Worst Fears
Sorcery
You control target player during that player's next turn. Exile Worst Fears. (You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for them.)
- CMC
- 8
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Mystery Booster 2
- Price
- $1.62
- EDHREC rank
- #8452
Worst Fears gives you complete control of an opponent for a full turn — their hand, their mana, their attacks — and the only real cost is eight mana and the loss of your own turn's combat. That price is steep in fast metas, but in slower pods or decks that can cheat it into play, it's one of the most decisive single-card swing effects in Commander.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Magar of the Magic Strings
Magar of the Magic Strings converts Worst Fears into a reusable threat — Magar can exile it and imprint it onto a token, letting you pay three mana to cast a copy again and again rather than paying eight every time.
Zevlor, Elturel Exile
Zevlor, Elturel Exile can copy Worst Fears and redirect each copy to a different opponent, meaning a single cast can strip two or three players of their turns simultaneously — a game-ending play in multiplayer.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge can exile Worst Fears from the top of an opponent's library and cast it for free, turning a high-cost sorcery into a zero-mana coup whenever Jeleva connects.
Marvo, Deep Operative
Marvo, Deep Operative generates extra spells from the top of opponents' libraries when it deals combat damage, and Worst Fears is the single highest-impact hit it can flip — winning the game on the spot if it lands.
Hidetsugu and Kairi
When Hidetsugu and Kairi dies, it puts the top card of your library into play for free if it's a sorcery, making Worst Fears a top-of-deck setup target that converts a blocked or killed commander into an immediate extra turn effect on someone else's board.
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 Worst Fears does its best work — three opponents means the player you pilot almost certainly has the best available action on the board, and the political fallout of pointing one player's resources at another is a game-warping side effect that only multiplayer enables. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but irrelevant; eight mana at sorcery speed is unplayable in those formats. Modern and Pioneer are theoretically possible homes, but the same speed problem applies — there's no shell that wants a do-nothing eight-drop sorcery in a format where the game typically ends by turn four or five. Oathbreaker shares Commander's multiplayer texture, and the smaller starting life total and faster pace make it a marginal inclusion there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.62 cheap tier
At $1.62, Worst Fears is firmly in the budget tier for an effect this powerful — comparable mind-control effects at instant speed or with less restriction cost significantly more. The price has room to drift upward as more Magar of the Magic Strings and spell-copy commanders push demand, but right now it's a clear buy for what it does.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.