Driven // Despair
Sorcery // Sorcery
Until end of turn, creatures you control gain trample and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BG
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Amonkhet Remastered
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #13946
Driven // Despair turns any attacking board into a mass draw engine on one side and a hand-stripping evasion grant on the other — two effects that would each cost two mana as separate spells. In a token-wide shell like Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons, casting both halves in the same turn is a realistic game-ending swing.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons floods the board with deathtouch Snakes, and Driven // Despair converts that flood directly into cards drawn and opponent discards — Driven rewards the wide attack Hapatra already wants to make, and Despair punishes anyone who survives it.
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 |
Commander is the natural home for Driven // Despair — the spell rewards going wide, and 100-card singleton formats are where wide creature strategies have the most room to breathe. In competitive 1v1 formats like Modern and Legacy, the card is legal but rarely sees play; four-mana split spells that don't affect the board immediately can't keep pace with those formats' speed. Pioneer decks theoretically have access to it, but the same problem applies — aggressive green-black shells in Pioneer prefer creatures that generate immediate value. Driven // Despair is a Commander card first and a casual-formats card second.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available at the moment for Driven // Despair, so check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for a current number. Given its niche but genuine role in token-based Commander decks, it tends to sit in the budget-to-modest range — worth picking up if you're building the archetype.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.