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Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Praetor

Vigilance
If a permanent entering causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
Permanents entering don't cause abilities of permanents your opponents control to trigger.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{4}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
mythic
Set
Phyrexia: All Will Be One
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#972
Buy on TCGplayer
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines card art
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines doubles every enters-the-battlefield trigger you control while blanking every ETB your opponents have — that's a two-sided static ability that warps the entire game the turn it lands. The cost is five mana and a 4/7 body that dies to any unconditional removal, so treat it like Venser, Shaper Savant: high-impact, high-priority target, worth protecting.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Elesh Norn

51.7% of decks · synergy 0.44

The Praetors-tribal build headlined by Elesh Norn leans heavily on Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines to lock opponents out of ETB-based interaction while stacking its own triggered value — having both Norns on board creates a near-total ETB monopoly.

02
Preston, the Vanisher

Preston, the Vanisher

48.1% of decks · synergy 0.40

Preston, the Vanisher creates token copies whenever a nontoken creature enters under your control, so Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines doubles every one of those triggers and turns each new creature into two ETB events, generating tokens at a geometric rate.

03
Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd

43.9% of decks · synergy 0.36

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd blinks a nonland permanent each combat, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines doubles the ETB trigger that follows — meaning every Phelia attack now fires two enter effects on the chosen permanent instead of one.

04
Gandalf the White

Gandalf the White

41.7% of decks · synergy 0.34

Gandalf the White lets you cast instants and sorceries from the top of your library and blinks himself at end of turn, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines doubles the ETB payoff each time Gandalf re-enters, dramatically accelerating the value accrual loop.

05
Brago, King Eternal

Brago, King Eternal

35.6% of decks · synergy 0.30

Brago, King Eternal's combat trigger blinks your entire board, and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines turns that mass flicker into a doubled ETB storm — every artifact, creature, and enchantment fires twice, which is why she sits in over a third of all Brago lists.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

In Commander, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is one of the strongest five-mana white threats in the format — the combination of a shutdown effect and a doubling effect on a single card is exactly the kind of asymmetric pressure that wins games without requiring a combo. In competitive Modern and Legacy, the five-mana cost is prohibitive outside of Reanimator or Aether Vial shells, but once she resolves she invalidates fetch land triggers, Snapcaster Mage flashes, and virtually every creature-based value engine those formats run. Pioneer has similar applications in Atraxa-style reanimation decks that want a game-ending haymaker. Vintage lists her as legal but seldom touch a five-drop with no immediate protection. Oathbreaker is another natural home, particularly as a signature spell target for white Planeswalkers that generate ETB-heavy artifact or creature packages.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1,117 decks
PalinchronElesh Norn, Mother of Machines

PalinchronElesh Norn, Mother of Machines

Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite mana lands you control can produce; Infinite storm count; Infinite untap of lands you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines isn't currently available in this context, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the latest. Given her demand across Commander, Modern Reanimator, and Legacy shells, she has historically held meaningful value — pick her up when you're ready to build rather than waiting on a price drop that may not come.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.