Decree of Pain
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. They can't be regenerated. Draw a card for each creature destroyed this way.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, all creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 8
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander
- Price
- $0.23
- EDHREC rank
- #1282
Decree of Pain wipes the board and replaces itself with a card for every creature that dies — at eight mana, you're paying for a one-sided reset that often draws four to eight cards in a typical pod. The cost is steep, but Sauron, Lord of the Rings and other high-mana black decks treat this as a staple closer rather than a luxury.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Sauron, Lord of the Rings cares about amassing Orcs whenever spells are cast, so Decree of Pain doubles as a board reset and a draw engine that refills his hand to keep casting threats every turn.
Hazel of the Rootbloom
Hazel of the Rootbloom copies instants and sorceries on the stack, and a copied Decree of Pain means two full board wipes and two massive draw triggers off a single cast.
Hidetsugu and Kairi
Hidetsugu and Kairi puts spells on top of the library on death, making Decree of Pain a natural target to cheat into play for free — clearing the board and drawing a fistful of cards without paying the eight-mana sticker price.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge exiles spells from opponents' libraries and casts them for free, and Decree of Pain is exactly the high-CMC bomb she wants to flip and fire without spending a single mana.
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls draws cards whenever opponents lose life, so pairing him with Decree of Pain stacks two separate draw engines — one from Valgavoth's trigger, one from the Decree itself — off a single resolution.
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 Decree of Pain lives — eight mana is acceptable in a 40-life, 100-card format where games run long, and the card advantage it generates off a full table's worth of creatures is genuinely backbreaking. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but unplayed; the formats are too fast for an eight-mana sorcery that doesn't win the game outright. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it occasionally shows up, slotted into controlling black builds that can reach the late game. Outside those slower, multiplayer contexts, Decree of Pain never sees daylight.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.23 bulk tier
At $0.23, Decree of Pain sits firmly in bulk territory despite being a legitimate Commander staple. For the effect — unconditional board wipe plus massive card draw — that price is a steal, and there's no meaningful upward pressure expected on a card with multiple printings.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.