Descent into Madness
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Magic: The Gathering
Mana cost
Avacyn RestoredAVR · #97
- Card type
- Enchantment
- Rarity
- Mythic rare
- Indicative price
- 0.53 € · ★ 2.02 € · 0.35 $ · ★ 1.77 $
- Mana value
- 5
- Colour
- Black
Card text
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a despair counter on this enchantment, then each player exiles X permanents they control and/or cards from their hand, where X is the number of despair counters on this enchantment.
Format legality
- CommanderLegal
- DuelLegal
- LegacyLegal
- ModernLegal
- OathbreakerLegal
- PennyLegal
- VintageLegal
Legalities follow the imported catalogue; check format rules before a tournament.
Data imported on 2026-10-06 (UTC).
Indicative Scryfall prices, updated daily. ★: foil; ★ E: etched foil. EUR and USD represent different markets.
Printing information
- Illustrator
- Anthony Francisco
- Card language
- English
- Release date
- 2012-05-04
Flavour text
The stairs lead down in both directions.
Rulings
First you choose the permanents and/or cards from your hand that will be exiled. Then each other player in turn order does the same. Then all the chosen permanents and cards are exiled simultaneously. Players who choose after you will know what permanents you’ll be exiling when they choose. They’ll know how many cards you’ll be exiling from your hand, but they won’t see those cards.
For each despair counter on Descent into Madness, you’ll exile a permanent you control or exile a card from your hand, not both.
If Descent into Madness isn’t on the battlefield when its ability resolves, use the number of counters on it when it left the battlefield to determine how many permanents and/or cards from hands to exile.
If there are more counters on Descent into Madness than the total number of permanents you control plus the number of cards in your hand, you’ll exile all permanents you control (including Descent into Madness) and all cards from your hand.