Mind Drain
Sorcery
Target opponent discards two cards, mills a card, and loses 1 life. You gain 1 life. (To mill a card, a player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Zendikar Rising
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #17637
Mind Drain mills a target player for twice the mana you spend on X, which sounds fine until you realize that in Commander, a 99-card library rarely cares about losing 6 or 8 cards. It's a filler spell that almost never wins the game and almost always wastes a slot.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Mind Drain is too slow and too low-impact — milling one opponent while three others untouched is a losing proposition, and the X cost scales poorly when you need every mana for threats or interaction. In Pauper, dedicated mill strategies exist and can close games, so Mind Drain has a marginal home there, though Tome Scour and Shriekhorn typically do the job cheaper or more efficiently. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer, the format's speed and the existence of purpose-built mill payoffs push Mind Drain entirely out of contention. Vintage doesn't need it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
Mind Drain is deep bulk at $0.08, and that price is accurate to its power level. Don't expect it to climb — there's no competitive demand and no casual breakout scenario that would move the needle.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.