Distended Mindbender
Creature — Eldrazi Insect
Emerge 
(You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature's mana value.)
When you cast this spell, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose from it a nonland card with mana value 3 or less and a card with mana value 4 or greater. That player discards those cards.
- CMC
- 8
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Eldritch Moon Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #18179
Distended Mindbender strips two cards from an opponent's hand — one nonland, one with mana value 4 or less — the moment it enters, and an 5/5 body stays behind to pressure the board. The Emerge cost means you're often casting this for four or five mana by sacrificing a creature you were done with anyway, making the effect wildly efficient for its actual price of admission.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Distended Mindbender is a role-player in sacrifice-heavy and reanimator strategies — the Emerge cost routinely drops to four or five mana, and stripping a nonland plus a key spell from one opponent's hand at instant-speed disrupts enough to justify the slot. Competitive Commander shells that can exploit the graveyard while needing to answer specific threats mid-combo-turn will find the most value here. In Modern and Pioneer, the card sees fringe play in Eldrazi and emerge-style creature decks where the tempo swing of emptying an opponent's relevant hand for a cheap body can be decisive, though it's outclassed by faster threats in most metagames. Legacy and Vintage have too much cheap disruption and busted raw power for Distended Mindbender to compete on rate. It's ultimately a Commander card first, with narrow constructed applications in midrange creature decks willing to build around Emerge.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available in our current feed for Distended Mindbender, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market rate. As an Emerge rare from a heavily opened set, it has historically been an inexpensive pickup, making it low-risk to acquire for sacrifice-based Commander builds.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.