Last updated on August 6, 2025
Force of Will | Illustration by Matt Stewart
Free spells! Why pay mana if you don’t have to? Being free makes these spells some of the most powerful in all of Magic, but they’re not all great, and there’s usually no such thing as a free lunch when talking about powerful play pieces.
What makes a good freebie? And what makes them… well, worthless? Let’s take a dive into these underpriced spells to figure out what makes the best an absolute bargain!
What Is a Free Spell in MTG?
Crashing Footfalls | Illustration by Dan Scott
There are a lot of ways to define free spells, and there’s potentially a lot that could go on this list, so let’s make some ground rules.
First of all, when I say free, I speak about the mana used to cast them, so I'm still allowed to pay other costs, like discarding cards, sacrificing creatures, or paying life.
Free spells can fall into a number of categories, too. Many of the originals wanted you to discard cards or exile cards from your hand, often with restrictions on those cards, so you’ll see a lot of these in the list. We’ve also had other cycles, such as the Force cycle from the original Modern Horizons, or suspend spells from Horizons sets as well as the Time Spiral block. Most of these are fair game, too!
0-cost cards
One thing that won’t be included in the list are 0-cost cards, like Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, or Ornithopter. These feel different from the alternate-cost free spells we’re looking at here.
Play Other Cards for Free and Cost Reducers
Two more related categories that are not included here are cards that play other cards for free, cheat things into play, and cost reducers, some of which can combine to make cards free, but that's not the focus here.
On to the best free cards!
#35. Contagion
We’re starting the list off with Contagion. There’s a hefty cost to skip the mana here, but sometimes you might need to pay that to take out two extra creatures. It’s never going to be an unstoppable card. Unless we see a rise in -2/-1 counters matter spells in the future, which I’m happy to bet that we don’t!
#34. Force of Rage
Force of Rage is the first card we’re going to look at from Modern Horizons sets, as free spells have become a feature of those Magic sets. Unfortunately, this red instant isn’t exactly the greatest! Two 3/1s isn’t exactly the greatest rate, especially when they go away at your next upkeep! Using them for surprise blockers is quite good, but hardly stellar. They can’t all be super playable bombs!
#33. Reverent Mantra
Protection is a pretty powerful mechanic, which is why it’s worth talking about Reverent Mantra. The other thing that’s worth mentioning is that this white instant gives all creatures, including your opponents’. That can be useful in some political situations in multiplayer formats if you’re wanting to protect an ally’s stuff, or even to prevent your opponents from targeting their own stuff.
#32. Blazing Shoal
There’s a whole cycle of Shoals, but Blazing Shoal is the only one that’s made it to the list. Traditionally used in infect decks, usage has fallen out of favor in recent years due to format changes and better options coming along. Still, it’s got a place in the history of Magic and could theoretically see play again if the right spell comes along.
#31. Abolish
Some of the cards on the list you have in situations where you’re almost never going to reasonably cast them for free. Abolish isn’t one of those cards. A 3-mana Disenchant isn’t bad, and the ability to use it for free is nice gravy on top. It’s not game-breaking and far from a staple. The best word to describe it is “balanced,” which we can’t say for a lot of the cards to come.
#30. Force of Virtue
We don’t have many free enchantments, so Force of Virtue is pretty interesting. This white enchantment is kinda just a combat trick or an expensive Glorious Anthem. It can win a combat “out of nowhere” thanks to flash, but if you’re wanting a mass pump combat trick, there’s better options for the same mana cost. One of the weaker forces.
#29. Snapback
Snapback can be used in two ways. It can be used to Unsummon your opponent’s stuff, but that’s kinda boring. This blue instant is more interesting in a storm shell, where you can cast it for free to up your storm count, but potentially get to recast a useful creature in the process. It’s been powercrept out a lot of storm lists these days, but it’s certainly still Plan A if you’re putting this card in your deck.
#28. Soul Spike
Soul Spike looks pretty inefficient at first glance, but it can be a pretty nice combo piece in decks that utilize Necropotence or Necrodominance. In these decks, you’re using your life to draw cards, but this black instant gains you life back as well as nugging your opponent for 4. If they’ve started with a few fetch lands and shock lands, you’ll be able to finish them off with four of these.
In these decks, throwing away your cards isn’t too much of a cost, as you’re drawing a bunch anyway, so it really does feel free!
#27 Subtlety
The first of the infamous evoke elementals, Subtlety is easily the weakest. The effect is essentially just a Remand for creatures or planeswalkers, which can be useful but often isn’t. It’s still not a bad blue card, but it’s just not the phenomenon its siblings are.
#26. Fury of the Horde
Extra combat spells are popular, but there are a lot of them available these days. The good thing about Fury of the Horde is that you can use this red sorcery to relatively easily get a third combat phase after spending mana on the 2nd one. At that point, as long as you’re actually attacking with creatures, you’re going to win the game unless there’s something seriously weird going on!
