Infernal Contract
Sorcery
Draw four cards. You lose half your life, rounded up.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Salvat 2005
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #17736
Infernal Contract draws you four cards for three mana — one of the highest raw card-advantage rates black can offer at sorcery speed. The catch is that you drop to half your life total, which is a real cost in Commander but a manageable one if your deck can capitalize on the burst immediately. Cecil, Dark Knight decks lean into this willingly, treating the life loss as a resource rather than a liability.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Cecil, Dark Knight
Cecil, Dark Knight's life-payment synergies make Infernal Contract a natural fit — spending half your life to refuel with four cards feeds directly into the engine Cecil wants to run, where life totals are currency rather than a clock.
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 |
In Commander, Infernal Contract is a burst-refuel spell for decks that can weaponize or ignore the life-loss clause — starting at 40 life makes halving it sting far less than it would elsewhere, and four cards at sorcery speed for three mana is a bargain at any table. Legacy and Vintage have access to it, but both formats move fast enough that paying half your life puts you in range of lethal immediately, so Infernal Contract rarely competes with Demonic Tutor or Ad Nauseam as a black card-advantage engine. Oathbreaker is its best non-Commander home, since the higher starting life total in some league rules and the explosive singleton games make the four-card burst more impactful than the life cost is punishing.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Infernal Contract isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the latest figure before buying in. Given its narrow competitive applicability and casual Commander demand, it historically sits in the budget-to-mid range — worth picking up if you're building Cecil, Dark Knight or a life-payment shell.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Cecil, Dark Knight
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.