Waterwhirl
Instant
Return up to two target creatures to their owners' hands.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Khans of Tarkir
- Price
- $0.03
- EDHREC rank
- #28978
Waterwhirl bounces up to two target creatures back to their owners' hands for five mana — instant speed, no conditions, no targeting restrictions beyond creature type. It's a clean tempo play but five mana for bounce is steep, and that cost keeps it out of most competitive lists.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Waterwhirl earns its slot in decks that want repeatable or politically leveraged bounce — removing two threats at once at instant speed can swing a board state when three or four players are involved. Across Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer, five mana is simply too slow for a format where counterspells and cheaper bounce spells dominate the tempo game, so Waterwhirl sees essentially no play there. Vintage shares that problem at an even more compressed power level. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: playable in the right shell, redundant elsewhere.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.03 bulk tier
At $0.03, Waterwhirl is deep bulk — you're paying for the cardboard, not the effect. Bulk commons at this price floor don't appreciate unless a mechanic or commander suddenly makes them format-relevant, and nothing on the horizon points that direction for Waterwhirl.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.