Sword Dancer
Creature — Human Rebel
: Target attacking creature gets -1/-0 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Eighth Edition
- Price
- $0.06
- EDHREC rank
- #29150
Sword Dancer is a narrow, low-impact creature that taxes opponents for attacking with creatures that have first strike — a condition so rarely relevant that the effect barely registers at most tables. Unless your meta is overrun with first-strike attackers, this is a seat better filled by a real blocker or a removal spell.
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 |
Sword Dancer is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legal doesn't mean playable. In Commander, the effect is too conditional — first strike is common enough on keywords lists but rare enough as a primary attack vector that Sword Dancer will sit on board doing nothing most games. In Legacy and Vintage, the creature type and stats are simply too weak to compete; no viable strategy there wants a 1/1 that sometimes drains an opponent of a mana. Oathbreaker shares Commander's casual ceiling, but the 60-card singleton pressure on card slots makes the cut even harder to justify.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.06 bulk tier
At $0.06, Sword Dancer is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in a box at a dollar table. There's no realistic path to price appreciation here; demand is too narrow and supply too abundant for that to change.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.