Magic: The Gathering is an incredibly expensive trading card game. If you want to play Modern, one of the game’s biggest formats, you need to be prepared to throw down around $1000 on the table just to play. Legacy is much worse, requiring double to triple that upfront investment.
If you want to play with the best MTG cards in Commander, the price of your deck will exceed even these numbers. That said, there are a lot of very powerful MTG cards that are relatively cheap. All you need to do is know how to find them.
Right now, for whatever reason, multiple free MTG spells, some of the most potent types of cards in the game, are going for under $2. Most of the Flare cycle in Modern Horizons 3 is dirt cheap right now. If you want to power up your Commander deck on a budget, read on.
Flare of Malice
Wait, there’s a free MTG spell that’s under $2? For whatever reason, Flare of Malice is incredibly cheap. The card isn’t really seeing any constructed play, which is a big part of it. Considering that this card is a free spell in Commander, however, I’m surprised it isn’t going for a little more.
Any Commander that has non-token black creatures they don’t mind sacrificing may want to consider this. Flare of Malice is an incredibly powerful tool in any deck that can pay its alternate cost. Even for four mana, the card is impressive.
The key is that Flare of Malice forces every opponent to lose something, not just one. This strength doesn’t come up in 1v1 Magic, but it’s undoubtedly significant in Commander. Instead of removing one massive threat, you get to remove three. For four mana, that’s already good, but having the option to deploy it for free in an emergency makes it that much better. Flare of Malice being a sub $2 card is absolutely criminal. Try it for yourself.
Flare of Duplication
Once upon a time cEDH players were singing the praises of Flare of Duplication. There’s a good chance that this card is still very good in that format. Being able to copy an instant or sorcery for zero mana can overturn a counterspell war in your favor. You need to be able to pay for its alternate cost, however.
People love to play big cards in Commander. Whether it’s a massive spell, or a massive creature, someone at the table is going to be trying to slam gigantic seven-mana stuff. Flare of Duplication takes advantage of this tendency. Copying an Overloaded Cyclonic Rift, for example, to fully reset the board may save an entire game.
Even for three mana, Flare of Duplication is likely going to go further than what you spend for it. It’s not difficult to copy a removal spell and take out a massive threat, for example. As long as you’re happy spending three mana on what you copy, Flare of Duplication has done its job.
Like Flare of Malice, the cheapest copy of this card, for whatever reason, is currently under $2, which is an absolute steal, in our opinion.
Flare of Cultivation
If you would run Cultivate in your EDH deck, you may as well run Flare of Cultivation. At worst, this is another copy of Cultivate or Kodama’s Reach, and at best, this card is a free version of those.
To take advantage of the free cost of this card, you do need to sacrifice a green creature which, for ramp decks, may be a bit awkward. Unless you’re running some mana dorks, or small creatures with ETB effects that sit around afterwards, you may not have a lot to sacrifice to Flare of Cultivation. Either way, many MTG players already run multiple copies of this effect in their decks. They could want another.
Competitive Magic couldn’t find out how to use this card in a way that kept up with the formats it was legal in. As a result, Flare of Cultivation is currently under $2, but that could change quickly, especially considering a Modern ban is on the horizon.
Emperor of Bones
Emperor of Bones is an absolutely incredible little guy. Whether you’re playing reanimator, aristocrats, a +1/+1 counter strategy, Skeletons, or just want something to act as graveyard hate, Emperor of Bones does the job.
For just two mana, Emperor of Bones threatens to reanimate the biggest thing in anyone’s grave. If Eldrazi are a common sight at your Commander tables, Emperor of Bones can turn even the scariest Eldrazi Titans against their masters. The recently released Titans in Modern don’t leave the grave when sent there, which gives Emperor of Bones a massive opportunity.
Even if you aren’t going up against Eldrazi, gigantic creatures with big effects are super common at Commander tables. Emperor of Bones should generally be able to find something splashy to reanimate. Of course, you may be reanimating your own cards, as well.
Because Emperor of Bones’ reanimate ability is a +1/+1 counter trigger, it works best with strategies that can keep placing counters on the creature. The Emperor can Adapt, which will give it one trigger in any Commander deck. In my opinion, that can be good enough – so long as you have some other synergy with the Emperor.
For a $1 card, I would add Emperor of Bones to any EDH deck that has some level of synergy with it.
