Ensnared by the Mara
Sorcery
Each opponent faces a villainous choice — They exile cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card, then you may cast that card without paying its mana cost, or that player exiles the top four cards of their library and Ensnared by the Mara deals damage equal to the total mana value of those exiled cards to that player.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Doctor Who
- Price
- $6.54
- EDHREC rank
- #3460
Ensnared by the Mara puts a permanent into the command zone and replaces itself — that's a removal spell stapled to a card draw effect, and the cost is negligible in any deck already generating tokens or clues. Davros, Dalek Creator runs it in over half its builds because bouncing a threat while drawing a card fits the deck's grind-them-out rhythm exactly.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Davros, Dalek Creator
Davros, Dalek Creator converts every opponent's loss into a resource, and Ensnared by the Mara feeds that engine directly — you remove a threat, draw a card, and Davros turns the resulting token activity into more cards and more pressure.
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter
Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter cares about artifacts and incidental value, so Ensnared by the Mara pulls double duty as a tempo play that refills the hand while keeping the board clear for Drake's attacks.
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician rewards spells that generate multiple effects from a single cast, and Ensnared by the Mara delivers removal plus a card in one shot — exactly the kind of high-variance, high-value play the deck is hunting for.
Don Andres, the Renegade
Don Andres, the Renegade wants to stay ahead on cards and keep opponents off their best permanents, and Ensnared by the Mara answers a threat while replacing itself, which is precisely the tempo-neutral removal the deck needs to sustain long turns.
Dr. Eggman
Dr. Eggman floods the board with tokens and wants interaction that doesn't cost card equity, so Ensnared by the Mara fits cleanly — exile a blocker or a combo piece and draw into the next threat without losing momentum.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the obvious home for Ensnared by the Mara — the card draw clause matters most in a 100-card singleton format where running out of gas is a real cost, and bouncing to the command zone is a meaningful punishment in a format built around commanders. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; three mana to tempo a permanent is far too slow when Swords to Plowshares and Force of Will define the interaction baseline. Oathbreaker is the one other format where Ensnared by the Mara could see real play, since the command-zone clause hits oathbreakers directly and the card draw keeps pace with the format's faster games.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Aether Spellbomb and Unexpectedly Absent both do versions of the same job for under a dollar — the Spellbomb bounces to hand rather than the command zone and draws a card at instant speed, while Unexpectedly Absent puts the permanent on top of the library instead of exiling it, which is often better but misses the replacement draw. Neither matches Ensnared by the Mara's combination of exile, command-zone targeting, and cantrip on a single card, so if that exact package matters to your deck, the budget options are real compromises rather than clean substitutes.
Price Context
Current price
$6.54 mid tier
At $6.54, Ensnared by the Mara sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it belongs in any deck with a genuine reason to run it. It sees play in well over 5,000 Davros builds alone, so demand is real and the price reflects an actual staple rather than speculation.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Davros, Dalek Creator
- Nathan Drake, Treasure Hunter
- Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
- Don Andres, the Renegade
- Dr. Eggman
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.