Onyx Goblet
Artifact
: Target player loses 1 life.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Shards of Alara
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #24233
Onyx Goblet is a two-mana enchantment that taps a creature and keeps it tapped — a soft lock on one threat for as long as the Goblet sticks. The effect is real, but paying two mana upfront plus one each turn to maintain it rarely trades favorably against the removal spells it's competing with for a deck slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Onyx Goblet occupies the awkward middle ground between removal and stax — it doesn't kill the threat, it just neutralizes one at a time, which rarely scales against a four-player table. Legacy, Vintage, and Modern all have access to efficient hard removal and counterspells that make a tap-lock enchantment a non-starter competitively. Pauper is the format where Onyx Goblet gets the most serious look, since the card pool narrows and incremental tempo effects carry more weight — though even there it faces stiff competition from common removal staples. In Oathbreaker, where games are faster and the threat density is lower, the single-target lock can occasionally matter, but the mana sink still hurts.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Onyx Goblet is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not card power. It holds no financial floor worth considering; pick it up if the effect fits a specific build, but don't expect the price to move.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.