Battle Strain
Enchantment
Whenever a creature blocks, this enchantment deals 1 damage to that creature's controller.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Odyssey
- Price
- $0.31
- EDHREC rank
- #20275
Battle Strain makes every tapped creature deal 1 damage to its controller — a passive drain that punishes tap-heavy strategies every single turn. The two-mana enchantment is narrow but surgical: in the right shell it generates free damage without any additional investment.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Battle Strain is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its realistic home is Commander. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in a two-mana enchantment that deals incidental 1-damage pings when those formats close games in two or three turns. In Commander, Battle Strain rewards patience — across a 40-life table with token producers, tap-for-mana effects, and creature-heavy strategies, the cumulative damage adds up in ways that would never matter in a 60-card sprint. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home too, though the lower life totals make the slow drain less impactful than in EDH.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.31 bulk tier
At $0.31, Battle Strain is firmly bulk — the kind of card you grab as a throw-in rather than a deliberate purchase. The price reflects its narrow application; it holds its floor but has no meaningful upside unless a dedicated tap-punishment commander pushes demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.