Last updated on May 14, 2026
Growth Spiral | Illustration by Seb McKinnon
Instants and sorceries are vital parts of Magic. They provide impactful effects that creatures might not and enable some synergies. While it’s always fun to cast expensive instants and sorceries like Magma Opus and Breach the Multiverse, those aren’t always the best ones to cast because they’re inefficient.
There’s an intense overlap between “good” Magic cards and “efficient” Magic cards. Efficient cards give you the highest impact for the least mana. Cheap cards are good cards, and instants and sorceries are two card types with a plethora of cheap cards to choose from.
But which of these instants and sorceries are the best? Let’s find out!
What Are Cheap Instants and Sorceries in MTG?
Lightning Bolt | Illustration by Christopher Moeller
These are instants and sorceries that cost as little mana as possible. For the sake of this article, I’m defining “cheap” as anything with a mana value of 2 or less. Cheap instants and sorceries are staples in many formats, especially the interactive pieces.
For this ranking, I ignore spells that have a free alternate cost like Force of Will and Deflecting Swat. While free meets the definition of cheap, you can’t count on these spells being cheap 100% of the time as you can with Counterspell.
The list also excludes cards with X in their casting cost, like Crackle with Power and Mind Twist. While they meet the technical requirements, they betray the spirit of the list as they ask you to pour as much mana into X as possible.
Honorable Mentions
First up in our honorable mentions is Cyclonic Rift. This Commander staple has swung many a game and boasts incredible versatility. But you want to overload this for full impact; that puts it in a similar space to X-spells, so it doesn’t mesh with the list. Spree appears on many spells with a surface mana cost of 1 or 2, but they won't do much unless you spend 3 or more mana. Three Steps Ahead is great, but too expensive for this list. Redirect Lightning gets a mention here because the additional cost could be , and 5 life can be big, but it is an incredible feeling to put this lesson to use.
Ancestral Recall and Time Walk would dominate the list as part of the Power Nine. Both are amazing spells in the few formats in which they’re legal, and you can’t go wrong adding them to a deck (though I think I’d give the nod to Time Walk as the better card overall).
Secrets of Strixhaven introduced the prepare mechanic, which attaches instants and sorceries to a creature that can be cast under certain circumstances. Some of these are all-time greats like Reanimate on Grave Researcher or Swords to Plowshares on Emeritus of Truce. These are creatures first and instants/sorceries second, so they won’t qualify for the list proper, even if some of their exact prepare spells show up.
There’s also a class of 0-mana suspend spells like Crashing Footfalls and Ancestral Vision that technically fit the definition of a “cheap instant/sorcery”, but fall outside the scope of this list since you can’t fire off the spells at will.
#50. Night’s Whisper
There’s certainly more synergistic black card draw than Night's Whisper, but if you’re just looking for an extra piece of reliable card advantage, it’ll do the trick. Sign in Blood is comparable, but gets worse the more colors you add to your deck.
#49. Berserk
Berserk isn’t only a 1-mana way to potentially deal 5-10 extra damage when targeting the right creature, but it can also be a green removal spell in the right circumstances. Decks interested in combat tricks should consider this as a cheap finisher with high-power creatures.
#48. Boomerang Basics
If you’re wondering why learn didn’t return in Secrets of Strixhaven, it’s because the lessons from Avatar: The Last Airbender were too pushed. Take Boomerang Basics, an innocuous bounce spell that functions like a 1-mana draw-2 when targeting your own value permanents like Stormchaser's Talent. Now imagine if you could play it alongside learn cards and never even have to put it in your mainboard.
#47. Rampant Growth Variants
Rampant Growth is a well known and budget-friendly card to ramp and fix your mana. Part of what keeps its cost down is the vast number of reprints of the proper card, but also alternates like the spellshaper, Silverglade Pathfinder, or the lesson Shared Roots.
#46. Into the Flood Maw
Into the Flood Maw is a more flexible Unsummon, and at its strongest, the adventure half of Brazen Borrower. This card finds its way into lots of formats including as cheap interaction in the Pioneer deck named after Hidden Strings.
