Book Burning

In Commander, Book Burning finds a home in Nekusar, the Mindrazer and Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted builds that punish opponents for any game action, or in dedicated mill decks where every opponent's choice to mill actually advances your win condition. The politics angle is real: if one opponent is running a reanimator or threshold strategy, Book Burning suddenly flips from a blank to a threat they genuinely can't let resolve unopposed. In Legacy and Vintage, it sees fringe play in Dredge shells where milling yourself six on the cheap has real value — the damage mode is irrelevant, you're always choosing mill. Pauper is the format where Book Burning is most consistently playable, slotting into burn strategies as a reach spell that punishes graveyard-light opponents. Outside those specific shells, it's too conditional to earn a slot.