For the most part, drawing cards is the single best thing you can be doing in a game of Magic. More cards means more options, which means more opportunities to interact and develop your game plan. That said, some MTG cards offer effects powerful enough to warrant passing up your draw, such as Words of Wind. With this classic enchantment in tow, you can trade potential draws for big tempo swings, and even enable some infinite combos.
Words Of Wind MTG
To really get the most out of Words of Wind, the first thing you need is ample cheap ways to draw cards. Spells like Night’s Whisper and Demand Answers will let you pay for multiple bounces at once, without compromising your draw for turn. Investing in long-term draw engines like Heartwood Storyteller and The One Ring will also help here, and even let you bounce on your opponents’ turns.
Once you’ve got the triggers going, you’ll also want some ways to break the symmetry of Words of Wind. Running cheap value permanents, like Ichor Wellspring and Hopeless Nightmare, is a great start here. Alternatively, you can stock up on token generation cards like The Watcher in the Water, and simply bounce those instead of ‘real’ permanents.
Naturally, this self-bounce also works well with value creatures, letting you re-use the likes of Solemn Simulacrum. Ramp creatures, like Wood Elves, are particularly good here, as they can also help pay for the cost on Words of Wind. With effect doublers like Panharmonicon in play, you can more than make up for any tempo loss by boosting the impact of each of these creatures.
If you want to take this further, Words of Wind is especially dangerous alongside cards that can cheat your creatures into play, like Sneak Attack. Bringing your chunkier threats out for just one mana balances out the tempo loss of bouncing them, and you can actually use the bounce to avoid the end-of-turn sacrifice, too.
Value creatures aside, Words of Wind also makes a great addition to Landfall decks. With ‘extra land drop’ cards like Exploration in the mix, you can bounce your own lands freely without worrying about falling behind. This, in turn, will net you a ton of extra Landfall triggers, letting you get a lot of extra value from cards like Avenger of Zendikar.
Whipping Up A Storm
Not only is Words of Wind useful in a range of fair decks, but it enables some spicy infinite combo lines as well. When paired with Wormfang Manta and Scroll of Fate, for instance, it lets you take infinite turns. Using Scroll will let you Manifest Manta into play from your hand, avoiding its turn-skipping enters effect.
You can then flip Manta face up for seven mana just before your next draw, then pay one to skip that and bounce it, triggering its extra turn ability. Since you won’t draw any new cards, you’ll need a win condition like Altar of the Brood or an unblockable creature to close out with this one.
Alternatively, Words of Wind can make infinite mana and bounce all of your opponents’ permanents. To pull this off, you’ll need Flubs, the Fool, Mana Vault, and any zero-mana artifact. Tap Mana Vault for three colorless, then spend one of it to activate Words of Wind. Next, cast the artifact from your hand, putting a draw on the stack thanks to Flubs. Words will cancel this out, and you’ll get to bounce Mana Vault to your hand.
You can then cast Mana Vault and repeat this, bouncing the zero-mana artifact, then rinse and repeat. This will give you infinite colorless mana for a Walking Ballista kill, as well as infinite storm count for Aetherflux Reservoir and friends. Even without these payoffs, this combo will leave your opponents with no permanents at all, which is a tough position to lose from.
Lost To The Winds
While its downside seems steep at first, Words of Wind actually has a lot to offer in a range of MTG Commander decks. Commanders that care about permanents entering, like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and Tuvasa the Sunlit, can get a ton of value from it. It’s also quite strong as far as mass bounce effects go, keeping your opponents off balance for a very reasonable rate in a draw-dense deck.
Despite all of these applications, Words of Wind is very underplayed in current Commander. According to EDHREC data, just under 4,500 decks run the card, which feels woefully low. While it sees reasonable play in some lists, Commanders like Nekusar, the Mindrazer, which could really benefit from it, barely use it at all.
While this is unfortunate, on the plus side it means that Words of Wind is extremely affordable right now. You can pick up near-mint copies of the card for just $2.40 on TCGplayer right now, which is a steal given the card’s age. If you want some spicy new tech to shake up your next Commander night, it’s hard to go wrong with Words of Wind at this price point.
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