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Moxonomy

Chandra's Defeat

InstantRed mana

The cleanest specimen of the color-hoser-as-flavor-piece: a one-mana instant that delivers five damage but only to red. The whole design is a narrowing in exchange for a rate that would be absurd if it answered anything. Five damage at instant speed for a single mana kills nearly any creature in red's weight class and chunks most red planeswalkers well below their starting loyalty, but the spell does literally nothing against the other four colors. That restriction is the entire bargain, and it makes the card a sideboard answer dressed up as a story beat. The Chandra rider is where the flavor does its work: the planeswalker who appears most often in red gets a named killer that pays you for connecting with her specifically. When the spell does its primary job (resolving against a Chandra), you get a small loot on top, discarding a card to draw a fresh one as a thematic bonus for landing the kill you came for. It belongs to a cycle of cheap, mono-targeted "Defeat" instants built to punish a single color while leaning on a marquee character's name, and among them it carries the most generous damage figure, because the red creatures and red planeswalkers it hunts tend to bring more toughness and loyalty to chew through than the targets the other Defeats face.

Chandra's Defeat (hou)
HOU · #86uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.21
Foil: $0.74
Oracle Text

Rules text

Chandra's Defeat deals 5 damage to target red creature or red planeswalker. If that permanent is a Chandra planeswalker, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
Legal
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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