Vicious Rumors
Sorcery
Vicious Rumors deals 1 damage to each opponent. Each opponent discards a card, then mills a card. You gain 1 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Guilds of Ravnica
- Price
- $0.36
- EDHREC rank
- #4264
Vicious Rumors hits every opponent for one damage, forces a discard, and mills a card — all for a single black mana at sorcery speed. In a four-player pod that's three triggers for Tinybones, Trinket Thief at the cost of one mana, which is an absurd rate for what is technically a bulk common.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tinybones, Trinket Thief
Tinybones, Trinket Thief draws a card whenever an opponent discards, so Vicious Rumors is effectively a one-mana draw-one that also pings and mills — it's the most efficient spell in the deck.
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar cares about opponents losing cards from hand and casting spells from exile, and Vicious Rumors checks the discard box cheaply enough to run as a full four-of equivalent in singleton.
Tinybones, the Pickpocket
Tinybones, the Pickpocket rewards keeping opponents hellbent, and Vicious Rumors is one of the cheapest ways to chip away at hand sizes across the table every turn cycle.
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal generates Bat tokens whenever opponents discard on their turns, and Vicious Rumors triggers that engine on your turn for just one mana.
Belbe, Corrupted Observer
Belbe, Corrupted Observer produces colorless mana whenever opponents lose life, and Vicious Rumors pings all three opponents simultaneously — a single spell can net three Belbe triggers before anything else happens.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Vicious Rumors is a Commander card through and through — the effect scales with the number of opponents, and in a four-player game it delivers three times the value of any one-on-one application. In Pauper it sees fringe play in discard-themed shells, but sorcery speed is a real liability when the format rewards instant-speed interaction. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's simply too slow and too low-impact against opponents with full hands and permission mana up. Commander is where Vicious Rumors earns its slot, specifically in mono-black discard commanders where even marginal hand disruption has multiplicative payoffs.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.36 bulk tier
At $0.36, Vicious Rumors is firmly bulk — you're paying for cardboard and shipping, not the card itself. The price is stable because demand is narrow and supply is deep, so don't expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Tinybones, Trinket Thief
- Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
- Tinybones, the Pickpocket
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
- Belbe, Corrupted Observer
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.