#45. Abrupt Decay
Abrupt Decay isn’t unconditional removal but it’s very close. It can’t be countered and answers many threats, especially in formats focused on cheap spells.
#44. Monstrous Rage
Monstrous Rage pushed the boundaries of what a combat trick could be. Effective +3/+1 and trample is a strong boost for just 1 mana, and most of it sticks around from the Monster role token it produces. This card terrorized Standard until it met something even more monstrous: The Ban Hammer.
#43. Nature’s Lore + Three Visits
Nature's Lore and Three Visits are potent green alternatives to the Signets and Talismans other colors cling to. The introduction of Triomes made these far better, providing near-perfect mana in most decks.
#42. Surgical Extraction
Surgical Extraction might be the most over-boarded sideboard card. It’s fantastic at sniping away key combo pieces to disrupt decks, but don’t play this against Jund.
#41. Growth Spiral
Once deemed too good for Standard, Growth Spiral’s strength is unassuming at first glance. But the best game actions in Magic are drawing a card and making land drops. Getting both in a cheap card that allows you to hold up alternative plays is nice.
#40. Unholy Heat
Unholy Heat has amazing stats. The most damage a typical red instant does to a creature is 3. Even dealing 5 damage is the territory of 3-mana red instants. Enabling delirium requires enough work that Unholy Heat isn’t just a free-roll, but it’s a Modern staple for good reason.
#39. Strix Serenade + Swan Song
Strix Serenade and Swan Song are two sides of the same coin, each covering most card types not targeted by the other. Swan Song is generally better since it hits instants, and therefore serves as interaction against other forms of interaction. But Strix Serenade is just as useful when it counters a key creature in Commander.
#38. Deadly Dispute
Sacrificing creatures to draw cards isn’t a new concept, but Deadly Dispute might be the best iteration. Getting a Treasure seals the deal. It turns this into ramp as well as card advantage and does a decent Ancestral Recall impression when paired with cards like Morbid Opportunist and Ichor Wellspring.
#37. Last Chance + Warrior’s Oath
Last Chance and Warrior's Oath are best in combo-centric decks that can win on their extra turn or decks packing Stifle and Sundial of the Infinite.
#36. Hymn to Tourach
One of my favorite Cube cards, Hymn to Tourach is a nifty disruptive spell. is an intensive mana cost, but the reward is a two-for-one that potentially wins on the spot.
#35. Neoform
Nothing fair can come from spending 2 mana for a large creature. Neoform combines a tutor with an accelerator in an absurdly cheap package.
#34. Rain of Filth
Who wouldn’t turn down doubling their mana for ? Rain of Filth isn’t for cowards as it requires you to go all-in to extract the most value from it, but it offers a significant mana advantage to get you there.
#33. Grapeshot
Once you’ve got infinite mana and storm count, your storm finishers of choice are basically interchangeable. But if you’re working on tight margins and every mana counts, Grapeshot is the cheapest storm card that converts directly to a win.
#32. Life from the Loam
You could toss any qualifying card with dredge on this list, but Life from the Loam is actually useful for its effect when resolved, too. This is excellent, repeatable land recursion for decks that need it, and dredge is notoriously broken in decks that want that.
#31. Faithless Looting + Careful Study
Faithless Looting is one of the best graveyard enablers out there, and Careful Study isn’t far behind. Make sure you care about getting cards in the graveyard before running these since they’re card disadvantage.
#30. Gitaxian Probe
Phyrexian mana was a mistake, and so was Gitaxian Probe. Getting perfect information on your opponent’s hand without investing mana or a card is busted, especially once you factor in the number of cards that trigger off noncreature spells getting cast.
#29. Flusterstorm
Flusterstorm is a highly efficient, if narrow counterspell. It plays well in EDH where turns often have multiple players casting several spells.
#28. Goryo’s Vengeance
Goryo's Vengeance has long been part of Modern’s meta and it only gets better. WotC’s focus on Commander has led to more and more legendary creatures in each set, so cards that care about them appreciate in value.