#25. Allosaurus Rider
Allosaurus Rider isn’t on the list because it’s nice to cast a chonky vanilla creature for free. The main reason you want to be playing with this green creature is to cheat it out early, then cast something like Neoform to bring out something even bigger. It shows up in Constructed formats from time to time and usually runs away with games for a week or so before sideboards adapt to this elf warrior, but it’s always fun for that week.
#24. Flare of Fortitude
The Flare cycle from Modern Horizons 3 should see a certain amount of play, but the white one is probably going to see the least in my estimation. We’ve seen effects similar to this do well with things like Teferi's Protection and Everybody Lives!, but I think this is a good downgrade from those two.
#23. Foil
We’re going to see a good number of counterspells, and Foil used to be one of the better ones. Discarding an island is just much more difficult than discarding a blue card, especially with greedy mana bases, but it’s still doable. It’s always nice to see it show up in a Masters set or a flashback set, but you don’t see it in Constructed formats as much anymore as there are just better options.
#22. Pyrokinesis
Pyrokinesis has a lot of similar features to certain a red elemental from Modern Horizons 2. It’s nothing like the power level of that one, but it’s got potential. It’s only legal in Vintage, Legacy, and Commander, but not in Modern, which means we’ll probably never know how it would hold up against some of the others!
#21. Flare of Malice
Another of the new Flare cycle, Flare of Malice is an edict with the fairly new templating to make your opponent sacrifice their best thing. Effectively serving as spot removal, this black instant could end up sneaking higher on the list if a shell is built around it to include benefits of sacrificing your black creatures to it. However, removing a single thing while not having complete control over what you remove is probably still going to be situational.
#20. Force of Despair
Force of Despair has a pretty unique effect. Destroying everything that comes in on a given turn is a good way to counter decks which plan to win with a mass of creatures. They don’t really exist in Modern at the moment, but they do exist to some extent in EDH, although it’s still fairly situational.
#19. Flare of Duplication
At first glance, Flare of Duplication looks like it’ll be able to find a place to be played, but it’s not quite that easy to find a home for it. It doesn’t work the way you want it to in a storm shell, as if you copy a spell with storm, you only get a single copy, and the storm on the spell won’t trigger.
#18. Flare of Cultivation
Flare of Cultivation is already making some waves in formats where it’s legal. Playing this green sorcery on T1 sacrificing a Arboreal Grazer gives a lot of ramp. It’s looking like one of the better Flares, and I can imagine the play still keeping up when everything starts to settle out.
#17. Flare of Denial
Looking like the early favorite of the Flares, Flare of Denial is a strong contender mainly because it’s yet another blue counterspell. It’s also pretty nice because at worst it’s still just a Cancel. It’s not great at that rate, but it’s a nice option. Still, it has the same problem as all the Flares, and sacrificing a non-token creature is a real cost. If any of these see play, I expect it to be this one, but there’s a real chance that none of them make it once the craziness of the post-Horizons turmoil settles down.
#16. Living End
Living End is a black card that had a whole deck built around it in Modern. Not only does it give you a ridiculous board if done right, it’ll often effectively wipe your opponent’s board, too. Of course, you’re not planning on using suspend with this one, and the plan is to cascade into it, but that’s what lets me include this black sorcery!
#15. Commandeer
Commandeer has had a bit of a resurgence in use in Modern. That’s partly down to the ubiquity of The One Ring, and the ability to steal your opponent’s Ring to immediately draw a card back to replace the ones you pitched to cast it for free.
Of course, there are other targets for it in the format, like Crashing Footfalls, and for a short time where Up the Beanstalk was legal you’d draw cards off that when casting this blue instant. Clearly a strong effect in a format that’s not dominated by creatures. This one will probably fade in and out of playability until it’s inevitably power crept out.
#14. Ancestral Vision
It’s pretty easy to see why Ancestral Vision is a strong card, as it’s a “fixed” version of Power Nine Ancestral Recall. If you can find a way to cast this blue sorcery without having to suspend it, it’s an immediate draw 3, which is strong no matter the format you’re playing. It’s seen a little less play recently, but it could easily still come back.
#13. Solitude
Solitude, the white creature version of evoke elementals, is proving to be a fairly consistent playable in Constructed formats. It’s a good white removal spell, and it’s great value if you can hard cast it. It’s probably never going to be the best of the cycle, but it’s going to be playable for a good amount of time yet.
#12. Endurance
Endurance is probably my favorite of the evoke elemental cycle. The ETB is a fairly specific graveyard hate, but it’s a good rate, even on hard cast. It helps keep some of the more unfair decks in check while not breaking the game at all. Like I say, my favorite, and probably the most balanced.
#11. Deadly Rollick
Deadly Rollick is the first of the Commander free spells (two of the cycle didn’t make the cut). Nice and simple, it exiles the target creature. Powerful spot removal which doesn’t really exist in other free spells, it’s a neat addition, and a powerful effect in the right meta.
