Prison Sentence
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When this Aura enters, scry 2.
Enchanted creature can't attack or block, and its activated abilities can't be activated.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Brothers' War
- Price
- $0.17
- EDHREC rank
- #16744
Prison Sentence exiles a creature and locks its controller out of searching their library — a meaningful tax stapled onto permanent removal. Three white mana for a sorcery-speed enchantment is a real cost, but the exile clause plus the tutor denial makes it pull double duty in metas where fetch effects are common.
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 |
In Commander, Prison Sentence is fringe-playable removal — the tutor-denial rider is genuinely relevant in a format built around tutors, but three mana at sorcery speed with no instant-speed option puts it behind Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile by a wide margin. Pauper is the format where Prison Sentence has the most realistic case, since the card pool is shallow enough that exile removal with upside is harder to come by. In Modern, Pioneer, Legacy, and Vintage, it doesn't compete — the formats are too fast and the removal options too efficient for a three-mana sorcery to see play.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.17 bulk tier
At $0.17, Prison Sentence is deep bulk — you'll find it in common boxes, not trade binders. There's no price floor to speak of; it won't gain value unless a Pauper meta shift suddenly rewards its specific combination of exile and tutor denial.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.