Distress
Sorcery
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Tenth Edition
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #17985
Distress strips a card of your choice from an opponent's hand for two black mana — clean, unconditional discard with no exceptions for lands or other card types. It's fine in formats where hand disruption is at a premium and unplayable elsewhere; the baseline rate just isn't good enough to compete with stronger options.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Distress is too slow and too narrow — one card from one opponent's hand at sorcery speed barely registers at a four-player table, and black has access to far more efficient disruption. Pauper is where Distress actually sees play, since the card pool is shallow enough that sorcery-speed discard at two mana clears the bar for black control and combo shells. Legacy and Vintage both have better options at the same cost, so Distress never touches competitive lists there. Modern is legal but irrelevant — the format's speed makes a sorcery-speed two-drop that doesn't affect the board a liability.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Distress is deep bulk — pick it up in a commons box or as throw-in filler. The price is stable simply because there's no demand spike coming; it's a functional card in limited formats, not a chase piece.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.