Authority of the Consuls
Enchantment
Creatures your opponents control enter tapped.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls enters, you gain 1 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Kaladesh Promos
- Price
- $9.98
- EDHREC rank
- #376
Authority of the Consuls enters on turn one and immediately taxes every opponent's creature-based strategy — creatures entering tapped buys time, and every one of those triggers drains for a life that fuels commanders like Karlov of the Ghost Council. One white mana for a permanent that does real work in both the life-gain and stax dimensions is an easy inclusion.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Karlov of the Ghost Council
Every creature an opponent plays triggers Authority of the Consuls, and each life gained from those triggers is a +1/+1 counter on Karlov of the Ghost Council — it's a passive engine that turns your opponents' development into your commander growing into a two-shot threat.
Aerith Gainsborough
Aerith Gainsborough rewards life gain with card advantage and combat payoffs, so the drip of life from Authority of the Consuls landing on every opposing creature adds up to a consistent stream of triggers without spending extra mana.
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic already generates life every upkeep, and Authority of the Consuls layers on additional triggers whenever opponents develop their boards — the combination makes it genuinely difficult for aggressive strategies to keep pace.
Hope Estheim
Hope Estheim cares about life totals staying high and converting incremental gains into card or board advantage, and Authority of the Consuls provides exactly the kind of steady, zero-maintenance life gain that keeps those conditions active throughout the game.
Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant turns life gain into the central win condition, so Authority of the Consuls doubling as a life-gain enabler and a tapping deterrent earns its slot by feeding the engine while slowing down the creatures most likely to end the game before Bilbo fires.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the primary home for Authority of the Consuls — three opponents developing creature-heavy boards means the life-gain triggers stack up fast, and the tapped clause is most punishing in a format where haste-based combo and token strategies are everywhere. In competitive Modern and Pioneer, it occasionally shows up as a sideboard piece against aggressive creature decks, where the tapped effect buys a full turn of damage prevention. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more broken ways to lose, so the card rarely justifies a slot there outside of niche lifegain shells. Standard legality is live but the format moves too quickly for a slow-burn enchantment without an immediate board impact to reliably make the cut.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Blind Obedience covers the same tapped-creatures effect and extends it to artifacts, though it costs more to cast and its extort trigger requires mana rather than triggering automatically — it's a fine supplement but not a strict replacement. If the life-gain angle is the priority, Suture Priest hits for a life on every opponent's creature entering and drains them too, all for one white mana, though it lacks the tapping effect that makes Authority of the Consuls a soft stax piece.
Price Context
Current price
$9.98 mid tier
At $9.98, Authority of the Consuls sits in the mid tier — noticeable on a budget but not unreasonable for a card that shows up in tens of thousands of Commander decks. The price is stable given consistent demand from lifegain commanders; this isn't a card that spikes and crashes.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Karlov of the Ghost Council
- Aerith Gainsborough
- Oloro, Ageless Ascetic
- Hope Estheim
- Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.