Death Watch
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When enchanted creature dies, its controller loses life equal to its power and you gain life equal to its toughness.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Visions
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #20590
Death Watch staples a drain-life trigger onto any creature for one black mana — when that creature dies, its controller loses life equal to its power and you gain it. Cheap aura, real upside, but it requires your opponent's creature to actually die, which means it does nothing without a follow-up removal spell or combat.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Death Watch is a fringe card — the drain can be meaningful in a 40-life format when you're targeting a high-power creature, but one mana for a conditional life swing rarely earns a slot over removal that guarantees a result. In Pauper it's legal and the commons card pool is shallow enough that auras with life gain see occasional fringe play, though Death Watch still competes against more proactive one-mana black spells. Legacy and Vintage have no use for it — the formats are too fast and too powerful for a setup-dependent aura to matter. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: fine in casual pods, invisible in anything tuned.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Death Watch is deep bulk — you'll find it in a common box before you'll find it on a wishlist. It won't appreciate; there's no competitive demand and the effect is too narrow to spike from casual interest.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.