Zenith Flare
Instant
Zenith Flare deals X damage to any target and you gain X life, where X is the number of cards with a cycling ability in your graveyard.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #15642
Zenith Flare deals damage and gains you life equal to the number of cycling cards in your graveyard — in a dedicated cycling deck, that number climbs past 10 with minimal effort, turning this into a four-mana one-sided board wipe that also closes out the game. Gavi, Nest Warden makes it trivially consistent; anywhere else, it's a build-around that doesn't pull its weight.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Gavi, Nest Warden
Gavi, Nest Warden generates free cycling triggers and fills the graveyard fast enough that Zenith Flare regularly hits for 12 or more by the mid-game, making it both a reliable finisher and a stabilizing life swing in the same card.
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 |
Zenith Flare is essentially a Commander card — the graveyard accumulation needed to make it lethal takes too long for competitive formats. In Modern and Pioneer, dedicated cycling shells exist but rarely close with Zenith Flare when faster options are available. Legacy and Vintage have the tools to fill a graveyard quickly, but those formats offer cleaner win conditions at similar or lower mana investment. Commander is where Zenith Flare lives: 40 life totals mean you need bigger numbers to finish opponents, and a cycling-focused deck running 20-plus cyclers will regularly make this spell deal 15 or more damage to every opponent at once.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Zenith Flare is deep bulk — you're paying essentially nothing for one of the better finishers in its archetype. The price reflects its narrow build-around requirement, but within a Gavi, Nest Warden deck or any heavy cycling shell, that narrowness is a feature, not a bug.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.