Pain Seer
Creature — Human Wizard
Inspired — Whenever this creature becomes untapped, reveal the top card of your library and put that card into your hand. You lose life equal to that card's mana value.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Magic Online Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #16622
Pain Seer draws you a card every time it attacks and becomes untapped — the catch is you pay life equal to the revealed card's mana cost, so a stacked top of library can hurt. It's a two-mana repeatable draw engine in black-white aggro shells, and the life loss is almost always worth the gas.
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 |
In Commander, Pain Seer occupies a niche in combat-focused black-white decks — any commander that wants to attack early and often can put Pain Seer to work, and the life total cushion of 40 makes the life-loss cost nearly irrelevant. In Modern and Legacy, it's a relic of an era before black got cleaner two-drop draw engines; Phyrexian Arena and Dark Confidant do more for less investment in non-rotating formats. Pioneer gives it the most competitive breathing room among 60-card formats, though dedicated aggro shells there have largely moved on. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's logic — if your oathbreaker wants board presence and card advantage in the same slot, Pain Seer is a reasonable pick.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Price data isn't available for Pain Seer at the moment — check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for current buylist and market rates. As a casual-demand card with no spike history, it has historically sat in bulk-rare territory, so expect it to be an easy pickup.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.