Caverns of Despair
World Enchantment
No more than two creatures can attack each combat.
No more than two creatures can block each combat.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $77.00
- EDHREC rank
- #20445
Caverns of Despair caps each player at two attacking creatures, turning combat into a crawl and invalidating token swarms, go-wide aggro, and commander-damage pile-ons in a single enchantment. At four mana with no ongoing cost, the effect is immediate and symmetrical — run it when your deck benefits from a locked-down board more than your opponents do.
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 Caverns of Despair does its best work: four opponents, wide creature strategies everywhere, and no universal answer in most decks means the enchantment sits on the board for turns at a time. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but functionally irrelevant — those formats end too quickly on non-combat axes for a four-mana symmetrical enchantment to matter. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home for similar reasons to Commander, though the smaller card pool and faster games narrow its window. Outside those formats, Caverns of Despair simply isn't legal.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Crawlspace fills a similar role at a fraction of the price, restricting each opponent to two attackers aimed at you specifically — it doesn't affect attacking between opponents, but in a pod where you're the primary target that's often the more relevant text. Isle of Wak-Wak and Norn's Annex tax or block attackers rather than cap them, which is a different kind of deterrent, but both cost under $5 and can stand in when Caverns of Despair's universal restriction isn't strictly necessary.
Price Context
Current price
$77.00 premium tier
At $77, Caverns of Despair sits firmly in the premium tier — this is an older card with a narrow print run and no recent reprint, and that scarcity drives the price far above its raw power level. It holds value because it hasn't been reprinted, not because the effect couldn't be replicated for less, so treat it as a collector piece as much as a staple.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.