Iron Maiden
Artifact
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, this artifact deals X damage to that player, where X is the number of cards in their hand minus 4.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secret Lair Drop
- Price
- $9.69
- EDHREC rank
- #8491
Iron Maiden taxes every opponent who sits on a fat hand — at end of each player's turn, anyone holding more cards than their maximum hand size takes damage equal to the excess, and in Commander that threshold is seven. It slots cleanly into any deck that forces opponents to draw, turning card advantage against the table for three colorless mana; Kami of the Crescent Moon decks treat it as a mandatory include.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Kami of the Crescent Moon
Kami of the Crescent Moon hands every opponent an extra card each upkeep, and Iron Maiden converts that gift into a repeating damage trigger — opponents who can't dump their hands fast enough bleed out without Kami ever swinging.
Red Death, Shipwrecker
Red Death, Shipwrecker forces opponents to draw on attacks, rapidly inflating hand sizes; Iron Maiden punishes players who haven't emptied those cards by end of turn, adding a damage clock the combat damage alone doesn't provide.
Sokrates, Athenian Teacher
Sokrates, Athenian Teacher rewards opponents for holding large hands, which creates a tension Iron Maiden exploits — players who take the bait and accumulate cards pay life for the privilege, turning Sokrates' generosity into a trap.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Nekusar, the Mindrazer already pings for every card drawn; Iron Maiden layers on a second end-of-turn punishment for players who couldn't spend their way out of a bloated hand, compressing opponents' life totals from two angles simultaneously.
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 |
Iron Maiden is a Commander card through and through — the format's multiplayer structure means three opponents all potentially taking damage each turn cycle, and the seven-card hand limit is a fixed, universal reference point that makes the math predictable. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but functionally irrelevant; those formats move too fast for a three-mana artifact that does nothing the turn it enters and requires a specific board state to matter. Oathbreaker shares enough Commander DNA — multiplayer, hand-size conventions — that Iron Maiden is viable there under the right spellshaper. Outside of group-slug and forced-draw shells, even in Commander it's a niche piece rather than a staple.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
The closest functional replacement is Viseling, which also deals damage based on hand size but only to a single targeted opponent per trigger, trading the table-wide pressure Iron Maiden applies for a cheaper price tag. Ebony Owl Netsuke is another option — it hits one opponent for four if they hold eight or more cards at their upkeep — but the higher threshold and single-target limitation make it narrower than Iron Maiden in most group-draw builds.
Price Context
Current price
$9.69 mid tier
At $9.69, Iron Maiden sits in the mid tier — not an impulse buy, but not a barrier to entry either. It's a Reserved List card with a single printing, so the price reflects genuine scarcity rather than demand alone; it's unlikely to get cheaper.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.