Cursed Recording
Artifact
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a time counter on this artifact. Then if there are seven or more time counters on it, remove those counters and it deals 20 damage to you.
: When you next cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #10905
Cursed Recording staples a copy of itself to an opponent's hand every time it hits the graveyard, turning a single enchantment into a repeating curse that clogs their draws and eventually decks them. The effect is real, but the engine needs support — you want recursive loops or sacrifice outlets to trigger the replicate clause more than once per game, which is why Cormela, Glamour Thief shells are the natural home.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Cormela, Glamour Thief
Cormela, Glamour Thief returns instants and sorceries from the graveyard when she dies, and while Cursed Recording is an enchantment, the spell-slinging Grixis shell around her generates exactly the sacrifice and recursion density that makes Cursed Recording loop reliably — cast it, let it resolve into an opponent's hand, find a way to make them discard or mill it, and the curse propagates.
Zedruu the Greathearted
Zedruu the Greathearted donates permanents to opponents, and Cursed Recording is one of the cruelest gifts in the format — hand it off, watch it spread copies of itself each time it cycles through a graveyard, and Zedruu's life-and-draw trigger keeps you ahead while opponents drown in recursive junk.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Cursed Recording is a Commander card through and through — the slow, grinding curse it generates only matters in a multiplayer game where opponents have time to accumulate copies and eventually deck themselves. In Legacy, Modern, or Pioneer, games end too fast for a three-mana enchantment with no immediate board impact to matter, and there are simply better tools for hand disruption or mill strategies in every competitive 60-card format. Standard and Oathbreaker are legal homes on paper, but the same speed problem applies in Standard and Oathbreaker's faster clock limits how many graveyard triggers you can realistically generate. Stick to Commander, where the political chaos of spreading cursed copies across three opponents is actually a viable path to victory.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Cursed Recording is pure bulk — pick up as many as you want without a second thought. Niche enchantments with narrow Commander applications rarely climb in price, so don't expect this to spike; it's a cheap include for the decks that want it and a throw-in trade card for everyone else.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Cormela, Glamour Thief
- Zedruu the Greathearted
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.