Champion's Victory
Instant
Cast this spell only during the declare attackers step and only if you've been attacked this step.
Return target attacking creature to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Portal Three Kingdoms
- Price
- $5.94
- EDHREC rank
- #28600
Champion's Victory puts a -1/-1 counter on each creature target opponent controls for each legendary creature you control — in a Commander deck built around legendary creatures, that's a one-sided board wipe at instant speed for two mana. It's one of the most efficient sweepers available to legendary-matters strategies, and the cost is low enough that cutting it takes real justification.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Champion's Victory is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it only earns a slot in Commander, where legendary creatures are structural — your commander alone guarantees at least one counter per creature, and most legendary-matters decks run enough legends to make this devastating. In Legacy and Vintage, the card has no home: creature-heavy legendary synergy decks don't exist in those formats, and two mana for conditional -1/-1 counters can't compete with Swords to Plowshares or Toxic Deluge. Oathbreaker is the one fringe case where Champion's Victory could appear, since your oathbreaker counts and the format skews faster, but the smaller board states reduce its ceiling.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Champion's Victory doesn't have a direct budget equivalent — the instant-speed, scalable, mass -1/-1 effect tied to legendary count is unique — but Toxic Deluge covers the same role for three mana at roughly the same price, trading the legendary scaling for a flat board wipe that hits your own creatures too. If you want to stay in the legendary-matters lane on a tighter budget, Disfigure or Grasp of Darkness handle individual threats cheaply, though neither approaches the board-wide impact Champion's Victory delivers in the right deck.
Price Context
Current price
$5.94 mid tier
At $5.94, Champion's Victory sits in mid-tier pricing — justified for a two-mana instant that functions as a one-sided board wipe in the right shell, but too expensive to jam speculatively in decks that run fewer than four or five legendary creatures. It holds value as long as legendary-matters Commander builds remain popular, which the consistent demand for commanders like Katilda and The Ur-Dragon suggests isn't going away.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.