Lion's Eye Diamond

Artifact

LegalGame ChangerReserved List Salt 1.54RampRank #728

Discard your hand, Sacrifice this artifact: Add three mana of any one color. Activate only as an instant.

Why is this card good?

Lion's Eye Diamond looks unplayable — you have to dump your whole hand for three mana — but it's a key piece in high-powered combo decks where the discard clause is irrelevant or even upside. The trick: activate LED in response to something, so your hand is already "spent." The classic use is with graveyard recursion — discard a hand full of payoffs, then cast something like Yawgmoth's Will or reanimate big threats. Pair it with Auriok Salvagers for infinite mana, or use it to power out a turn-one storm line. With reanimator commanders or storm shells (Kess, Tevesh-style cEDH builds), the "discard your hand" is loading your graveyard, not a cost. Who wants it: dedicated cEDH combo, storm, reanimator, and Salvagers loops. That's it. When not to play it: any deck that wants to keep its hand — which is most casual and midrange decks. Outside a real combo engine it's a Black Lotus that costs you your whole grip. Skip it unless you're truly going off.