Ill-Gotten Inheritance
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, this enchantment deals 1 damage to each opponent and you gain 1 life.
, Sacrifice this enchantment: It deals 4 damage to target opponent and you gain 4 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Jumpstart 2022
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #9062
Ill-Gotten Inheritance drains one life from each opponent per upkeep and gains you that life in return — slow, cumulative pressure that demands an answer or it wins the game. The cost is exactly that slowness: four mana for an enchantment that does nothing the turn it enters is a liability in any pod moving faster than you.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Belbe, Corrupted Observer
Belbe, Corrupted Observer generates colorless mana equal to the life opponents have lost each turn, and Ill-Gotten Inheritance guarantees at least one damage to each opponent every upkeep — meaning Belbe reliably produces mana even with no other board presence, fueling the explosive spells the deck wants to cast.
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Obeka, Splitter of Seconds lets you end the turn in response to triggered abilities, and Ill-Gotten Inheritance's end-step drain is a triggered ability — Obeka players exploit this by repeatedly triggering the drain without advancing to the next upkeep, squeezing extra value out of each iteration.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Ill-Gotten Inheritance is a slow-burn enchantment that earns its slot only in decks that can protect it or exploit the drain trigger as a resource — it's not a staple, but it's a coherent piece in aristocrats, life-drain, or upkeep-abuse strategies. In Pauper, it's legal and the incremental drain is more meaningful in a slower format where one life per turn compounds faster relative to starting totals, though dedicated drain strategies have better options at common. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's simply outclassed — four mana for a do-nothing enchantment that ticks down opponents by one is nowhere near competitive speed in those formats. Vintage and Oathbreaker are legal but irrelevant; nobody is registering Ill-Gotten Inheritance there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Ill-Gotten Inheritance is pure bulk — you're not paying for scarcity, you're paying for cardboard. It holds no meaningful financial value and never will, but that also means picking up a copy for a themed deck costs nothing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Belbe, Corrupted Observer
- Obeka, Splitter of Seconds
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.