Commandeer
Instant
You may exile two blue cards from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Gain control of target noncreature spell. You may choose new targets for it. (If that spell is an artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker, the permanent enters under your control.)
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $3.22
- EDHREC rank
- #2293
Commandeer steals any noncreature spell on the stack — a Cyclonic Rift, an Exsanguinate, a Tooth and Nail — and you pay for it by pitching two blue cards instead of seven mana. That alternative cost is the whole story: it turns dead cards in hand into a game-swinging ambush at instant speed, and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow decks exploit the seven-mana face value as a flip damage bomb on top of everything else.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow wants Commandeer for two independent reasons: the seven-mana converted cost deals a punishing chunk of damage whenever Yuriko triggers a flip, and the pitch cost means the deck rarely needs to actually tap seven lands to deploy it. At 44% inclusion across nearly 31,000 Yuriko lists, it's close to a staple.
Katara, Waterbending Master
Katara, Waterbending Master runs blue spells matters themes, and Commandeer slots in as both a high-value spell to recur or copy and a way to neutralize an opponent's bomb without needing the mana to hard-cast it — the pitch cost keeps it reliably castable even in the mid-game.
Quandrix, the Proof
Quandrix, the Proof cares about big instants and sorceries, and Commandeer's seven-mana face value makes it a prime target for cost reduction, copying, or recasting effects that Quandrix enables — stealing an opponent's spell and then getting additional value off the theft is exactly what this commander wants.
Vnwxt, Verbose Host
Vnwxt, Verbose Host rewards running high-impact spells that generate card advantage or board swings, and Commandeer qualifies on both fronts — the pitch cost fits naturally into a hand-sculpting strategy, and converting an opponent's best spell into your own threat is the kind of tempo play Vnwxt lists are built around.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Commandeer earns its keep — multiplayer tables are full of expensive haymakers worth stealing, the pitch cost scales well when you're drawing extra cards, and the political angle of redirecting one player's bomb against another is uniquely powerful in a four-player game. In Legacy, Commandeer sees fringe play as a sideboard answer to Show and Tell and other free or discounted threats, where pitching two blue cards to counter and steal a combo piece is a clean exchange. Vintage has access to too many cheap and broken spells for Commandeer to be more than a curiosity. In Oathbreaker the format is legal but the lower card counts make the pitch cost more taxing on resources.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.22 cheap tier
At $3.22, Commandeer sits in the cheap tier for what it does — a unique effect with no functional reprint means the price reflects real scarcity, not hype. It holds value well for a card this narrow: nothing else lets you steal a spell for two discarded blues, so the floor is unlikely to drop further.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
- Katara, Waterbending Master
- Quandrix, the Proof
- Vnwxt, Verbose Host
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.