With over 31 years of MTG cards to play with, the Commander format has some real hidden gems. One of the best things about the format is showing these cards off or completely disrupting your table with them. Thanks to modern support, a lot of once-forgotten cards can have some really unexpected potential.
MTG Avatar, in particular, has been particularly successful at empowering old and forgotten cards. Thanks to the new bending mechanics, plenty of once unplayable cards are now serious threats not to be underestimated. Aura Fracture, in particular, has been completely transformed by the Earthbending mechanic and deserves more attention as a result.
Aura Fracture Gets a New Home
First printed all the way back in Prophecy, Aura Fracture has yet to have a modern-day reprint. As such, it isn’t too surprising that the enchantment has been overlooked. On top of this, the card hasn’t been good for a long, long time, as its activation cost is far too steep. Now, however, the right support pieces have finally come along, and in the command zone, no less.
Thanks to Toph, the First Metalbender bursting onto the EDH scene, Aura Fracture has become a lot more appealing. For starters, all your nontoken artifacts being lands gives you tons of extra sacrifice fodder, which doesn’t cause you to fall behind. On top of this, you can even exploit death triggers, like those on Ichor Wellspring and Solemn Simulacrum, for additional upside.
As if that wasn’t good enough already, Toph’s Earthbending ability makes sacrificing lands significantly less burdensome. Any Earthbent lands you sacrifice will come right back to play, completely negating Aura Fracture’s downside. Not only does this dramatically improve the value exchange, but you can even use it to exploit powerful enters effects.
Notably, while Aura Fracture is now very easy to activate, especially alongside Toph, this card isn’t perfect. Since it can only hit enchantments, there’s no guarantee you’ll even need to be sacrificing lands regularly. That said, given the amount of elite and popular enchantments like Doubling Season in Commander, there should be some reliable targets.
Alternative Ways to Maximize Aura Fracture
Even though Aura Fracture takes a specific shell to utilize, other decks can make use of it besides just those with Toph in the Command Zone. Yuma, Proud Protector, for instance, is a solid card to pair with Aura Fracture since it rewards you for sacrificing your Deserts on command. On the other end, Hazezon, Shaper of Sand enables you to replay any lands you sacrifice. Once you add Azusa, Lost but Seeking, or any similar effect into the mix, you have a consistent engine that threatens to mow down your opponents’ enchantments in a jiffy.
If you want to dig deeper, pairing Aura Fracture with any mass land reanimation effect like Splendid Reclamation lets you generate tons of value with Landfall creatures. If you ever set up a window where you land Aura Fracture and Enchanted Evening at the same time, you’ll be able to destroy any problematic permanent your opponents stick.
Moving beyond traditional land-based decks, Aura Fracture has plenty of applications in Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher sacrifice strategies. Aura Fracture works to grow Carmen, which can then resurrect your lands when it attacks. Squall, SeeD Mercenary provides a similar upside, assuming you can keep connecting in combat. At the end of the day, Aura Fracture has more potential than may appear at first glance, so don’t sleep on it or you may end up on the wrong side of things.
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