Dolmen Gate
Artifact
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to attacking creatures you control.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Lorwyn
- Price
- $32.08
- EDHREC rank
- #1371
Dolmen Gate lets your attackers swing without risk of dying in combat — every blocker your opponents throw is a wasted blocker, and your board survives to attack again next turn. At two mana, it's one of the most efficient threat-multipliers in Commander, and Anzrag, the Quake-Mole decks specifically run it to guarantee the forced-attack trigger fires without trading away the whole board.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Anzrag, the Quake-Mole
Anzrag, the Quake-Mole forces all creatures to attack, then untaps your whole board when any of those attackers go unblocked — Dolmen Gate ensures none of your creatures die in the resulting combat, so you keep the engine alive turn after turn.
Kratos, God of War
Kratos, God of War wants to crash into enemies repeatedly to trigger his combat effects, and Dolmen Gate removes the primary cost of that aggression by making sure the board isn't whittled down by blocks.
Thantis, the Warweaver
Thantis, the Warweaver forces everyone to attack on their turn, which means your opponents' creatures are swinging into your board too — Dolmen Gate keeps your creatures alive through all that mandatory combat traffic.
The Master, Multiplied
The Master, Multiplied generates a growing army of tokens that want to attack every turn, and Dolmen Gate lets that army trade into blockers without shrinking, compounding the board presence faster than opponents can answer it.
Mishra, Claimed by Gix
Mishra, Claimed by Gix needs to connect with combat damage to trigger his life-drain ability, and Dolmen Gate ensures those Phyrexian tokens survive long enough to keep threatening that trigger.
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 Dolmen Gate actually lives — the combination of 100-card singleton, multiplayer combat, and creature-heavy strategies makes a two-mana artifact that blanket-protects your attackers an absurdly high-leverage play. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but functionally ignored; those formats win faster and cleaner than an artifact that does nothing the turn it enters. Modern has more creature combat than Legacy but still moves too fast for a defensive artifact without an immediate payoff. Dolmen Gate is a Commander card, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Reconnaissance does most of the same work — it lets you untap attackers after blockers are declared, effectively pulling them out of combat unharmed, and costs under a dollar. The trade-off is that Reconnaissance is an enchantment that requires activating each turn rather than a passive rule-changer, so it demands mana and attention each combat step where Dolmen Gate just sits and works. If you need something even closer to a drop-in, Iroas, God of Ruin grants the same combat damage immunity to your attackers but comes on a creature that can be removed, unlike the Gate.
Price Context
Current price
$32.08 premium tier
At $32.08, Dolmen Gate sits firmly in the premium tier for a two-mana artifact with no immediate board impact. The price is driven by a single printing and consistent demand from Commander's many go-wide and forced-combat builds — it's held this range long enough to suggest the floor is real, but at that price point you should already be running a deck where attacking every turn is the core game plan, not a side benefit.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.