#27. Mental Misstep
Mental Misstep should not exist. WotC apparently agrees given its existence on many B&R lists. It’s at its best in older formats where efficiency is king.
#26. Eladamri’s Call
Cheap tutors are great! Eladamri's Call is restrictive but capable of finding combo pieces or good value creatures.
#25. Ephemerate
Ephemerate doesn’t look like much, but it’s a beast of a card. You can use it as part of a “scam” package alongside Quantum Riddler and Solitude, but it’s just a great two-for-one in many decks with good ETBs.
#24. Spider-Sense
Spider-Sense stops three very frequent things that can cause you trouble. Bounce that mana dork to your hand with web-slinging and interact for just .
#23. Malevolent Rumble
The power of the Modern Horizons 3 symbol is so strong that Malevolent Rumble holds its own with other Vintage Cube mainstays. This is actively amazing ramp and card selection. Think Satyr Wayfinder but you can sac the body to jump ahead a turn. Great at any point in the game, except maybe turn 1.
#22. Preordain
Preordain is among the best cantrips in the game. Seeing up to three cards for 1 mana provides tons of information and makes playing the game much easier.
#21. Path to Exile + Erode
Path to Exile may have been power crept out of Modern but it’s still a respectable white removal spell. Giving your opponent a land is a downside, but the efficiency is hard to trump.
Erode is often worse than Path, but has a number of situations where it’s the better of the two, and either way, it occupies a similar space for efficient white removal.
#20. Flash
Flash works well with a narrow range of cards. EDH players are likely familiar with Flash + Protean Hulk but it pairs nicely with Worldspine Wurm and Triplicate Titan in Vintage Cube.
#19. High Tide + Bubbling Muck
High Tide and Bubbling Muck pretty much restrict you to playing a mono-colored deck, but the reward is worth it! These are best with untap effects like Frantic Search and Candelabra of Tawnos.
#18. Ponder
Ponder is significantly stronger than Preordain, especially in a format with fetch lands. The ability to see up to four cards gives you a decent shot at finding whatever you need in any given scenario.
#17. Entomb
Though narrow in utility, Entomb is a frighteningly powerful tutor. It’s commonly used to bin reanimation creatures, but it can get any card, setting up plays like Wrenn and Six + Strip Mine to ruin your opponent’s game.
#16. Reanimate
Why pay 8 mana for Griselbrand when you can pay 1? Reanimate is the classic reanimation spell and the standard against which all others get judged. It’s incredible in pretty much any deck that can pay .
#15. Channel
Paying life as a cost will never be fair. Channel pushes this idea to the extreme with an ability capable of powering out Eldrazi and similar threats as soon as turn 2.
#14. Lightning Bolt
Burn doesn’t get more efficient or flexible than Lightning Bolt. It has many imitators, but it’s impossible to surpass.
#13. Glimpse of Nature
Glimpse of Nature pairs with Elfball decks the best but any deck slinging cheap creatures can reap the benefits of absurd card draw for . The secret is producing plenty of mana through sources like Gaea's Cradle or Circle of Dreams Druid.
#12. Counterspell
Counterspell is one of the most elegantly designed cards in Magic. It’s powerful, but the natural restraints of and countermagic keep it from being too good. It encapsulates what blue wants to do perfectly, without fuss. It’s beautifully efficient in form and function.
#11. Thoughtseize
Hand disruption and forced discard doesn’t get more efficient than Thoughtseize. Unlike imitators in Duress or Inquisition of Kozilek, you always get the most threatening card and gain near-perfect information you can use to plan your opening turns around your opponent’s cards.
#10. Veil of Summer
Reactive spells often come at a cost, but Veil of Summer’s is as minute as possible. It’s one of the most efficient two-for-ones in the game, countering an opposing spell while drawing a card. It’s also a powerful protective piece to help combo off.
#9. Fatal Push
Fatal Push is among the most efficient removal spells in the game. It’s at its best in formats with fetch lands to reliably enable revolt, but formats without them are happy to play such a powerful interactive piece.
