Mental Vapors
Sorcery
Target player discards a card.
Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Gatecrash
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #22342
Mental Vapors makes one opponent discard a card — that's the whole effect, for four mana at sorcery speed. Targeted discard this slow and this narrow is not competitive in Commander, and it rarely earns a slot in any other format either.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Mental Vapors is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different things. In Commander, one opponent discarding one card at sorcery speed for four mana is close to unplayable — you need discard effects that either scale to all opponents or cost far less. In Legacy and Vintage, the format's one-mana discard suite (Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach) makes Mental Vapors obsolete on rate alone. Modern and Pioneer have the same problem — four mana is too much for an effect that doesn't win the game or generate card advantage.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Mental Vapors is deep bulk — the price reflects the demand, which is minimal. Don't expect that floor to move; cards this narrow in effect don't have a ceiling to recover toward.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.