Withering Curse
Sorcery
All creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
Infusion — If you gained life this turn, destroy all creatures instead.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven
- Price
- $5.11
- EDHREC rank
- #14778
Withering Curse drains an opponent for 1 each upkeep and gains you 1 life — a slow bleed that compounds hard in life-total-matters builds. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic decks run it because every point of life gained triggers additional payoffs, turning a two-mana enchantment into a repeating engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic gains life on every player's upkeep regardless of whether Oloro is on the battlefield, so Withering Curse stacks directly on top of that passive — each of your upkeeps you're gaining from both sources simultaneously, feeding Soul Warden chains and Aetherflux Reservoir counts before a single attack is declared.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Withering Curse sees essentially no play outside Commander — in older eternal formats like Legacy and Vintage, two mana for a slow drain enchantment doesn't compete with the speed of the format's threats and answers. In Modern and Pioneer the same logic applies; two life per turn cycle doesn't close games before you die. Commander is where Withering Curse earns its slot: 40-life totals give the drain time to matter, multiplayer tables mean you're pulling 1 from each opponent per turn if you stack multiples, and life-gain synergy commanders amplify every point. Even in Commander it's a roleplayer, not a staple — the ceiling is high in the right shell, the floor is a slow enchantment that does nothing the turn it lands.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Exquisite Blood covers similar life-drain territory and goes infinite with Sanguine Bond, though it costs significantly more. If the goal is cheap repeating drain, Retreat to Hagra and Curse of Fool's Wisdom offer comparable incremental pressure at under a dollar each — neither triggers off life gain the way Withering Curse does in an Oloro shell, but they trade that upside for either ETB flexibility or card disadvantage punishment.
Price Context
Current price
$5.11 mid tier
At $5.11, Withering Curse sits in mid-tier pricing for a card with a narrow, deck-specific role — you're paying a small premium because it's a named Curse with direct synergy in a popular archetype. It's a fair price for what it does in the right deck, but don't buy it speculatively; its value is entirely contingent on building around life-gain payoffs.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.