Touch of Death
Sorcery
Touch of Death deals 1 damage to target player or planeswalker. You gain 1 life.
Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Fifth Edition
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #27674
Touch of Death costs three mana to drain one life and rummage once — a rate so low that almost every black deck has better options at that slot. Outside of narrow life-loss-matters or discard-synergy builds, it doesn't make the cut.
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 |
Touch of Death is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but the formats where it's actually worth a slot are few. In Commander, the one-life drain and single discard are too small to matter at a 100-card, four-player table unless you're running a dedicated aristocrats or hellbent shell that rewards every life-loss trigger. Pauper is the most plausible home — common-only pools compress the competition, and a repeatable discard outlet or drain piece can matter more there — but even so, Touch of Death competes with more efficient commons. Legacy and Vintage have access to so many broken black cards that this never sees play.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Touch of Death is deep bulk — buy it without thinking if a specific synergy calls for it. That price is stable simply because demand is low, not because it's a hidden gem.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.