Deathgrip
Enchantment
: Counter target green spell.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Limited Edition Beta
- Price
- $36.63
- EDHREC rank
- #17444
Deathgrip is a permanent that lets you counter any green spell by paying BB — a hard, repeatable tax that shuts down green-heavy tables the moment it lands. The catch is the double-black activation cost and the fact that it does exactly nothing against every other color.
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 |
In Commander, Deathgrip earns a seat only in dedicated stax or control builds that can reliably produce BB through multiple turns — think Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth setups or mono-black goodstuff. Green is the most popular color in the format, so the targeting breadth is real, but one-color hate enchantments rarely survive long enough to justify a card slot in a 100-card singleton game. Legacy and Vintage are its true homes: both formats see enough Lands, Show and Tell, and Elvish Mystic chains that a resolved Deathgrip can lock a player out cold. In any 60-card singleton format where it's legal, the raw disruption ceiling is highest.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Deathgrip's repeatable hard-counter effect has no cheap equivalent, but Contamination and Infernal Darkness come closest in spirit — both tax green players out of colored mana entirely rather than countering spells individually. If you want targeted spell denial on a budget, Thoughtseize and Duress handle green threats before they're cast, which is often more reliable than leaving BB up every turn.
Price Context
Current price
$36.63 premium tier
At $36.63, Deathgrip sits in premium territory for a card that sees narrow competitive play. It's a Reserved List enchantment, so the price is stable but driven almost entirely by scarcity and collector demand rather than format ubiquity — expect the ceiling to hold, but don't buy it expecting the card to do heavy lifting in most Commander pods.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.