Terminal Agony
Sorcery
Destroy target creature.
Madness 
(If you discard this card, discard it into exile. When you do, cast it for its madness cost or put it into your graveyard.)
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BR
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Breaking News
- Price
- $0.07
- EDHREC rank
- #7021
Terminal Agony kills a creature and strips a card from an opponent's hand — two meaningful effects stapled together at four mana. Outside of dedicated madness shells like Anje Falkenrath, that rate is too slow for Commander, but inside one it costs effectively two.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Anje Falkenrath
Terminal Agony is a perfect fit for Anje Falkenrath — it has madness, so Anje's discard ability lets you cast it for two mana while also untapping Anje to activate again, threading it directly into the engine.
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar
Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar's gameplan revolves around discarding cards to enable her tutor ability, and Terminal Agony's madness cost means discarding it to her trigger isn't card disadvantage — you cash it in at two mana for a removal spell and a discard.
Chainer, Nightmare Adept
Chainer, Nightmare Adept rewards you for discarding cards to enable his recursion loop, and Terminal Agony turns those discard outlets into a removal spell with a hand-disruption bonus at madness cost.
The Infamous Cruelclaw
The Infamous Cruelclaw punishes opponents for having cards in hand, making the forced discard on Terminal Agony a synergistic pressure piece rather than a marginal upside.
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 |
In Commander, Terminal Agony earns its slot almost exclusively in madness-matters decks — the four-mana baseline is too expensive to compete with Doom Blade effects, but the two-mana madness cost makes it legitimate removal with a discard rider attached. In Pauper, where the card pool is shallower and two-for-ones at common are genuinely scarce, it sees more consideration as a fair value spell. Legacy and Vintage have removal so efficient that Terminal Agony never enters the conversation. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander in practice — madness shell or skip it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.07 bulk tier
At $0.07, Terminal Agony is deep bulk — the kind of card you pick out of a dollar box rather than order. That price reflects its narrow playability, and there's no reason to expect it to move unless a future commander pushes madness into a more popular archetype.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.