Arbiter of Woe
Creature — Demon
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Flying
When this creature enters, each opponent discards a card and loses 2 life. You draw a card and gain 2 life.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Foundations
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #10461
Arbiter of Woe enters and immediately strips two cards from opponents' hands — that's a repeatable Thoughtseize stapled to a 4/3 with menace every time it blinks or bounces. The five-mana cost is the ceiling, not a dealbreaker, because Tinybones, Bauble Burglar turns every discard trigger into card advantage and makes that cost irrelevant by mid-game.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar draws a card every time an opponent discards, so Arbiter of Woe's double-discard trigger on entry becomes a two-card refuel — and any blink or flicker effect reloads the whole engine.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Arbiter of Woe is a discard-matters staple: hitting two opponents on entry means three players each lose two cards before it ever swings. Outside Commander, the competition gets harder — Modern and Pioneer have Grief, Liliana of the Veil, and Thoughtseize filling the discard role at lower mana costs and higher efficiency. Legacy and Vintage barely register five-mana creatures without broken enter-the-battlefield abuse behind them. Arbiter of Woe is a Commander card through and through, and it earns its slot there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Arbiter of Woe is deep bulk — easy to pick up as a throw-in or out of a common box. Bulk rares with a clear Commander home tend to hold a floor around this price unless a reprint pushes them lower, so don't expect it to climb, but there's no reason not to grab a copy immediately.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.