Unholy Strength
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+1.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Foreign Black Border
- Price
- $3.99
- EDHREC rank
- #19004
Unholy Strength gives a creature +2/+1 for one black mana — a fine rate on paper, but aura vulnerability means you're down a card the moment your opponent points any removal at the target. It's a relic of early Magic design that rarely earns a slot in any competitive or tuned list today.
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 |
Unholy Strength is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but legality and playability are different things. In Commander, a one-shot +2/+1 buff on a single creature does almost nothing at a 100-card, four-player table where board states spiral fast. Pauper is its most credible home — aggressive mono-black lists can squeeze value from cheap pump — but even there, better auras and equipment exist. In Legacy and Vintage, the card simply doesn't compete.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.99 cheap tier
At $3.99, Unholy Strength sits in a price tier that makes no sense for what it does — that premium is purely collector-driven nostalgia for an Alpha/Beta printing, not gameplay demand. Don't buy it to play; buy it if you're completing a vintage set.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.