Power Taint
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant enchantment
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted enchantment's controller, that player loses 2 life unless they pay 
.
Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Urza's Saga
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #25509
Power Taint forces an opponent's artifact or creature to drain its controller for 2 life each upkeep — and if they want to be rid of it, they pay 4 mana to bounce it back to your hand. The setup cost is low and the political pressure is real, but the effect is too slow and too easy to ignore at most tables to earn a mainboard slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Power Taint occupies a narrow niche: taxing a single troublesome permanent while generating incremental life loss, which rarely closes games but can matter in life-total-matters builds. The problem is that 2 life per upkeep is background noise at a four-player table, and the 4-mana escape hatch is cheap enough that any ramp-heavy player just pays it and moves on. In Pauper, where the common card pool is tight and incremental damage accumulates faster in a two-player game, Power Taint has slightly more teeth, but enchantment-based stall strategies still have better options. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters — the effect is too marginal against the format's speed and power level.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Power Taint is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not utility. That price will hold because demand is essentially zero, not because the card has untapped upside.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.