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Penance

Enchantment

Put a card from your hand on top of your library: The next time a black or red source of your choice would deal damage this turn, prevent that damage.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Exodus
Price
$7.85
EDHREC rank
#10341
Buy on TCGplayer
Penance card art
Penance lets you put any card from your hand on top of your library at instant speed — a repeatable, low-cost way to stack your deck in response to draw effects, upkeep triggers, or anything else that cares what's on top. The cost is a single white enchantment slot, and in decks running Approach of the Second Sun or Lorehold, the Historian, that slot pays dividends every turn.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Lorehold, the Historian

Lorehold, the Historian

41.7% of decks · synergy 0.41

Lorehold, the Historian triggers off the top card of your library constantly, and Penance lets you set exactly what that card is at instant speed — turning a dead land or an irrelevant spell into whatever permanent type Lorehold needs to fire.

02
Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign

27.2% of decks · synergy 0.26

Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign only connects when the top card is an odd-mana-value spell, and Penance is the cheapest repeatable way to guarantee that — just move your best odd spell to the top before Yennett swings.

03
Aminatou, Veil Piercer

Aminatou, Veil Piercer

24.3% of decks · synergy 0.23

Aminatou, Veil Piercer cares about permanents with different mana values hitting the board, and Penance lets you sequence the top of your library precisely so you're never wasting an Aminatou trigger on a card that doesn't advance the engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Penance earns its slot — top-deck manipulation is a repeatable form of card selection, and white has historically had few ways to do it cheaply and at instant speed. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but competes with dramatically more powerful library manipulation, so it sees essentially no play there. Penance is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, which limits its audience almost entirely to Commander and Oathbreaker. In Oathbreaker the same top-deck-stacking role applies, particularly in white-based shells that want to guarantee their oathbreaker's trigger.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

If the top-deck manipulation role is what you're after, Scroll Rack does it better but costs significantly more; on the cheaper end, Haunted Crossroads and Cream of the Crop fill adjacent roles for specific deck types — Haunted Crossroads recurs creatures to the top in creature-heavy lists, while Cream of the Crop filters on every creature ETB. Neither replicates Penance's pure instant-speed hand-to-top flexibility, but both cost well under a dollar and may be close enough depending on your commander's specific trigger conditions.

Price Context

Current price

$7.85 mid tier

At $7.85, Penance sits in the mid tier — noticeable but not backbreaking for a single enchantment slot. It's a narrow card with a concentrated audience, so the price is driven almost entirely by Lorehold and Yennett demand; if those commanders fall out of favor, there's limited other demand to hold the floor.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.