Is Pox Plague good in Commander?

Pox Plague

Sorcery

Each player loses half their life, then discards half the cards in their hand, then sacrifices half the permanents they control of their choice. Round down each time.

CMC: 5
Mana cost
Color identity: B
Rarity: rare
Set: Secrets of Strixhaven
Price: $0.84
EDHREC rank: #16079

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Pox Plague makes every opponent lose half their life, rounded up — and in a four-player pod, that's a sorcery-speed near-reset that scales harder than almost any comparable effect. Bloodletter of Aclazotz doubles that loss, and Tergrid, God of Fright converts the forced sacrifices into a board full of stolen permanents, which is the real reason this card exists.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

Tergrid, God of Fright

28.9% of decks · synergy 0.24

Tergrid, God of Fright turns the discard and sacrifice clauses on Pox Plague into a permanent-theft engine — opponents lose half their life and hand the board over to you simultaneously.

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal

16.3% of decks · synergy 0.12

Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal cares about opponents losing cards from hand, so Pox Plague's forced discard feeds directly into its ability while stripping the table of resources.

Tinybones, Bauble Burglar

14.3% of decks · synergy 0.10

Tinybones, Bauble Burglar rewards every discard trigger, and Pox Plague forces multiple opponents to pitch cards at once — that's a burst of value from a single spell.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

Format	Verdict
commander	legal
legacy	legal
modern	legal
pioneer	legal
standard	legal
vintage	legal
pauper	not legal
oathbreaker	legal

Commander is where Pox Plague earns its keep: hitting three opponents simultaneously multiplies the life loss, discard, and sacrifice into a table-wide setback no single-target effect can match. In Legacy and Vintage it's outclassed by Pox itself, which costs less and hits harder in one-on-one, but Pox Plague's broader symmetry makes it a curiosity in those formats at best. Modern and Pioneer don't have the life-loss doubling density or the Tergrid-style payoffs to make it truly dangerous, so it stays on the fringe there. Standard is the surprise entry — if a discard or life-loss synergy deck exists in the format, Pox Plague is cheap enough to try.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

586 decks