Avoid Fate
Instant
Counter target instant or Aura spell that targets a permanent you control.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- special
- Set
- Time Spiral Timeshifted
- Price
- $9.11
- EDHREC rank
- #8660
Avoid Fate counters any instant or aura targeting a permanent you control for a single green mana — full stop. It's the narrowest counterspell green gets, but in creature-heavy Commander pods where someone always has a Path to Exile, the upside is real.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Avoid Fate earns a slot only in dedicated green-permanent shells where protecting a key creature or enchantment on the stack matters more than a broader answer — think Zur the Enchanter mirrors or Voltron builds. Legacy and Vintage have access to better reactive options across every color, and green has little reason to run Avoid Fate when Force of Will exists. Pauper is the one non-Commander format where Avoid Fate finds the most traction, since the removal suite skews heavily toward cheap targeted instants and auras matter in certain builds. Pioneer and Standard can't run it, which is irrelevant given how narrow it is.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Avoid Fate's functional overlap sits closest to Heroic Intervention and Tamiyo's Safekeeping — both cost a fraction of the price and protect wider boards rather than answering one spell on the stack. If the goal is simply keeping a permanent alive through a removal spell, Tamiyo's Safekeeping at well under a dollar does the job against targeted removal without the strict instant-or-aura restriction Avoid Fate carries.
Price Context
Current price
$9.11 mid tier
At $9.11, Avoid Fate sits in mid-tier pricing for a card with a very narrow effect and meaningful competition from cheaper protection spells. The price is driven almost entirely by its age and scarcity rather than demand, so it doesn't represent strong value for most builders.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.