One thing that Wizards has undeniably improved over Magic’s 33-year lifespan is the readability of cards. Cards printed these days use clear, consistent wording, with little room for confusion for the most part. Back in the day, however, it was a different story, as we got cards like Chains of Mephistopheles. Even to this day, MTG players lament needing a flow chart to follow this card, but it’s well worth taking the time to figure it out.
Chains Of Mephistopheles MTG
If the effect on Chains on Mephistopheles is confusing to you, you’re not alone. MTG players have been struggling to fully grasp this card for years. As recently as yesterday, TheMidnightMana put out a video poking fun at its unintuitive wording, alongside other confusing classics like Dead Ringers and Ambiguity.
The funny thing here is that, once you get past its strange wording, Chains of Mephistopheles is actually a pretty simple card. While it’s in play, any player who draws, outside of their normal draw phase, has to discard a card first. If they can’t, they don’t get to draw a card at all, and instead mill a card.
What this means is that Chains of Mephistopheles is an incredible piece for locking down card advantage. The only downside is that Chains of Mephistopheles is a symmetrical effect, but there are ways to break this synergy. Cards like Teferi’s Ageless Insight and Underrealm Lich, for instance, get around this damning downside by using replacement effects. This allows you to ignore Chains’ replacement effect and generate card advantage as normal, while your opponents sit there and suffer.
Another great option to break parity here is to run Chains of Mephistopheles in a deck that can benefit from the forced discard it offers. Reanimator decks, like Karador, Ghost Chieftain, love having an easy outlet for pitching creatures to bring back later. Similarly, decks that rely on discarding cards to function, like Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer, can still gain advantage with Chains in play.
Curious Combo Chains
On top of its general applications, Chains of Mephistopheles also opens the door to some spicy combos in MTG Commander. The bulk of these rely on the infamous Dredge mechanic, which synergizes perfectly with Chains’ effect. If you would draw with a Dredger in your hand, you can discard it to Chains instead, then replace the draw afterwards with a Dredge, putting it back in your hand.
Thanks to this synergy, Chains of Mephistopheles can go infinite with The Gitrog Monster and Dakmor Salvage. When discarding Dakmor, The Gitrog Monster adds another draw effect into the equation, giving you another discard effect to use on Dakmor once Dredged up. This, in turn, creates an infinite loop, allowing you to mill your entire deck for a Laboratory Maniac or Thassa’s Oracle win.
Highly Exclusive
While it’s clearly a very powerful card, Chains of Mephistopheles actually barely sees any play in MTG Commander. According to EDHREC data, in fact, only 8,000 decks run it in total. This is due to the card’s massive current price tag, which sits right around $1,000.
Unfortunately, as a Reserved List card that sees surprisingly decent play, Chains of Mephistopheles won’t be getting cheaper anytime soon. While this does make the card a tough sell in Commander, it’s hard to deny the card’s potential. Not only can you disrupt your opponents and win out of nowhere, but there’s a good chance you’ll seriously confuse them, too, as an added bonus.
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