Brink of Madness
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand, sacrifice this enchantment and target opponent discards their hand.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.31
- EDHREC rank
- #25353
Brink of Madness is a symmetrical discard-everything enchantment that wins the game on the spot if your opponent has no hand — the catch is that you need to already be the one with an empty grip, or have a way to ensure you are. It's a build-around, not a staple, and it rewards decks that treat an empty hand as an asset rather than a failure state.
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 |
Commander is where Brink of Madness actually has a home, specifically in black decks that self-discard aggressively — hellbent strategies, Madness payoff decks, and discard-matters builds that empty their hand by design. In a four-player game the enchantment creates political chaos: opponents will attack each other to stay ahead on cards, or scramble to answer it before their hand empties. Legacy and Vintage both have access to it, but the card sees zero play there — four mana for a conditional forced discard effect doesn't compete when Hymn to Tourach and Thoughtseize exist. Oathbreaker is legal but the same logic as Commander applies: it lives or dies by whether the deck empties its own hand on purpose.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.31 bulk tier
At $0.31, Brink of Madness sits firmly in bulk territory, which is exactly right for a card with a narrow home and no competitive demand. It's unlikely to move unless a pushed hellbent or discard commander drags it into the spotlight.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.