#10. Grief
One of the more infamous of the evoke elementals, Grief is known for being the fun police for some of the more unfair decks in Constructed formats, while feeling pretty unfair in itself.
Part of the decks colloquially known as “scam,” you pair this black creature with something like Not Dead After All not only to get around the sacrifice clause on evoke, but also to get a second ETB to take another card from your opponent. It’s a scary pattern that can happen on turn 1, and something you need to be mindful of in formats where it’s legal.
#9. Fury
The other part of the Rakdos Scam decks, Fury was hit by the ban hammer in Modern after it was felt like that deck was a little too much. In many peoples’ eyes, this red creature invalidated creature-based decks, being able to pick off a full board relatively easily, while leaving behind a 3/3 double striker to quickly end the game with yourself.
#8. Misdirection
Free counterspells are particularly great in many formats, and Misdirection is often even more than that. Instead of straight up countering the spell, you can choose where it goes yourself, which oftentimes is a two-for-one or more. Of course, it’s sometimes not possible to choose a different “good” target, which limits it a bit, but it’s still a sweet one.
#7. Deflecting Swat
Deflecting Swat is basically the Commander free spell version of Misdirection and comes with all its target-changing effect, but it has even less of a cost (in Commander, at least). In my personal opinion it’s the neatest design of any of the cards in this cycle.
#6. Force of Vigor
Force of Vigor is one of the better of the Force cycle, but it’s not game-breaking. Its use comes in being able to keep control of the board state and deal with problematic artifacts and enchantments. A great utility piece, this green instant is pretty ubiquitous in competitive green decks and even sees play when you want to get rid of a tricky bit of hate from your opponent’s permanents that would otherwise lock you down.
#5. Crashing Footfalls
Crashing Footfalls, affectionately known simply as “Rhinos”, is a ridiculously good rate if you can get it as a bonus from a cascade spell. Two 4/4s with trample is tough for a lot of decks to deal with, as spot removal only deals with half of the problem.
This green sorcery has risen and risen in popularity since the original printing in MH1, and it’s avoided a ban outright in Modern so far. Will it last much longer?
#4. Fierce Guardianship
The best of the cycle of Commander free spells (another counterspell, of course!) is Fierce Guardianship. As with the rest of the cycle, the “cost” of the free spell is pretty negligible, and trying to figure out if one of your opponents could have this in their back pocket is tough. Counterspells are always annoying, but this one especially so!
#3. Hypergenesis
There’s a surprisingly high number of green cards at the top of this list, which seems relatively weird as it’s not something I personally associate with green cards in Magic. That said, Hypergenesis has been banned in Modern since its inception, and there’s good evidence to say that we shouldn’t expect an unban any time soon. Just read it. It’s itching to be broken in a cascade deck, where it’ll play like a powered-up Show and Tell. You likely have never played with this card, but if you get the chance you should give it a go!
#2. Force of Negation
Easily the most playable of the Force cycle from MH1, Force of Negation is a key card in Modern that is designed to keep things at least somewhat fair. It doesn’t always work, though, especially if used to protect a combo you can play on an opponent’s turn. It’s a really strong card.
#1. Force of Will
Force of Will is easily the card that deserves to come top of this list. Despite a number of reprints, the price is holding high, and it’s a key card in Legacy that’s also played a ton in more competitive EDH decks to stop your opponents doing anything too quickly.
And it also ranks very high among the funniest proxies!
Source: Abyssproxyshop
If Force of Will is ever topped as a free spell, it’s probably going to be a sign that things have gone wrong somewhere!
Best Free Spell Payoffs and Synergies
Free spells are, honestly, pretty powerful on their own for the most part, and many of the cards on this list are on here because of raw power. However, there’s one strategy that comes to mind that absolutely loves a free spell, and that’s storm.
If you’re saving mana by casting one of these spells for free, that’s another spell towards your storm count to get a bigger Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot, or Tendrils of Agony. You know. If you want to be completely unreasonable.
If you’re finding that free spells are becoming a problem, you can always bring out some hate for them. There’s a few options, like Roiling Vortex and Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. Modern Horizons 3 gave us Vexing Bauble, which is fairly popular.
Can I Pay a Kicker or Alternative Cost If I Cast a Card Without Paying Its Mana Cost?
If you cast a spell for free, you can still pay to kick the spell, although you’ll need to pay the mana towards that additional part! Alternative costs are a bit weirder though, as usually the way you’re casting the spell for free is an alternative cost.
One other point to mention is that if you have a spell like Lightning Axe, which has an additional cost stapled to the main effect of the spell then you need to pay that cost even if you’re casting for free.
Wrap Up
Misdirection | Illustration by Mathias Kollros
Free spells can be benign, but they can also enable all kinds of combos. They’re extremely powerful, even if they’re circumstantial and depend on the state of the game.
Which free spells do you use the most? Do you use them “as intended,” or do you use them to power your infinite combos? If so, which ones? Let me know in the comments below, or over on Draftsim's official Twitter.
Thank you for reading and keep bargain hunting!
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