Painful Quandary
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
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What it does
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, that player loses 5 life unless they discard a card.
Rulings
2 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2011-01-01
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, Painful Quandary's ability triggers and goes on the stack on top of it. It will resolve before the spell does.
- 2022-10-14
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, Painful Quandary's ability triggers and goes on the stack on top of it. It will resolve before the spell does.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
In the 99
Every deck whose current list includes Painful Quandary, whatever its commander.
Most played under
| Commander | Decks | Games | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marina Vendrell | 1 | 1 | — |
| The Lord of Pain | 1 | 0 | — |
| Tinybones, Trinket Thief | 1 | 0 | — |
| Y'shtola, Night's Blessed | 1 | 0 | — |
Colors it shows up in
- Mono-Black 1 deck
- Rakdos 1 deck
- Esper 1 deck
- Five-Color 1 deck
Every version of Painful Quandary
7 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.
- Normal
- $2.00
- Foil
- $1.82
Promo
Foundations Promos
- Foil
- $2.11
- Normal
- $2.27
- Foil
- $1.63
Promo
The Brothers' War Promos
- Normal
- $2.41
- Foil
- $2.54
Promo
The Brothers' War Promos
- Foil
- $3.25
Extended Art
- Normal
- $3.94
- Foil
- $6.45
Scars of Mirrodin
- Normal
- $2.76
- Foil
- $20.26
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Painful Quandary — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.
Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.