Deadly Designs
Enchantment
: Put a plot counter on this enchantment. Any player may activate this ability.
When there are five or more plot counters on this enchantment, sacrifice it. If you do, destroy up to two target creatures.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Masters 25
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #21966
Deadly Designs is a five-mana enchantment that lets your table collectively spend plot counters to machine-gun down any number of creatures — the threat of activation does real political work. The cost is telegraphed, slow, and completely dependent on opponents cooperating or you having a token engine to load counters yourself.
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 |
Commander is where Deadly Designs finds its only real home — the multiplayer table means opponents may voluntarily add counters to protect themselves from something worse, and token-heavy or aristocrats builds can self-fund the counter accumulation without relying on goodwill. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but functionally invisible; five mana for a conditional, slow removal package doesn't register in formats where threats resolve and win on the spot. Oathbreaker shares enough of the Commander multiplayer DNA that the political angle occasionally applies, but the smaller game size shrinks the counter pool and the card's window with it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Deadly Designs is deep bulk — you're not paying for power, you're paying for a niche effect. It's unlikely to appreciate unless a Commander precon spotlights group-politics enchantments, so treat it as a cheap role-player rather than a spec.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.