Magic: The Gathering - Why Is Yawgmoth's Bargain Banned?

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• What Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain?

• Why Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain So Powerful?

• What Formats Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain Banned In?

There are very few cards in Magic: The Gathering as widely banned as Yawgmoth’s Bargain. The name alone makes veteran players shudder, with nightmares of combo decks against opponents they’d rather never see again.

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But what exactly is Yawgmoth’s Bargain, and why is it such a controversial card? And can you play it any formats?

What Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain?

Yawgmoth’s Bargain is an enchantment that was first printed in Urza’s Destiny, a block of sets known for its utterly busted card designs. Urza’s Destiny gave us cards that still see play today, like Thran Dynami, Urza’s Incubator, Bubbling Muck, and Junk Diver, but Yawgmoth’s Bargain is perhaps its most controversial.

With Yawgmoth’s Bargain out, you skip your draw step without drawing any cards. But, in return, you get to pay one life whenever you like to draw a card. It’s a reworked, stronger version of a popular card called Necropotence, which does similar things, but doesn’t put the cards into your hand until your next end step.

Yawgmoth’s Bargain does cost a lot more than Necropotence, but the strength of putting cards into your hand for just one life means even at six mana it’s not at all balanced for its cost.

Why Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain So Powerful?

Like Necropotence, Yawgmoth’s Bargain was used in a lot of combo decks that rely on you having a low life total to win the game. When it was a legal card in Standard, it would be used alongside cards like Dark Ritual, Academy Rector, and Vampiric Tutor to guarantee it came out as soon as possible.

Just take a look at Ad Nuseam and Necropotence decks to see what Yawgmoth’s Bargain could do even more efficiently.

Dark Ritual is the big problem with Bargain decks, as it gives you the mana needed to play Yawgmoth’s Bargain well ahead of time. And if you can get it out soon enough, you can pay most of your life to draw a huge amount of cards and combo for a win. By using Skirge Familiar, you’ve got a flock of fliers to beat your opponent down, and with Yawgmoth’s Bargain you have the cards to discard and make mana to cast even more with.

As veteran players know, your life total is a resource. One life is just as in the game as 20, and when you have a third of your deck in your hand and the mana to pay for it, you’re likely going to win that turn anyway.

This is especially true in Commander, where you start out with 40 life instead of 20. Cheat in Yawgmoth’s Bargain and pay 36 life (just enough to keep you out of range of a Lightning Bolt), and you have a huge amount of your deck in your hand straight away.

What Formats Is Yawgmoth’s Bargain Banned In?

Fortunately, as Yawgmoth’s Bargain is such an old card, it’s never been legal in Modern or Pioneer. However, it has been banned from two of the big three eternal formats, Legacy and Commander, with Commander spinoff Oathbreaker also following suit.

This means that the only official, Wizards-sanctioned format Yawgmoth’s Bargain is legal in is Vintage. A format known for its small banlist and powerful cards, there’s enough interaction available to the format that Yawgmoth’s Bargain isn’t quite as scary as it is elsewhere.

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