#8. Expressive Iteration
Expressive Iteration goes beyond a simple cantrip as it's often just card draw. The common play pattern is to cast it before making a land drop and exiling a land while drawing a spell, but getting the best two out of three cards is rarely a bad trade. It plays well with other cheap cards.
#7. Vampiric Tutor + Friends
“Friends” references all other 1-mana tutors that put cards on top of your library, including but not limited to Enlightened Tutor, Personal Tutor, and Worldly Tutor. Of all these cards, Vampiric Tutor stands at the top for sheer flexibility.
#6. Demonic Tutor
Demonic Tutor is best in combo-focused decks where it sets up game-winning plays. It’s less effective in fair decks with flat power levels.
#5. Dark Ritual
Gaining a mana advantage is one of the best ways to win a game of Magic. Dark Ritual is among the most efficient rituals in the game and, as one of Magic's best black instants, still sees frequent play in decks willing to trade cards for mana, a trade unfair decks make willingly and effectively.
Swords to Plowshares is the best spot removal in the game. Giving your opponent life is negligible compared to permanently dealing with their best threat for a single mana.
#3. Brainstorm
One of Legacy’s defining cards, Brainstorm is the king of cantrips—assuming you have ample access to shuffling effects. Fetch lands come in clutch, but Pauper decks make do with Lórien Revealed and Squadron Hawk. The play pattern is to put the two worst cards in your hand on top of your library and shuffle them away, allowing Brainstorm to fix your hand and do a damn good impression of Ancestral Recall.
#2. Balance
There’s nothing Balanced about symmetrical effects. It’s easy to build around them, and Balance turns games on its head. A 2-mana wrath is already insane, but this also hits like Mind Twist and Armageddon. It takes a bit of planning to find the perfect time to Balance and you’ll often lose some resources in the process, but this is one of the best cards, period.
#1. Mana Drain
Few cards swing games like Mana Drain. It has all the efficiency of Counterspell with enough mana acceleration to play Eldrazi well before you should. The best blue instant outside of the Power Nine, this devastating spell secures games like nothing else.
Best Cheap Instant and Sorcery Payoffs
Having a deck full of cheap instants and sorceries is a reward all on its own. It makes it easier to cast multiple spells and increases the odds of spending all your mana every turn. That said, there are a few ways to make them stronger. Abilities like prowess and delirium benefit you when you cast instants and sorceries. There's also a class of cards that care about non-creature spells like Kykar, Zephyr Awakener.
Recursive abilities are fantastic with cheap instants and sorceries. Snapcaster Mage may be the most prominent, but Eternal Witness and Archaeomancer are great with cheap spells as well to get more value out of them.
Stormchaser's Talent is a top class card that works with instants and sorceries on all three levels. Sokka, Tenacious Tactician works fantastically on two levels with wide-reaching prowess and a free ally token for your spells.
Spellslinger Commander decks and cards that care about the number of instants and sorceries you cast get better with cheaper spells. The more times you can trigger Fiery Inscription, Firebrand Archer or Niv-Mizzet, Parun, the stronger these effects are. Having cheaper cards makes repeatedly triggering them trivial. Archmage of Runes counts as both a payoff and enabler of cheap spells. Though expensive, Rite of the Dragoncaller and Swarm Intelligence love to pair up with inexpensive spells for huge value.
Micromancer and Spellseeker are instant/sorcery tutors that only grab 1- and/or 2-mana spells. Firemind's Foresight is similar, but way more expensive, and throws a 3-drop in the mix.
If you’re looking for recursion, try out Arcane Proxy, which can flash back cheap spells with prototype. Founding the Third Path has a similar mana value restriction, but casts the spell directly from your hand on the first chapter.
Wrap Up
Thoughtseize | Illustration by Lucas Graciano
Efficiency is king in modern Magic. Your spells must be as impactful as possible for the smallest mana cost. This encourages decks to play as many cheap instants and sorceries as possible. The reward for playing such cheap cards is excellent mana utility and the ability to cast far more spells than your opponent.
What’s your favorite cheap instant or sorcery? Were you hoping for more cheap, protective spells? Do you enjoy spellslinger decks? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord! And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.
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