Broken Ambitions
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 
. Clash with an opponent. If you win, that spell's controller mills four cards. (Each clashing player reveals the top card of their library, then puts that card on their choice of the top or bottom. A player wins if their card had a greater mana value.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Lorwyn
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #12342
Broken Ambitions counters a spell and mills both players for twice the clash wager — raw counterspell efficiency with a built-in library disruption rider. Outside dedicated clash payoff decks, the mill is incidental noise, but in Marvo, Deep Operative shells it's doing double duty from turn one.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Marvo, Deep Operative
Marvo, Deep Operative triggers off clash, turning every Broken Ambitions into a counterspell that also advances Marvo's surveil-and-value engine — 65% of Marvo decks run it for exactly that reason.
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, Broken Ambitions is a role-player rather than a staple — it slots cleanly into any blue deck that wants cheap interaction, but competes against Counterspell and Arcane Denial for the same slot. Clash decks built around Marvo, Deep Operative are the exception, where it becomes a near-auto-include. In Pauper, the commons pool is shallow enough that conditional counterspells see real play, and the mill adds genuine pressure in dedicated mill strategies. Legacy and Vintage have access to harder counters at the same cost, so Broken Ambitions rarely makes the cut outside budget builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
At $0.25, Broken Ambitions sits firmly in bulk territory — cheap enough to throw into any blue Commander deck without a second thought. Bulk commons with narrow synergy ceilings rarely climb in price, so treat this as a permanent draft-bin pickup.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.