Phthisis
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses life equal to its power plus its toughness.
Suspend 5—
(Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay and exile it with five time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Modern Masters
- Price
- $0.13
- EDHREC rank
- #14590
Phthisis kills any creature or planeswalker outright — the target loses life equal to its own power plus toughness, which ends most threats regardless of protection or indestructible. The catch is seven mana to cast, which is the entire argument against it; suspend 5 softens that, but it telegraphs the kill so far in advance that opponents will maneuver around it.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Phthisis sees essentially all of its play, and even there it sits on the fringe. The suspend line is the only reason to run it — paying seven for a single-target removal spell is uncompetitive, but dropping it on turn one or two and waiting five turns is at least a real game plan in slower, grindier pods. Legacy and Vintage are legal but irrelevant; neither format has time for a five-turn countdown on removal. Phthisis is a Commander-only proposition, and a narrow one at that, best suited to decks that can accelerate the suspend clock or otherwise cheat the wait.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.13 bulk tier
At $0.13, Phthisis is deep bulk — as cheap as removal ever gets. The price reflects its limited demand rather than any hidden upside, and there's no reason to expect movement in either direction.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.