Contest of Claws
Sorcery
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to another target creature. If excess damage was dealt this way, discover X, where X is that excess damage. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with that mana value or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander
- Price
- $3.18
- EDHREC rank
- #5084
Contest of Claws is a fight spell that scales with +1/+1 counters — the more your creature has stacked, the more lopsided the fight becomes. It costs one green mana with an enlist-style kicker, making it cheap removal in any deck already building counters, and Legolas, Master Archer turns it into a repeatable engine rather than a one-shot answer.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Legolas, Master Archer
Legolas, Master Archer pings creatures to stack counters on himself, then Contest of Claws cashes those counters into a fight that almost nothing survives — the two cards form a removal loop rather than two separate effects.
Wolverine, Best There Is
Wolverine, Best There Is accumulates +1/+1 counters fast and wants excuses to fight, making Contest of Claws both on-theme removal and a payoff for the counters Wolverine was already building.
Maarika, Brutal Gladiator
Maarika, Brutal Gladiator demands creatures fight and rewards the damage dealt, so Contest of Claws doubles as a trigger engine and a way to guarantee Maarika's ability fires on the biggest threat at the table.
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 |
Contest of Claws is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's where its entire competitive context lives — it doesn't touch Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper. In Commander it's a role-player in any green deck running a counters theme, trading evenly or better with most threats for one or two mana. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient removal, so Contest of Claws won't crack those formats outside highly specific creature-combo shells. Oathbreaker mirrors Commander's logic: if your planeswalker or signature spell cares about +1/+1 counters, the card earns its slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.18 cheap tier
At $3.18, Contest of Claws sits in the cheap tier — low enough that including it is a no-brainer in any counters deck that needs fight-based removal. It's a niche card with a narrow home, so don't expect the price to move much in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Legolas, Master Archer
- Wolverine, Best There Is
- Maarika, Brutal Gladiator
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.