Tainted Strike
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains infect until end of turn. (It deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Scars of Mirrodin
- Price
- $3.46
- EDHREC rank
- #2302
Tainted Strike turns any creature with a big power boost into a one-shot kill — one black mana, at instant speed, ending the game before damage resolves. It's at its most broken in wheels-and-infect shells where Windfall dumps a hand's worth of cards and Zenos yae Galvus converts that into ten poison counters across the table.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zenos yae Galvus
Zenos yae Galvus draws cards equal to the most cards an opponent drew that turn, which stacks into massive power — Tainted Strike converts that power spike into a lethal infect swing before the turn ends.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon already has infect and haste, so Tainted Strike is largely redundant as a standalone — its real job here is to give infect to a pumped token or a Voltron attacker when Skithiryx is offline, extending the lethal threat count.
Ramses, Assassin Lord
Ramses, Assassin Lord wins the game outright when an opponent loses life from a creature he controls dealing combat damage — Tainted Strike staples infect onto any attacker, threatening to convert a single unblocked hit into a poison-counter kill and triggering Ramses's win condition in the same combat.
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa
Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa proliferates on attack, so the deck is already grinding poison counters — Tainted Strike accelerates that clock by converting one large hit into a near-lethal or lethal poison burst that proliferate can close out the same turn.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan grows huge and demands blocks, which means any open lane is a one-hit kill waiting to happen — Tainted Strike gives that lane a poison counter close that bypasses life total entirely.
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 |
Tainted Strike is a Commander card first and foremost: the multiplayer table is full of creatures with inflated power, wheels that pump stats, and Voltron commanders that reach ten in one swing. In Legacy and Vintage it sees fringe play in infect shells as a combat trick, but dedicated infect strategies there run more consistent pump and rarely need the effect. Pauper infect is aggressive enough that Tainted Strike competes with mainboard pump spells and usually loses that slot to something that also adds power. Outside Commander, treat it as a niche sideboard consideration at best — inside Commander, it's a one-mana threat that ends games.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
WindfallTainted StrikeNekusar, the Mindrazer
Each opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
WindfallTainted StrikeRazorkin Needlehead
Each opponent loses the game
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Price Context
Current price
$3.46 cheap tier
At $3.46, Tainted Strike sits in the cheap tier for a card that closes out Commander games at instant speed, and the price is justified by demand across infect, wheels, and Voltron strategies. It's a staple in enough archetypes that the price is unlikely to drop significantly, making it an easy inclusion for the effect.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.