Wave Goodbye
Sorcery
Return each creature without a +1/+1 counter on it to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander
- Price
- $7.09
- EDHREC rank
- #1598
Wave Goodbye bounces any number of creatures you control and draws a card for each one — the kind of effect that refills your hand while resetting your entire board for another wave of enter-the-battlefield triggers. At four mana in blue-green, it's a staple in any deck that wants to exploit creatures repeatedly, and Leonardo, the Balance // Michelangelo, the Heart makes it look like a build-around.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Leonardo, the Balance // Michelangelo, the Heart
Leonardo, the Balance // Michelangelo, the Heart cares deeply about bouncing your own creatures to replay enter-the-battlefield effects, and Wave Goodbye does that at scale while replacing itself — it's in 77% of Leonardo lists for good reason.
Hakbal of the Surging Soul
Hakbal of the Surging Soul runs Merfolk that submerge lands when they enter, so Wave Goodbye bouncing a full board means those triggers fire again on every replay, turning one card into several free land drops.
Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied
Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied rewards flooding the board with creatures that care about entering and leaving, and Wave Goodbye converts that board into raw cards while setting up the next attack.
Primo, the Unbounded
Primo, the Unbounded generates value off creatures entering and leaving play, making Wave Goodbye a draw-engine and reset button in one — the card draw alone justifies the slot.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog decks lean on fast, repeated creature triggers, and Wave Goodbye lets you bounce the team at instant speed to dodge a board wipe and draw into more threats simultaneously.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Wave Goodbye is a Commander card through and through — the effect scales with the number of creatures you control, and Commander games reliably produce the wide boards that make it backbreaking. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes with more efficient bounce options at those speeds, and no competitive shell is reaching for it. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it sees genuine play, since planeswalker-centric decks sometimes go wide enough with creature tokens to make the mass-bounce and draw relevant. Outside those two formats, it's not legal anywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Temur Sabertooth fills a similar role in creature-heavy decks — it bounces your own creatures repeatedly for two mana each, and copies run well under a dollar, though it requires mana investment on every activation rather than one burst. Conjurer's Closet and Erratic Portal also recur enter-the-battlefield creatures at low cost, but neither replaces the instant-speed mass-bounce and card-draw combination that makes Wave Goodbye uniquely efficient.
Price Context
Current price
$7.09 mid tier
At $7.09, Wave Goodbye sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate purchase, but fully justified in any deck where it pulls double or triple duty as bounce engine and draw spell. The price reflects genuine demand from Merfolk, explore, and ETB-value strategies, so it's unlikely to crater unless a functional reprint appears.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Leonardo, the Balance // Michelangelo, the Heart
- Hakbal of the Surging Soul
- Sab-Sunen, Luxa Embodied
- Primo, the Unbounded
- Sonic the Hedgehog
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.