Specter's Wail
Sorcery
Target player discards a card at random.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mercadian Masques
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #27791
Specter's Wail is a two-mana sorcery that forces an opponent to discard a card at random — clean, cheap, and permanently down a resource. It's a fine role-player in dedicated discard builds but a liability anywhere else, since random discard on your opponent's terms is the weakest form of hand disruption.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Specter's Wail earns its slot only in dedicated discard strategies — think Tinybones, Trinket Thief or Nekusar, the Mindrazer — where every discard trigger compounds. Outside that lane, a two-mana sorcery that randomly peels one card from one opponent's hand is too low-impact across a four-person table. In Pauper it's more viable, where commons-only card pools make cheap discard genuinely competitive and one-for-one attrition matters against linear aggro or combo. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient discard, so Specter's Wail doesn't make the cut there outside of budget or meme builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Specter's Wail is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not scarcity. There's no pressure to buy in now or hold copies; supply is high and demand is narrow enough that this price is effectively a floor.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.