Wilderness Hypnotist
Creature — Merfolk Wizard
: Target red or green creature gets -2/-0 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Eventide
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #30780
Wilderness Hypnotist taps to give target creature -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Merfolk you control — a potentially massive, repeatable power reduction that can neutralize a blocker or defang a threat on the spot. The cost is real: it's a three-mana 2/2 that does nothing without a critical mass of Merfolk on board.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Wilderness Hypnotist is a Commander card through and through, where Merfolk tribal builds can field enough creatures to make the activated ability swing combat math by five or more power. In Pauper, Merfolk is a real archetype and the body is commons-legal, but the ability competes with more efficient tempo plays like Merfolk Trickster. In Legacy and Vintage, Wilderness Hypnotist is simply too slow and too conditional — those formats want Merfolk that counter spells or pump the team, not one that taps to shrink a single creature. Stick to Commander if you're building around it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Wilderness Hypnotist is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a common box rather than buy. That price reflects narrow tribal utility: it holds no value outside Merfolk decks, and even there it's not a must-include, so don't expect any upward movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.