Contentious Plan
Sorcery
Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
Draw a card.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- War of the Spark
- Price
- $0.41
- EDHREC rank
- #2201
Contentious Plan proliferates everything you control and replaces itself for two mana — that combination of immediate board impact and zero card disadvantage is the whole pitch. Under Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus, the proliferate triggers twice, making this one of the most efficient cantrips in any counter-heavy shell.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus doubles every proliferate trigger, so Contentious Plan effectively proliferates twice while still drawing a card — that's three lines of value on a two-mana instant.
Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres
Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres draws a card whenever you proliferate, which means Contentious Plan replaces itself twice over and puts a +1/+1 counter engine into overdrive.
Toxrill, the Corrosive
Toxrill, the Corrosive puts a -1/-1 counter on every creature each end step, and Contentious Plan accelerates those counters to lethal faster while keeping your hand stocked.
Jin-Gitaxias
Jin-Gitaxias runs a progress counter that advances its saga chapters, and Contentious Plan is one of the cheapest ways to tick that counter forward while drawing a card.
Atreus, Impulsive Son // Kratos, Stoic Father
Atreus, Impulsive Son // Kratos, Stoic Father cares about rage counters and saga progression, and Contentious Plan is a low-cost way to push those counters ahead without sacrificing card parity.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Contentious Plan is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but it's almost exclusively a Commander card in practice. In competitive 60-card formats, a two-mana cantrip that proliferates is too slow and narrow — the formats lack the density of permanents with counters needed to justify the card slot over something like Opt or Consider. Pauper is the one exception worth noting: infect and poison strategies exist there, and Contentious Plan's ability to push opponents toward ten poison counters while replacing itself is legitimately playable. Commander is where it belongs, though — the singleton format's proliferate payoffs, planeswalkers, and long game all reward exactly what Contentious Plan does.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.41 bulk tier
At $0.41, Contentious Plan sits firmly in bulk territory, which understates how much work it does in the right deck. It's a stable buy-in-bulk card — proliferate cantrips don't rotate out of Commander relevance, and the price is unlikely to move unless a dedicated proliferate commander breaks through at high power levels.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus
- Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres
- Toxrill, the Corrosive
- Jin-Gitaxias
- Atreus, Impulsive Son // Kratos, Stoic Father
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.