Sever Soul
Sorcery
Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated. You gain life equal to its toughness.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mercadian Masques
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #26255
Sever Soul destroys a nonblack creature and puts it into your graveyard — meaning you gain life equal to its toughness, which is the actual reason to run it. Five mana is steep for targeted removal, but against a table full of value creatures like Outrider en-Kor, the life swing can be meaningful enough to justify the slot in the right deck.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sever Soul is a bulk common that sees essentially no play outside of Commander and Pauper, and even there it's a niche inclusion. In Commander, five mana for a single-target removal spell has to do something exceptional to earn a slot, and the life gain clause gets there only in dedicated life-matters builds — otherwise you're paying two mana more than Doom Blade for an effect that doesn't hit black creatures. In Pauper, the format's tight mana curves make five-mana removal nearly unplayable. Legacy and Vintage have it legal but will never touch it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Sever Soul is deep bulk — the kind of card that shows up in bulk bins and precon filler. That price is stable because demand is essentially zero outside of casual life-gain brews, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.