Paranoid Delusions
Sorcery
Target player mills three cards.
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
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BU
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Gatecrash
- Price
- $0.12
- EDHREC rank
- #16071
Paranoid Delusions mills three cards and triggers cipher, stapling itself to a creature so every subsequent attack mills three more — all for two mana. It's a niche card, but in Lazav, Dimir Mastermind decks it's a repeatable engine that fills the graveyard and gives Lazav targets to copy on the same swing.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
Lazav, Dimir Mastermind turns every cipher trigger into a free shapeshifting opportunity — attack, mill three, pick the best creature that just hit the graveyard, and Lazav becomes it. Paranoid Delusions does exactly what that engine needs: it mills consistently, it scales with combat, and it costs almost nothing to include.
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 |
Paranoid Delusions is legal across Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but it sees meaningful play in almost none of them outside of Commander. In Pauper, mill strategies exist but prefer cards that mill more per mana or operate at instant speed; cipher's reliance on attacking creatures is too slow and fragile there. In Modern and Legacy, the card simply doesn't compete — two mana for three mills is nowhere near efficient enough when those formats have dedicated mill payoffs that operate on a different scale. Commander is where Paranoid Delusions finds its actual home, specifically in graveyard-matters or Dimir mill strategies where the cipher mechanic generates repeated value across a long game.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.12 bulk tier
At $0.12, Paranoid Delusions is pure bulk — the kind of card you pull from a commons box without thinking twice. It's unlikely to appreciate given its narrow competitive application, but for Commander players building around cipher or mill, the cost of entry is essentially zero.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.