Dismember
Instant
(
can be paid with either 
or 2 life.)
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Modern Event Deck 2014
- Price
- $6.58
- EDHREC rank
- #964
Dismember kills almost any creature on the board for one mana — the -5/-5 reaches things Doom Blade and Go for the Throat both miss, including indestructible threats when combined with other effects. The life payment is real, but in Commander, paying 4 life to answer a Blightsteel Colossus or a Phyrexian Obliterator is the best trade at the table.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed
Y'shtola, Night's Blessed recurs instants from the graveyard, so Dismember isn't a one-shot answer — it's a removal spell you can replay as a life-payment engine, turning every recursion trigger into another -5/-5 at instant speed.
Rowan, Scion of War
Rowan, Scion of War scales her cost reduction off life paid this turn, and Dismember's four life immediately discounts your next spell — double the payoff for a single removal spell.
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa's ability triggers when an opponent's creature dies to an instant, then lets you cast an instant from your graveyard for free, making Dismember a removal spell that draws another removal spell.
Massacre Girl, Known Killer
Massacre Girl, Known Killer gives all your spells wither while she's on the stack, and Dismember's -5/-5 is already lethal to most targets — but in her deck it's also a consistent source of creature death to chain her cascading wither triggers.
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow cares about mana value in hand more than what's on the card, but Dismember earns its slot because it answers early blockers for a single mana, clearing the path for ninjutsu before your opponents can develop a board.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Dismember is one of the most color-flexible removal spells ever printed — any deck with black can cast it for 1B, and any deck without black can pay 4 life and cast it off a single colorless mana, making it a genuine consideration even in five-color or off-color lists. The -5/-5 is not a hard kill in every case, but it handles indestructible creatures in ways exile-only removal doesn't, and at instant speed for one mana the floor is still very high. In Legacy and Vintage, Dismember saw real competitive play as an answer to creatures that dodge color-specific removal, and it remains legal and occasionally relevant in both. Modern is its most contested format home — efficient enough to see sideboard play but competing with a removal suite that's grown increasingly powerful. Pioneer and Standard players never got access to it, and Pauper's commons-only restriction locks it out there too.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
If Dismember is out of budget, Fatal Push covers most of the same early-game targets in black decks for under $1, though it requires revolt to hit anything above three mana and offers no colorless-casting option. Infect spells like Phyresis or Glistening Oil can replicate the -5/-5 feel in creature-heavy builds, but they're enchantments with setup cost rather than instant-speed answers — Dismember's one-mana convenience is genuinely hard to replicate cheaply.
Price Context
Current price
$6.58 mid tier
At $6.58, Dismember sits in the mid tier — not an impulse buy, but justified for any Commander deck that wants colorless-accessible removal. It's a card with broad cross-format demand and no functional replacement, which keeps the price floor stable.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.