Royal Decree
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep 
(At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
Whenever a Swamp, Mountain, black permanent, or red permanent becomes tapped, this enchantment deals 1 damage to that permanent's controller.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Alliances
- Price
- $0.68
- EDHREC rank
- #25248
Royal Decree taxes every black and red permanent on the board — creatures, enchantments, artifacts — draining each opponent one life per upkeep for each one they control. It costs four mana in a mono-white shell, which is a real ask, but a resolved Decree in the right meta is a clock that wins games without swinging a single creature.
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 Royal Decree earns its keep: artifact-heavy and black-red-heavy tables are endemic to the format, and a single Decree can drain multiple opponents simultaneously while discouraging them from developing their boards. Legacy and Vintage are legal homes but irrelevant in practice — the enchantment is far too slow for those formats and sees no meaningful play there. Oathbreaker is legal and could support a white taxation build, but the smaller life totals and faster pace make the payoff narrower.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.68 bulk tier
At $0.68, Royal Decree sits firmly in bulk territory — it's a cheap pickup for white taxation builds with no financial risk. Bulk enchantments with niche-but-real Commander applications tend to stay flat, so don't expect the price to move unless a notable deck puts it on camera.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.