Sorin the Mirthless
Legendary Planeswalker — Sorin
+1: Look at the top card of your library. You may reveal that card and put it into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to its mana value.
−2: Create a 2/3 black Vampire creature token with flying and lifelink.
−7: Sorin deals 13 damage to any target. You gain 13 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Innistrad: Crimson Vow
- Price
- $2.30
- EDHREC rank
- #7657
Sorin the Mirthless enters at four mana, immediately draws a card (potentially at the cost of life), and threatens a 2/3 flying lifelink token on the following turn — that's a lot of board presence for a mid-range planeswalker. The ceiling is real, especially alongside Tree of Perdition or in a Carth the Lion shell that milks every loyalty counter, but the self-damage clause on the plus means you need a life cushion to use him comfortably.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Carth the Lion
Carth the Lion's passive adds an extra loyalty counter to every activation, which means Sorin the Mirthless reaches his ultimate in two ticks instead of three — that's the whole reason 30% of Carth decks run him.
Sorin of House Markov
Sorin of House Markov builds a vampire-tribal shell that wants every Sorin in the pool, and Sorin the Mirthless slots in cleanly as a card-advantage engine that also produces a flying lifelink body to protect the commander.
Olivia, Crimson Bride
Olivia, Crimson Bride wants a wide, aggressive vampire board, and Sorin the Mirthless supplies both a 2/3 flying lifelink blocker and card selection to keep the pressure consistent through the mid-game.
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose converts every point of lifelink into drain damage, so the flying lifelink tokens Sorin the Mirthless generates aren't just blockers — each combat trigger becomes a Drain Life attached to your planeswalker.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Sorin the Mirthless is a solid role-player rather than a format staple — he provides card draw, incidental life gain, and a recurring threat, but four mana for a planeswalker without an immediately game-warping effect means he earns his slot in life-gain or vampire tribal builds rather than generic black goodstuff piles. In Pioneer and Modern, he's fringe at best; four-mana planeswalkers compete against a dense field and Sorin the Mirthless doesn't close games fast enough to justify the slot in those formats' faster metas. Legacy and Vintage can cast him but have no reason to — the power ceiling is simply too low for those environments. Oathbreaker is where he's most interesting as a commander-in-chief, since his minus builds a token army and his ultimate can single-handedly swing a low-life-total format.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Sorin the MirthlessTree of PerditionDoubling Season
Target opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Sorin the MirthlessTree of PerditionVorinclex, Monstrous Raider
Target opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$2.30 cheap tier
At $2.30, Sorin the Mirthless is firmly budget — you're getting a mythic planeswalker for less than a draft pick, which reflects his narrow application rather than any flaw in the card's design. That price is unlikely to move much without a new tribal or planeswalker-loyalty synergy pushing him into a higher-volume build.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.