Ambush Commander
Creature — Elf
Forests you control are 1/1 green Elf creatures that are still lands., Sacrifice an Elf: Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.37
- EDHREC rank
- #13073
Ambush Commander converts every Forest into a 1/1 Elf token — an immediate board presence that scales with land count and turns green's biggest resource into an army. The catch is the sacrifice clause that returns those lands to hand, which kills momentum unless you're in a deck like Yedora, Grave Gardener that wants creatures dying and lands flowing back anyway.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy

Yedora, Grave Gardener
Yedora, Grave Gardener turns every nontoken creature death into a face-down Forest, which means Ambush Commander can immediately convert those Forests back into Elf tokens — a tight loop that generates board presence from your own graveyard recursion engine.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Ambush Commander is a Commander card, full stop. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but never sees play — five mana for a fragile creature that needs a board full of Forests to do anything meaningful doesn't compete in formats where the game can end on turn one or two. Commander is the natural home: green ramp decks accumulate Forests naturally, the political environment buys time to untap, and the token generation pays off in go-wide finishers. Ambush Commander works best as a value engine in the 99 rather than at the helm, where its narrow text would define the entire strategy.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card



Yedora, Grave GardenerAmbush CommanderZuran Orb
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗


Yedora, Grave GardenerAmbush CommanderAshnod's Altar
Infinite colorless mana; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗


Yedora, Grave GardenerAmbush CommanderAltar of Dementia
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite mill; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite self-mill
View on Commander Spellbook ↗


Yedora, Grave GardenerAmbush CommanderSylvan Safekeeper
Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite death triggers; Infinite landfall triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗


Yedora, Grave GardenerAmbush CommanderBlasting Station
Infinite damage; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.37 bulk tier
At $0.37, Ambush Commander sits firmly in bulk territory — easy to acquire as a throw-in or cheap pickup. Bulk rares with narrow homes rarely climb unless a new commander pushes the synergy into the spotlight, so don't expect much movement.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.