MagicTheGathering.fyi

The Jolly Balloon Man

Legendary Creature — Human Clown

Haste
{1}, {T}: Create a token that's a copy of another target creature you control, except it's a 1/1 red Balloon creature in addition to its other colors and types and it has flying and haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Activate only as a sorcery.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{R}{W}
Color identity
RW
Rarity
rare
Set
Duskmourn: House of Horror Promos
Price
$0.59
EDHREC rank
#2501
Buy on TCGplayer
The Jolly Balloon Man card art
The Jolly Balloon Man untaps all your creatures when it enters — that's a Village Bell-Ringer effect stapled to a body that payoff commanders like Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds can copy or abuse on a loop. Three mana for a mass untap is the going rate, and at that price it earns its slot anywhere the effect matters.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

02
Zidane, Tantalus Thief

Zidane, Tantalus Thief

56.6% of decks · synergy 0.50

Zidane, Tantalus Thief rewards attacking with untapped creatures, and The Jolly Balloon Man's mass untap lets the whole board swing again after blockers are stripped away.

03
Dargo, the ShipwreckerTymna the Weaver

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver

53.3% of decks · synergy 0.50

Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver runs The Jolly Balloon Man as a cheap creature to sacrifice while untapping attackers mid-combat, keeping the aggressive pressure going without losing tempo.

05
Zurgo, Thunder's Decree

Zurgo, Thunder's Decree

36.0% of decks · synergy 0.33

Zurgo, Thunder's Decree leans on attacking creatures staying untapped for secondary effects, and The Jolly Balloon Man provides the reset cheaply enough to run alongside other untap enablers.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where The Jolly Balloon Man actually does work — mass untap effects are worth a card in a 100-card singleton format, and the creature type opens up tribal synergies alongside the ETB. In competitive non-rotating formats like Legacy and Modern it's a fringe piece at best, appearing only in dedicated creature-untap combo shells where redundancy matters. Pioneer and Standard give it a legal home but no obvious broken home — the effect is fair at three mana without a recursive shell to abuse it. Oathbreaker can push it further if the planeswalker commander generates creatures to untap.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

13,033 decks
The Jolly Balloon ManVillage Bell-Ringer

The Jolly Balloon ManVillage Bell-Ringer

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite creature tokens with haste; Infinite untap of creatures you control; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
3,394 decks
The Jolly Balloon ManCoercive Recruiter

The Jolly Balloon ManCoercive Recruiter

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite creature tokens with haste; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$0.59 bulk tier

At $0.59, The Jolly Balloon Man sits firmly in bulk territory — pick it up without hesitation if the deck calls for it. Bulk rares with combo potential can tick up when the right commander breaks out, but at this price you're buying the effect, not speculating on movement.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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