Ego Drain
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. If you don't control a Faerie, exile a card from your hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Wilds of Eldraine
- Price
- $0.24
- EDHREC rank
- #17364
Ego Drain makes a player mill cards equal to the number of cards in their hand — which in Commander, where hands stay full, regularly means six to ten cards at instant speed. The cost is steep enough that it rarely earns a slot over faster, more permanent disruption.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Ego Drain occupies an awkward middle ground: it's not a win condition, not hard removal, and not reliable mill since 99-card libraries shrug off ten cards without a dedicated strategy behind them. It finds a home in Millstone-style mill decks built around commanders like Phenax, God of Deception, where every card milled has incremental value and the X cost can be stretched with extra mana. Outside of Commander, Ego Drain is too slow and conditional to compete — constructed formats at instant-speed mill want either much cheaper spells or effects that mill entire libraries outright. It's legal across the board but practically irrelevant everywhere except niche Commander builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.24 bulk tier
At $0.24, Ego Drain is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. Unless a future Commander precon puts mill-tribal back in the spotlight, there's no pressure on that price in either direction.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.