Magic: The Gathering is an incredibly old trading card game. Decades of history cause some cards to become forgotten as time passes. Thanks to the Reserved List, some of those cards are doomed to stay forgotten until someone digs them back up. Debt of Loyalty, an old spell that has a rather strong effect in Commander, is an example of this. The card is quite powerful in the format, but the community seemed to have forgotten about it.
This week, players are looking at yet another forgotten Reserved List gem. Word of Command is a bit tricky to use properly, but similarly to Debt of Loyalty, using it can turn the game. Unfortunately, unlike Debt of Loyalty, because this card is extremely limited in supply, it’s incredibly expensive.
That said, some players are starting to believe that Word of Command is worth the pricetag. That will largely depend on your playgroup, as this card won’t always create value, but when it does, it will take over the game.
Word of Command
This bizarre two-mana instant was last printed in Unlimited, and has a spot on the Reserved List, meaning that Word of Command can never be printed again. The only sanctioned copies of this card are from Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, meaning the card’s $250 pricetag is largely due to scarcity, but that might not stay true.
This card offers an absolutely incredible ability, but it is a bit difficult to use properly. The card will, essentially, perform a Thoughtseize, but instead of discarding the card, you force your opponent to play it. You get to make all the decisions for how the card resolves, and your opponent needs to use mana that they have to cast the spell. The old text on Word of Command makes it a bit difficult to understand, but thankfully, the updated Oracle text is clearer.
“Look at target opponent’s hand and choose a card from it. You control that player until Word of Command finishes resolving. The player plays that card if able. While doing so, the player can activate mana abilities only if they’re from lands that player controls and only if mana they produce is spent to activate other mana abilities of lands the player controls and/or to play that card. If the chosen card is cast as a spell, you control the player while that spell is resolving.”
Gatherer
When Word of Command works, it can completely take over the game. Forcing your opponent to use a removal spell on one of their own cards, or on another player’s threat, can essentially two-for-one an opponent. At its absolute best, Word of Command can force an opponent to counter another player’s spell, but, more often than not, Word of Command will just get countered itself in these situations.
Notably, the card that you force an opponent to play ignores timing restrictions. This means that, if you see a sorcery speed board wipe in your opponent’s hand, Word of Command will force them to play it, even if it’s not their turn. This can create a lot of bizarre situations, forcing a lot of your opponent’s tricks to work for your benefit. You can even try to politic with an opponent, creating an instant speed board wipe to blow other players out. This is particularly funny with Commander all-star Toxic Deluge, as you can choose how much life your opponent pays.
As an additional neat trick, you can use any mana abilities from lands that your opponents have to cast the spell that Word of Command selects. That means if your opponent has an effect that adds mana for sacrificing something, you can choose to sacrifice any legal target as a means of creating mana. You cannot, however, use mana that comes from cards other than your opponent’s lands.
Still Incredibly Powerful At Its Worst
In a weird way, at its worst, Word of Command is commonly a two-mana Silence, but it only targets one player. It’s common for an opponent to respond to Word of Command by using whatever tricks it would be able to force them into playing. If they can use their mana, after all, Word of Command will be unable to force your opponent to play anything… kind of.
Similar to other spells that force another spell to be cast, if your opponent has any castable counterspells that can counter Word of Command, you will always be able to cast that spell. They can technically target Word of Command as it’s resolving, but the counterspell will essentially fizzle since, in the end, the counterspell will target nothing. This means that your opponents will be forced to use any countermagic they might have against Word of Command since you’ll always have a target for it.
Word of Command essentially plays two different roles at stronger and weaker tables. For weak tables, Word of Command is a quirky way of forcing out interaction. At stronger tables, Word of Command forces an opponent to play out whatever countermagic they might have in their hand. Otherwise, they need to spend their mana doing something else.
This Card Sees No Play
Despite having an effect that would make it an interesting tech piece in black MTG Commander decks that don’t really have blue in them, Word of Command sees even less play than some other undiscovered Commander gems we’ve recently looked at. According to EDHREC, Word of Command only sees 0.04% play. Three of the more popular Commanders for these cards are newer ones and have a surprising amount of synergy with Word of Command.
Perhaps the strongest Commander for this card is The Lord of Pain from Duskmourn’s Commander expansion. This Commander cares about your opponents casting spells with large mana values to deal direct damage to other players. Unfortunately, The Lord of Pain only cares about the first spell that the player casts each turn, meaning that if they start with a small spell, The Lord of Pain won’t deal a lot of damage. Word of Command can force your opponent to cast a huge spell as their first one.
Word of Command also excels in Kaervek, the Punisher and Toshiro Umezawa decks. Both of these Commanders can recast instants and sorceries from your graveyard, allowing you to Word of Command twice. In Kaervek’s case, Word of Command will trigger your Commander and acts as something it can recast, making it incredibly synergistic.
The biggest thing holding Word of Command back, in our opinion, is its price point. This is an incredibly silly card that can make for some hilarious situations at your Commander table, but if you’re looking to maximize the bang for your buck, there are much better cards to buy for $250. That said, if you’ve got one of these in your collection and are looking to blindside your playgroup with a new trick, Word of Command may just be the card you were looking for.
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