Choice of Damnations
Sorcery — Arcane
Target opponent chooses a number. You may have that player lose that much life. If you don't, that player sacrifices all but that many permanents of their choice.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Saviors of Kamigawa
- Price
- $15.46
- EDHREC rank
- #12256
Choice of Damnations forces a target opponent to either lose life equal to their hand size or discard down to zero cards — either outcome is brutal, and six mana is the only price. The Celestial Toymaker makes it free to recur, turning a one-shot punishment into a repeatable engine that dismantles a single player per turn cycle.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Celestial Toymaker
The Celestial Toymaker's ability to replay game pieces from outside the game means Choice of Damnations stops being a one-time six-mana tax and starts being a every-turn ultimatum — opponents either empty their hand or crater their life total on a loop.
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 |
Choice of Damnations is a Commander card through and through — the political weight of forcing one opponent into a lose-lose matters most in a four-player game where the other two players watch someone get kneecapped. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but six mana for a sorcery that doesn't end the game immediately is nowhere near competitive in those formats. Oathbreaker is the one other home worth mentioning, where the smaller life totals make the life-loss branch hit harder earlier.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Skull Rend and Wit's End both attack hand size at a lower price point, though neither presents the same binary trap that Choice of Damnations does — they just discard, skipping the life-loss branch entirely. If the goal is punishing a single player with a forced choice, Mindslicer gets there on a body for under a dollar, though it hits everyone and trades the elegance of Choice of Damnations for raw chaos.
Price Context
Current price
$15.46 mid tier
At $15.46, Choice of Damnations sits in mid-tier pricing for a card with a narrow home and no reprint on the horizon. It holds that price because The Celestial Toymaker demand spiked interest in Kamigawa block oddities, but it's a buy-when-you-need-it card, not a staple to stock up on.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.