Prisoner's Dilemma
Sorcery
Each opponent secretly chooses silence or snitch, then the choices are revealed. If each opponent chose silence, Prisoner's Dilemma deals 4 damage to each of them. If each opponent chose snitch, Prisoner's Dilemma deals 8 damage to each of them. Otherwise, Prisoner's Dilemma deals 12 damage to each opponent who chose silence.
Flashback 
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Murders at Karlov Manor Commander
- Price
- $5.62
- EDHREC rank
- #3380
Prisoner's Dilemma forces every opponent to either deal 2 damage to themselves or sacrifice a creature — every turn, at instant speed, with no mana investment after it resolves. It's the engine Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser was built around, and in any red enchantment-matters shell it pulls its weight far above its four-mana cost.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser punishes opponents for attacking anyone but you, and Prisoner's Dilemma compounds that pressure by taxing every upkeep — players who are already bleeding life to avoid combat are now bleeding resources to keep their board intact.
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
Solphim, Mayhem Dominus doubles noncombat damage to opponents, which turns the 2-damage option on Prisoner's Dilemma into 4 per player who won't sacrifice — that math compounds fast across a four-player table.
The Lord of Pain
The Lord of Pain triggers whenever an opponent loses life, so Prisoner's Dilemma effectively becomes a repeating ping engine that feeds the commander's own damage output every turn cycle.
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician cares about chaos and randomness effects, and Prisoner's Dilemma's forced binary choice qualifies — running it here lets you stack mandatory triggers that keep opponents perpetually off-balance.
Norin the Wary
Norin the Wary decks win by accumulating small damage ticks across many triggers, and Prisoner's Dilemma slots in as a reliable, recurring source of that damage that requires zero attack steps to generate.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Prisoner's Dilemma does its best work — three opponents means the forced choice applies three times per round, and the cumulative pressure of sacrifice-or-bleed is exactly the kind of repeating effect that warps a table over a long game. In Vintage and Legacy it's technically legal but sees no meaningful play; competitive decks in those formats end the game before an enchantment this slow has time to generate value. Oathbreaker is the one other format where it's worth considering, since the lower life totals make the 2-damage clause bite faster.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Vicious Shadows and Trespasser's Curse apply similar drip-damage pressure at a lower price point, though neither replicates the sacrifice clause that gives Prisoner's Dilemma its teeth against indestructible threats. If the goal is purely repeated life loss without the removal angle, Manabarbs and Sulfuric Vortex cost under a dollar and punish passive players just as efficiently.
Price Context
Current price
$5.62 mid tier
At $5.62, Prisoner's Dilemma sits in the mid tier — expensive enough that it's a deliberate include, cheap enough that it's not a budget barrier for the decks that genuinely want it. Given its narrow home in politics-and-pain builds, that price is fair and unlikely to climb unless a new commander pushes the archetype into the mainstream.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.