Ruinous Ultimatum is a seven-mana sorcery that ends games outright: it wipes every nonland permanent your opponents control while leaving your own board completely untouched.
Printed across six different Magic products since its 2020 debut, it has become one of the most recognizable finishers in Commander and a recurring target for collectors chasing its increasingly premium reprints.
This guide covers the card's exact rules text, why its Mardu color identity demands three colors and seven mana, and the design context behind Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths' five-card Ultimatum cycle.
It also breaks down every printing released so far, what each one currently costs, and where the card is legal to play.
The Oracle text is one line: "Destroy all nonland permanents your opponents control." Nothing else on the card needs explaining, which is exactly the point of the design.
Unlike a symmetrical board wipe like Wrath of God, Ruinous Ultimatum only touches your opponents' side of the table. Your creatures, artifacts, and enchantments survive, turning a seven-mana sorcery into a one-card win condition in multiplayer Commander games.
Ruinous Ultimatum costs {R}{R}{W}{W}{W}{B}{B}, putting it squarely in Mardu colors: red, white, and black. The heavy white commitment, three pips, is the card's real design lever, since a one-sided wipe this powerful needed a mana cost that punishes a greedy, unfocused manabase.
Seven mana and three colors is a real barrier in constructed formats, which is why the card sees far more play in Commander, where 40-life multiplayer games and dedicated Mardu manabases make the cost easier to hit. That same cost is trivial to justify once the card actually resolves and clears the board.
Ruinous Ultimatum was one of five wedge-colored Ultimatums printed together in Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths (2020), a set better known for its companion mechanic and giant monster creatures. Each Ultimatum paired a three-color wedge with a splashy, game-ending effect built around that wedge's color-pie strengths.
Mardu got removal on a massive scale, fitting the wedge's aggressive, destructive identity. The other four wedges, Sultai, Abzan, Temur, and Jeskai, each received their own signature effect, covered in EVORETRO's companion guide to the full cycle.
Ruinous Ultimatum debuted in Ikoria (2020) and has been reprinted five more times since: Universes Beyond: Fallout (2024) in both a regular frame and an Extended Art treatment, Magic: The Gathering, FINAL FANTASY Commander (2025), a borderless Special Guests card released alongside Tarkir: Dragonstorm (2025), and most recently Secret Lair Drop: Purr Majesty (June 2026).
A seventh, non-tournament-legal version also exists as a Final Fantasy Art Series alternate-art collectible, illustrated by Tran Nguyen rather than the card's original artist, Chase Stone.
As of this writing, the original Ikoria nonfoil sits around 3 US dollars, while the Fallout regular printing runs roughly 2 to 3 dollars and its Extended Art variant commands closer to 3.50 to 4.50 dollars in foil. The Final Fantasy Commander printing is the cheapest entry point at well under 2 dollars nonfoil, with its surge foil reaching close to 5 dollars.
The Special Guests borderless version from Tarkir: Dragonstorm trades around 14 dollars nonfoil and over 20 dollars in foil, and the new Secret Lair Purr Majesty single currently sits in the mid-teens for nonfoil and around 18 dollars for foil, prices that tend to settle further as a Secret Lair ages past its release window.
Ruinous Ultimatum is legal in Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Pioneer, Explorer, Modern, Legacy, and Commander, essentially every nonrotating constructed format plus MTG Arena's eternal formats. It is not legal in Standard, since Ikoria has long since rotated out.
Commander is where the card sees the most real play by far, thanks to the format's higher life totals, multiplayer politics, and tolerance for a build-around seven-mana bomb.
Which printing to buy comes down to intent: the Final Fantasy Commander or Fallout regular printings are the cheapest playable copies for a Commander deck, while the Special Guests borderless and Secret Lair Purr Majesty versions are the ones collectors chase for display value.
Any of the foil or borderless versions benefit from a snug glare-free matte card sleeve before they go anywhere near a sleeved deck or a binder page, since premium finishes scratch and bend more easily than a standard nonfoil card.
It destroys all nonland permanents your opponents control while leaving your own permanents untouched.
Mardu, red, white, and black, with a heavy triple-white commitment.
No, it is not legal in Standard since Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths has rotated out.
Six tournament-legal printings exist, plus a non-legal Final Fantasy Art Series alternate-art card.
The Magic: The Gathering, FINAL FANTASY Commander printing is currently the least expensive nonfoil copy.
Whichever printing you land on, a seven-mana board wipe deserves a deck built around actually casting it on curve, and a collection built to protect it once it is not in your hand. EVORETRO's 9-pocket card binder keeps every version of this card, foil or not, organized and crease-free between games.
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