Biting Tether
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Shadowmoor
- Price
- $0.21
- EDHREC rank
- #25310
Biting Tether gives you a repeatable drain engine stapled to a steal effect — each upkeep the enchanted creature's controller loses 2 life and you gain 2, and if they sacrifice it to escape the Tether, you just take the next creature you want. The mana cost is real at four mana, but the pressure it creates from the moment it resolves makes it worth it in any deck that wants to grind opponents out.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Biting Tether is at its best — four opponents means four potential targets, the drain compounds across the table when opponents trade or sacrifice the enchanted creature, and the political pressure of threatening to retarget keeps the card relevant deep into games. In Legacy and Vintage, it's legal but functionally irrelevant; those formats end before a four-mana enchantment with a slow value engine gets to do anything meaningful. Modern is the same story — the format is too fast and too removal-dense for Biting Tether to recoup its cost. Oathbreaker is the one other 60-card-adjacent format where it can shine, particularly in drain-oriented builds where the two-life swing per upkeep accumulates quickly with a low starting total.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.21 bulk tier
At $0.21, Biting Tether is deep bulk — you're picking this up out of a dollar box or as an afterthought in a cart. It's unlikely to appreciate given its narrow application, but at that price the question isn't value retention, it's just whether the effect fits your deck.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.