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Moxonomy

Psychic Venom

Enchantment — Aura1 generic manaBlue mana

A blue damage source built entirely around the opponent's agency, which is itself a strange thing for blue to be. The Aura sits on a land and waits, turning the enchanted player's own mana usage into a slow bleed: every tap is two damage, and that player is usually the one choosing when to take it. The mechanic is a punisher in the strict sense, collecting whenever the enchanted land taps and idle until it does. That framing has aged poorly as a tempo proposition (two mana to maybe deal two a turn is a rate the game outgrew within a few years), but the design itself is the interesting artifact: direct damage built around restraint, printed in a color that would soon retreat from burn almost entirely. The closest spiritual relatives are the lands-that-hurt-you effects (Manabarbs, Zo-Zu the Punisher, Ankh of Mishra), but those tax every land in play; this one taxes a single land, repeatedly, and only when used. It is the smallest, most surgical version of the punisher idea, and one of the few times blue was allowed to wear that hat at all.

Psychic Venom (leb)
LEB · #76common
Pricing
Normal: $8.43
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

Enchant land Whenever enchanted land becomes tapped, this Aura deals 2 damage to that land's controller.
Legalities

Format Status

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

Other printings

14 sets
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