Vona's Hunger
Instant
Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
Each opponent sacrifices a creature of their choice. If you have the city's blessing, instead each opponent sacrifices half the creatures they control of their choice, rounded up.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Rivals of Ixalan Promos
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #3681
Vona's Hunger makes every opponent sacrifice half their board at instant speed — that's the headline. The catch is that the city's blessing clause, which upgrades the effect from one creature to half, requires ten permanents, so early casts are much weaker than late ones. In graveyard recursion shells like Toshiro Umezawa, the instant speed matters enormously, and you'll usually hit the city's blessing before you need it most.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa's ability to flash back instants from the graveyard whenever a creature an opponent controls dies turns Vona's Hunger into a cascading board wipe — each sacrifice triggers Toshiro, and each trigger can recast Vona's Hunger again.
Malik, Grim Manipulator
Malik, Grim Manipulator forces opponents to sacrifice creatures you've stolen or marked, and Vona's Hunger accelerates that sacrifice plan at instant speed, clearing the most dangerous half of every board simultaneously.
Vren, the Relentless
Vren, the Relentless generates a swarm of tokens that push you toward ten permanents faster than almost any other commander, meaning Vona's Hunger reliably hits the city's blessing threshold and wipes half of each opponent's board the moment it resolves.
Fumulus, the Infestation
Fumulus, the Infestation's proliferate and counter-stacking plan accumulates permanents quickly, and Vona's Hunger slots in as a catch-all answer that punishes opponents who develop faster than Fumulus can.
Vincent Valentine
Vincent Valentine transforms between forms that generate board presence, so reaching ten permanents is routine, and Vona's Hunger gives the deck a scalable mass-removal spell that doesn't require attacking to apply pressure.
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 |
Vona's Hunger is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's almost exclusively a Commander card. In competitive Constructed formats, three mana for a sorcery-speed conditional sacrifice effect that may only hit one creature is far below rate — there are simply better options. Commander is where Vona's Hunger earns its slot: four players means enough permanents in play that the city's blessing is trivially achieved by mid-game, and the instant speed turns it into a combat trick, a counterspell blowout, or a response to a tutored threat. In Oathbreaker it functions similarly but fires earlier given the smaller starting card pools and lower permanent counts.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Vona's Hunger isn't available in our current feed, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the most accurate number before buying. Historically it's been an affordable uncommon-range card, and at that price it's an easy pickup for any black Commander deck that can reliably hit the city's blessing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Toshiro Umezawa
- Malik, Grim Manipulator
- Vren, the Relentless
- Fumulus, the Infestation
- Vincent Valentine
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.