Chainer's Torment
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I, II — This Saga deals 2 damage to each opponent and you gain 2 life.
III — Create an X/X black Nightmare Horror creature token, where X is half your life total, rounded up. It deals X damage to you.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Dominaria
- Price
- $0.23
- EDHREC rank
- #19109
Chainer's Torment lands as a 5/5 token that drains your opponent for 2 every upkeep — meaningful pressure that doesn't need combat to matter. The saga frame means it comes with a built-in expiration date, but three chapters of value before it sacrifices itself makes that a fair trade.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Chainer's Torment earns its slot — black Saga decks and aristocrats shells that want recursive value from the graveyard love a card that generates a token, drains the table, and fills the bin on its way out. In Legacy and Vintage it's a non-starter; those formats demand interaction, not three-turn sagas that don't affect the board on turn one. Modern and Pioneer have the card legal but no home for it — the pacing is wrong for either format's threat density. Stick to Commander, specifically commanders that care about sagas, tokens, or drain triggers.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.23 bulk tier
At $0.23, Chainer's Torment is pure bulk — no financial barrier to testing it. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to spike, so there's no urgency to pick up copies, but at this cost there's no reason not to.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.