Underhanded Designs
Enchantment
Whenever an artifact you control enters, you may pay 
. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
, Sacrifice this enchantment: Destroy target creature. Activate only if you control two or more artifacts.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Kaladesh Remastered
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #15017
Underhanded Designs drains an opponent for one every time you play an artifact or enchantment, and pays two mana to machine-gun a creature when you've stacked enough of them — both modes on a two-mana enchantment that never rotates out of relevance in artifact-heavy shells. It's a payoff, not an enabler, so it earns its slot only if your deck already floods the board with noncreature permanents.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Underhanded Designs does its best work — artifact and enchantment synergy decks are everywhere, and the incremental life-drain compounds fast when you're deploying permanents every turn against three opponents. In competitive constructed formats like Modern and Legacy it's too slow and too conditional to crack serious lists, since dedicated artifact decks there want payoffs that close the game rather than chip away at life totals. Pioneer offers similar arithmetic: the effect is real but the speed of the format punishes two-mana enchantments that don't immediately swing tempo. Oathbreaker sits close enough to Commander that the same logic applies — lean into it if your planeswalker's game plan already involves artifact or enchantment flood.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Price data for Underhanded Designs isn't currently in the system, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for the current market rate. Given that it's a niche Commander payoff without a breakout competitive home, it tends to sit in bulk-to-dollar range — worth picking up cheaply if it fits your deck, but not a card to chase at a premium.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.