardless of format — it converts a situationally dead removal spell into a cantrip, which is the only reason Swat appears in any 99 at all.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
Swat sits at $0.08, firmly in bulk territory, and that price is stable by definition — it's a common with no competitive demand and no scarcity to push it higher. Pick it up as a throw-in; there's no financial upside to tracking.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.