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Austere Command

Sorcery

Choose two —
• Destroy all artifacts.
• Destroy all enchantments.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 3 or less.
• Destroy all creatures with mana value 4 or greater.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{W}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
March of the Machine Commander
Price
$1.05
EDHREC rank
#167
Buy on TCGplayer
Austere Command card art
Austere Command clears the board on your terms — pick two of four modes and surgically dismantle whatever the table has built while leaving your own pieces standing. Six mana is real, but the flexibility to answer artifacts, enchantments, small creatures, or large creatures in any combination makes it one of the most powerful sweepers in Commander. Kaust, Eyes of the Glade and Zedruu the Greathearted both lean on it precisely because it can be asymmetric almost every time you cast it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Kaust, Eyes of the Glade

Kaust, Eyes of the Glade

59.0% of decks · synergy 0.45

Kaust, Eyes of the Glade builds around creatures with odd mana values, which naturally skews the board toward a specific power range — Austere Command's mode split between creatures four or greater and three or less lets Kaust pick off exactly the threats it can't block past while keeping its own team intact.

02
Clavileño, First of the Blessed

Clavileño, First of the Blessed

54.1% of decks · synergy 0.37

Clavileño, First of the Blessed runs Vampires that convert into tokens on death, so a board wipe is only a temporary inconvenience — Austere Command's ability to also hit artifacts or enchantments on the same cast makes it do double duty cleaning up problematic permanents while triggering Clavileño's replacement effects.

03
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER

50.4% of decks · synergy 0.36

Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER cares about Equipment, so modes that sweep creatures while leaving artifacts on the battlefield are exactly what the deck wants — Austere Command can wipe small blockers or large threats while the Equipment package survives untouched.

04
Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

44.4% of decks · synergy 0.36

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus leans on unblockable and connive synergies with creatures that tend to run small, so Austere Command's mode targeting creatures with mana value four or greater clears the big-threat lane without touching the engine. The added flexibility to also destroy enchantments or artifacts in the same cast handles the permanents Kamiz otherwise has no clean answer to.

05
Liberty Prime, Recharged

Liberty Prime, Recharged

45.0% of decks · synergy 0.34

Liberty Prime, Recharged is a massive creature that survives the 'destroy creatures with mana value three or less' mode cleanly, letting Austere Command function as one-sided removal against token swarms and utility creatures. Pairing that with an artifacts or enchantments mode in the same cast maximizes value while Prime stays on the battlefield.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Austere Command earns its reputation — four modes across two axes means you almost never cast it symmetrically, and in a four-player pod full of mixed board states, that asymmetry is worth more than a cheaper unconditional wipe. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but too slow and situational to compete with Terminus or Toxic Deluge, formats where six mana on a sorcery is a steep ask. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's singleton, multiplayer logic, and Austere Command fits there for the same reasons. Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper are off the table, but those formats wouldn't want a six-mana sorcery regardless.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.05 cheap tier

At $1.05, Austere Command sits in the budget staple tier — a six-mana board wipe this flexible has no business being this cheap, and it's a near-automatic include for any white Commander deck that isn't already running a full suite of wraths. Price has stayed flat for years given consistent reprints, so there's no reason to wait on picking up a copy.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.