Price$3.78 – $4.13
Buy on TCGplayerWithering Torment
Instant
LegalRemovalRank #299
Destroy target creature or enchantment. You lose 2 life.
Why is this card good?
Withering Torment is premium black removal, and the kind of card that should be near-auto-include in most black decks.
The reason is simple: black's biggest historical weakness is enchantment removal, and this single card covers both creatures and enchantments at instant speed for just three mana. That flexibility is enormous in a format full of problematic enchantments — Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, Ghostly Prison, Sanguine Bond combos, and oppressive stax pieces. Most of black's other removal can't touch those.
The 2 life loss is utterly negligible in a 40-life format, especially when you're answering something that would otherwise snowball the game.
Who wants it: essentially every black deck that isn't hyper-focused on lifeloss synergies or running a razor-thin curve. Control, midrange, aristocrats, reanimator — all happy to run it.
When to skip: if you're already overloaded on removal, or in a dedicated life-as-resource deck where the 2 life genuinely matters. Otherwise, it's a clean, splashable answer to threats black usually struggles with.
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Printings (2)
Rulings (1)
- 2024-09-20
If the target creature or enchantment is an illegal target as Withering Torment tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won't lose life.