The Lord of Pain
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
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What it does
Menace
Your opponents can't gain life.
Whenever a player casts their first spell each turn, choose another target player. The Lord of Pain deals damage equal to that spell's mana value to the chosen player.
Rulings
4 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2024-09-20
The Lord of Pain's last ability must target a player other than the one who cast the spell that caused the ability to trigger. That means that if it's just you and one other player in the game, you'll have to target yourself when that player casts their first spell each turn. (What did you expect? You summoned The Lord of Pain!)
- 2024-09-20
If a spell has X in its mana cost, use the value chosen for X when determining that spell's mana value.
- 2024-09-20
Spells and abilities that cause opponents to gain life still resolve while The Lord of Pain is on the battlefield. They won't gain life, but any other effects of that spell or ability will still happen.
- 2024-09-20
If an effect says to set an opponent's life total to a number that's higher than their current life total, that player's life total won't change.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
As a commander
Decks built with The Lord of Pain in the command zone.
In the 99
Every deck whose current list includes The Lord of Pain, whatever its commander.
Most played under
| Commander | Decks | Games | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls | 1 | 0 | — |
Colors it shows up in
- Rakdos 1 deck
Every version of The Lord of Pain
1 printing, 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.
Inverted
Duskmourn: House of Horror Commander
- Normal
- $9.94
- Foil
- $10.56
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for The Lord of Pain — 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.