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Temporal Extortion

Sorcery

When you cast this spell, any player may pay half their life, rounded up. If a player does, counter Temporal Extortion.
Take an extra turn after this one.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{B}{B}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Secret Lair Drop
Price
$16.58
EDHREC rank
#6805
Buy on TCGplayer
Temporal Extortion card art
Temporal Extortion resolves and you take an extra turn — full stop — unless an opponent pays half their life total to counter that outcome. The political leverage is real, but at four black mana and a double-black pip, this is a dedicated mono-black or near-mono-black card; Magar of the Magic Strings decks recur it from the graveyard as a meat counter, while Guile-style permission builds appreciate that opponents hating it off still burns their resources.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Magar of the Magic Strings

Magar of the Magic Strings

23.0% of decks · synergy 0.22

Magar of the Magic Strings turns Temporal Extortion into a reusable threat — copy it off a creature token, let opponents agonize over the life payment every single turn, and grind out card advantage from the graveyard loop.

03
Phage the Untouchable

Phage the Untouchable

14.0% of decks · synergy 0.12

Phage the Untouchable decks want to end games fast and often run extra-turn spells as redundant closers; Temporal Extortion doubles as a political tool that forces opponents to bleed life they can't afford when Phage is already on the board threatening a one-shot kill.

04
Maralen of the Mornsong

Maralen of the Mornsong

10.3% of decks · synergy 0.08

Maralen of the Mornsong locks opponents out of drawing cards, so the extra turn from Temporal Extortion is especially punishing — they can't refuel, and paying half their life to stop it only accelerates their demise.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Temporal Extortion does its best work: three opponents means the life-payment threat is genuinely credible since nobody wants to spot you half their 40 life, and the card slots naturally into mono-black extra-turn packages alongside Bolas's Citadel finishers. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but functionally unplayable — four mana for a conditional extra turn is catastrophically slow in those formats, and opponents will pay the life without flinching when their life total barely matters. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander 60-life format where Temporal Extortion could see niche use in a black control shell, though the competitive ceiling there is low. Stick to Commander.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Nothing does exactly what Temporal Extortion does — the forced-opponent-choice clause is unique — but Lighthouse Chronologist and Seedborn Muse offer pseudo-extra-turn value at lower price points if you just want more actions per cycle. If the appeal is purely the extra turn, plain black staples like Lethal Scheme or Peer into the Abyss provide raw card advantage without the political theater, though you lose the life-drain angle entirely.

Price Context

Current price

$16.58 mid tier

At $16.58, Temporal Extortion sits in mid-tier territory — expensive enough to feel in your budget, cheap enough that it's not a collection piece. It's a casual-staple price for a card with a narrow home, so it holds value steadily rather than climbing; buy it when you need it, don't hoard copies.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.