Punish the Enemy
Instant
Punish the Enemy deals 3 damage to target player or planeswalker and 3 damage to target creature.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Dragon's Maze
- Price
- $0.05
- EDHREC rank
- #26492
Punish the Enemy deals 3 damage to any target and 3 damage to any target — five mana for a split removal spell that can tag a creature and a planeswalker simultaneously, or go face on two different players in Commander. The rate is unambiguously bad; five mana for six total damage at sorcery speed is a card Lightning Bolt laughs at, and virtually every format has cheaper, more flexible options.
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 |
Punish the Enemy is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but being legal is not the same as being playable. In Pauper it competes with Firebolt, Lightning Bolt, and a dozen other commons that do more for less, so it doesn't make cuts there either. Commander is the only format where the split-damage clause has any novelty — hitting a creature on one side of the table and a planeswalker on another in a single spell — but five mana at sorcery speed is still a steep ask when Chaos Warp and Feed the Swarm exist. Punish the Enemy is a bulk common in every format that happens to be legal in, not a sleeper.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.05 bulk tier
At $0.05, Punish the Enemy sits firmly in bulk territory, and that price is a ceiling, not a floor — demand is essentially nonexistent. No spike scenario moves this card; it is filler in draft chaff boxes.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.