Sustaining Spirit 
Creature — Angel Spirit0/3
Oracle text (EN)
Creature — Angel Spirit
Cumulative upkeep (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
Damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
Printing details
- Set
- ALL · 18
- Rarity
- Rare
- Language
- EN
- Artist
- Rebecca Guay
- Released
- 1996-06-10
- Prices
- €1.08 · $1.13
Price history
The trend shows with at least 7 days of history.
- Cardmarket, trend
- CardTrader, Near Mint minimum (EN)
The history starts on October 28, 2026 and grows every day.
Show the data
| Date | Cardmarket, trend | CardTrader, Near Mint minimum (EN) |
|---|---|---|
| October 31, 2026 | €1.03 | €1.59 |
| October 29, 2026 | €1.08 | €1.59 |
| October 28, 2026 | €1.13 | €1.58 |
Prices
| Source | Non-foil | Foil |
|---|---|---|
| Cardmarket | low €0.30 trend €1.03 30-day avg €1.23 | low – trend €0.00 30-day avg – |
| CardTrader (EN) | NM from €1.59 with Zero from €1.59 | NM from – |
| CardTrader (any language) | NM from €1.59 | NM from – |
Cardmarket updated Oct 31, 2026 · CardTrader updated Oct 31, 2026
Buy and look up
Legality
- standard Not legal
- pioneer Not legal
- modern Not legal
- legacy Legal
- vintage Legal
- commander Legal
- pauper Not legal
- alchemy Not legal
- brawl Not legal
- competitivebrawl Not legal
- duel Legal
- future Not legal
- gladiator Not legal
- historic Not legal
- oathbreaker Legal
- oldschool Not legal
- paupercommander Not legal
- penny Legal
- predh Legal
- premodern Legal
- standardbrawl Not legal
- timeless Not legal
- tlr Legal
Rulings
-
Does not affect damage if you are already at zero or negative life. You still take it all.
-
If an effect asks you to pay life, you can’t pay more life than you have.
-
Paying cumulative upkeep is always optional. If it’s not paid, the permanent with cumulative upkeep is sacrificed. Partial payments of the total cumulative upkeep cost can’t be made. For example, if a permanent with “cumulative upkeep
” has three age counters on it when its cumulative upkeep ability triggers, it gets another age counter and then its controller chooses to either pay 
or sacrifice the permanent. -
The ability doesn’t change how much damage is dealt; it just changes how much life that damage makes you lose. An effect such as Spirit Link will see the full amount of damage being dealt.
-
Sustaining Spirit won’t prevent you from losing the game if your life total is 0 or less or some other effect causes you to lose the game.
-
The second ability is not a prevention effect. It stops unpreventable damage from reducing your life total below 1.
-
The second ability applies only if your life total is being reduced by damage. Other effects or costs (such as “lose 1 life” or “pay 1 life”) can reduce your life total below 1 as normal.