Curse of Vitality
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever enchanted player is attacked, you gain 2 life. Each opponent attacking that player does the same.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Commander 2017
- Price
- $1.23
- EDHREC rank
- #12557
Curse of Vitality puts a target on an opponent's creature and pays you life every time that creature deals combat damage — meaningful sustain in a format where life totals matter. At three mana in Mardu colors, Mathas, Fiend Seeker decks run it as a near-auto-include, since both cards reward the table for attacking a specific threat.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mathas, Fiend Seeker
Mathas, Fiend Seeker already puts bounty counters on opponent's creatures to bribe the table into attacking them — Curse of Vitality layers on top of that same incentive structure, so every hit on a cursed creature draws a card off Mathas and gains you life off the Curse simultaneously.
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 |
Curse of Vitality is a Commander card through and through — its payoff scales with a four-player table where cursed creatures are attacked repeatedly, and the politics angle of pointing opponents at each other is native to multiplayer. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees no meaningful play; the effect is too slow and too conditional for one-on-one settings where combat is less chaotic. Commander is the only context where Curse of Vitality earns its slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.23 cheap tier
At $1.23, Curse of Vitality sits comfortably in budget territory with no real barrier to picking it up. Demand is narrow enough that the price is stable — this isn't a card that spikes, but it also isn't going to get cheaper.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.