Infernal Darkness
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep—Pay 
and 1 life. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
If a land is tapped for mana, it produces instead of any other type.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Ice Age
- Price
- $4.29
- EDHREC rank
- #18042
Infernal Darkness turns every land into a Swamp for your opponents, locking them off any color that isn't black — at the cost of two life per upkeep to keep it in play. It's one of the most oppressive soft locks available in mono-black, and the life payment is almost never what kills it.
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 where Infernal Darkness does its real work: in a four-player pod, it taxes three opponents simultaneously, and mono-black decks that don't need colored mana themselves pay no functional cost beyond the life drain. Legacy allows it, but Wasteland, fast threats, and the speed of the format make a three-mana enchantment with an upkeep tax too slow to see meaningful play. Vintage has the same problem at higher velocity. Infernal Darkness is a Commander card through and through — the longer a game goes, the more cumulative damage it inflicts on multicolor piles.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$4.29 cheap tier
At $4.29, Infernal Darkness sits at the low end of the price range for a card with this level of board impact, making it an easy inclusion for mono-black stax builds on any budget. The price is stable — it's a niche card with a dedicated audience, not something that spikes or crashes on reprint announcements.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.