Circle of Affliction
Enchantment
As this enchantment enters, choose a color.
Whenever a source of the chosen color deals damage to you, you may pay 
. If you do, target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Planar Chaos
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #26189
Circle of Affliction drains an opponent for 1 and gains you 1 life every time a source of the chosen color deals damage — which, in a multiplayer game with three opponents, stacks up fast. The two-mana enchantment asks almost nothing to run and punishes any color-heavy strategy just by sitting on the battlefield.
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 |
Circle of Affliction is a Commander card through and through — its value scales directly with the number of opponents and the volume of combat, both of which peak in a four-player game. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes for enchantment slots against cards with immediate, format-warping impact, so it never sees play there. Modern is similarly inhospitable; the card is too slow and too dependent on opponents' behavior to fit any competitive shell. Commander is the only context where Circle of Affliction earns its slot, and even there it belongs specifically in life-drain or life-gain-payoff builds where each drip of life gain triggers something else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
At $0.25, Circle of Affliction is deep bulk — you'll find copies in nearly any dollar bin. That price is stable because demand is narrow and supply is deep, so don't expect it to move in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.