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Hand of Vecna

Legendary Artifact — Equipment

At the beginning of combat on your turn, equipped creature or a creature you control named Vecna gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in your hand.
Equip—Pay 1 life for each card in your hand.
Equip {2}

CMC
3
Mana cost
{3}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Promos
Price
$0.82
EDHREC rank
#9542
Buy on TCGplayer
Hand of Vecna card art
Hand of Vecna enters the battlefield pumping its equipped creature by +X/+X where X is the number of cards in hand — a payoff that snowballs fast in draw-heavy builds. The cost is real: you pay life equal to cards in hand to attach it, so Lyse Hext and The Book of Vile Darkness both belong in the same 99 to recoup that loss and make the exchange worth it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Lyse Hext

Lyse Hext

26.0% of decks · synergy 0.26

Lyse Hext draws cards on each opponent's end step, which means Hand of Vecna grows exponentially while the life-payment cost stays manageable against the steady stream of card advantage Lyse generates.

02
Sergeant John Benton

Sergeant John Benton

24.3% of decks · synergy 0.24

Sergeant John Benton's ability to create tokens whenever you draw extra cards means Hand of Vecna doubles as a board-wide threat multiplier — you're paying life to suit up a creature that already sits atop a growing army.

03
Acererak the Archlich

Acererak the Archlich

21.8% of decks · synergy 0.21

Acererak the Archlich spends the early game completing dungeon loops that refill your hand, which makes Hand of Vecna a lategame closer that converts all that accumulated cardboard into a lethal power boost.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Hand of Vecna does its best work — the longer game gives you time to build a hand worth paying for, and the format's draw-engine commanders turn the life cost into a trivial fee for a massive threat. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but competes with equipment that demands less setup and punishes less when answered. Modern and Pioneer are the same story: the equip cost makes Hand of Vecna too slow and too conditional against faster threats. Play it in Commander and ignore it elsewhere.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.82 bulk tier

At $0.82, Hand of Vecna sits at bulk pricing that undervalues its ceiling in the right shell. It holds that floor because the life-cost ceiling scares off casual builders, but for dedicated hand-size decks it's one of the cheapest payoffs available at this effect size.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.