Asphyxiate
Sorcery
Destroy target untapped creature.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Born of the Gods
- Price
- $0.09
- EDHREC rank
- #18841
Asphyxiate kills any non-attacking, non-blocking creature unconditionally — no mana cost floor, no saved-by-indestructible clause — for three black mana at sorcery speed. It's a clean, cheap answer in mono-black, held back only by the timing restriction that makes it dead against creatures swinging at you.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Asphyxiate earns a slot in mono-black decks that need low-cost removal and can't rely on exile-based answers — the sorcery speed hurts, but most threatening creatures sit on the battlefield doing nothing on your turn anyway. Pauper is where it competes hardest: the unconditional kill condition at common rarity is genuinely scarce, and the format's slower clock means you'll often have a window to use it. In Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, and Vintage, the sorcery speed is a dealbreaker — those formats punish you for not holding up instant-speed interaction, and Asphyxiate gets outclassed by Fatal Push and its ilk without a second thought.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.09 bulk tier
At $0.09, Asphyxiate is deep bulk — you're buying a playset for the price of a pack of gum. It won't appreciate; this is a card you pick up from a dollar bin when building a budget mono-black list, not one you speculate on.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.