Thirsting Shade
Creature — Shade
Lifelink
: This creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ravnica Allegiance
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #24408
Thirsting Shade is a one-mana 1/2 with lifelink that can grow into a genuine threat — but only if you're willing to keep dumping black mana into it every turn. The payoff is real in the right shell, nonexistent everywhere else.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Thirsting Shade lives almost entirely in Commander, where the long game gives its activated ability room to matter. In Pauper it's at common and could theoretically slot into black lifegain or devotion shells, but a 1/2 that needs repeated mana investment is too slow for that format's efficient threats. Modern, Legacy, and Vintage have no interest — better one-drops exist at every point on the curve. Commander is where Thirsting Shade finds its niche: black lifegain commanders with mana sinks on board reward exactly this kind of incremental threat.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Thirsting Shade is pure bulk — the kind of card you pull from a box rather than buy singles. Bulk commons and uncommons with narrow applications don't appreciate, so there's no financial angle here beyond filling a slot for free.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.