Empty City Ruse
Sorcery
Target opponent skips all combat phases of their next turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal
- Price
- $1.75
- EDHREC rank
- #19447
Empty City Ruse taps all creatures target player controls until their next untap step — at instant speed, for one mana. It's a one-sided pseudo-Fog that doubles as an attack enabler, and a mana-to-effect ratio that almost nothing in white matches.
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 |
Commander is where Empty City Ruse earns its slot: tapping down a single opponent's board before you swing, or neutralizing the archenemy's blockers while keeping your own creatures ready, is a repeatable political tool in a four-player pod. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but won't touch it — those formats move too fast for a one-creature-free-swing effect to matter. Empty City Ruse is functionally Commander-only in practice, and even there it competes with fog effects and Silence for the flex-instant slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.75 cheap tier
At $1.75, Empty City Ruse sits in the budget tier — cheap enough to test without commitment. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to spike, so there's no urgency to buy in bulk.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.