Crown of Doom
Artifact
Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
: Target player other than this artifact's owner gains control of it. Activate only during your turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander 2014
- Price
- $4.99
- EDHREC rank
- #8994
Crown of Doom forces opponents to attack each other — whoever holds it swings with +2/+0 across their whole team, and they're strongly incentivized to pass the curse along — while you sit back and watch the table thin itself. The cost is real: in a focused pod, a single opponent can just keep it and beat you down, so Crown of Doom belongs in decks built around that chaos dynamic, not as a generic stax piece.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Iroh, Tea Master
Iroh, Tea Master rewards gifting permanents to opponents, and Crown of Doom is one of the few pieces that practically gifts itself — opponents want to pass it, which triggers the political engine Iroh is built around.
Blim, Comedic Genius
Blim, Comedic Genius exists to hand opponents permanents that hurt them, and Crown of Doom is a premier target — it applies constant pressure on whoever holds it and keeps moving around the table, generating maximum chaos for Blim's game plan.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Zedruu the Greathearted donates permanents for value, and Crown of Doom is a staple target because opponents will often pass it voluntarily, keeping the political pressure alive without Zedruu needing to give it away twice.
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent already plants a threat in an opponent's side of the table; Crown of Doom layers on additional pressure, incentivizing that opponent to attack others and accelerating the politics-into-chaos kill that Xantcha decks are after.
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 |
Crown of Doom is a Commander card through and through — its pass-the-curse mechanic only generates meaningful decisions at a four-player table where redirecting the buff is a real political tool. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but practically invisible; a four-mana enchantment that buffs attackers conditionally has no place in those formats. Oathbreaker shares enough of Commander's multiplayer texture that Crown of Doom functions there, though the smaller starting life totals mean the game ends before the curse makes many laps. Treat it as a Commander-exclusive card that happens to have a legality line elsewhere.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$4.99 cheap tier
At $4.99, Crown of Doom sits at the high end of the cheap tier — playable without much thought for budget, but not a throwaway inclusion either. It's a niche card with a narrow home, so the price reflects steady demand from political Commander builds rather than broad appeal.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Iroh, Tea Master
- Blim, Comedic Genius
- Zedruu the Greathearted
- Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.