Mesmeric Fiend
Creature — Nightmare Horror
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand and you choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card.
When this creature leaves the battlefield, return the exiled card to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $1.14
- EDHREC rank
- #19650
Mesmeric Fiend strips one card from an opponent's hand the moment it enters and holds it hostage until it dies — two distinct disruption events stapled to a two-mana body. The catch is that dying returns the card, so opponents can engineer the trade; play it when you control the exit, not just the entrance.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Mesmeric Fiend shines in blink and sacrifice shells where you can repeatedly trigger the enter-the-battlefield effect or deny the death trigger on demand — Aminatou, the Fateshifter and Teysa Karlov lists both weaponize it cleanly. In Pauper, it has a longer competitive history as a two-mana discard effect that doubles as a sacrifice outlet target, seeing play in Orzhov and Death's Shadow-adjacent builds where common-legal disruption is scarce. Legacy has better options at this slot, so Mesmeric Fiend rarely earns a seat there outside of budget builds. Vintage doesn't want it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.14 cheap tier
At $1.14, Mesmeric Fiend sits firmly in budget territory — cheap enough that picking up a playset costs less than a single fetch land. It's a niche card with a stable floor; demand comes from Pauper and Commander enfranchised buyers rather than speculators, so the price is unlikely to spike or crater.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.