Cunning Advisor
Creature — Human Advisor
: Target opponent discards a card. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Portal Three Kingdoms
- Price
- $5.38
- EDHREC rank
- #26484
Cunning Advisor lets you counter a spell by tapping it and two other untapped creatures you control — a repeatable, on-board permission piece that doesn't ask for mana. The cost is real: you need three untapped bodies available at instant speed, which means creature-heavy blue decks only.
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 |
Cunning Advisor is a Commander card first and foremost — three players' worth of dangerous spells on the stack makes repeatable counterspell access far more valuable than in any duel. Legacy and Vintage are legal formats but hard counters and fast mana make a tap-three-creatures condition comically slow against the threats those formats present. In Oathbreaker the tighter game state and 20-life clock mean opponents close out games before a tap-based permission piece stabilizes. Play Cunning Advisor in Commander, ignore it everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Mausoleum Wanderer and Siren Stormtamer both counter spells on a single creature for less setup, though they sacrifice the repeatability that makes Cunning Advisor worth running in the first place. If the tap cost is too steep for your creature count, Rattlechains provides flash and protection rather than hard counters — a different angle on creature-based blue interaction at a similar or lower price.
Price Context
Current price
$5.38 mid tier
At $5.38, Cunning Advisor sits in the mid tier — noticeable for a single uncommon-style effect but not unreasonable for a card with a narrow but dedicated home in creature-heavy blue Commander builds. Demand is niche enough that the price is unlikely to spike, and it's unlikely to drop meaningfully either, making it a stable buy-when-you-want-it pick rather than an urgent pickup.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.