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Fluctuator

Artifact

Cycling abilities you activate cost {2} less to activate.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{2}
Color identity
C
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander 2020
Price
$1.31
EDHREC rank
#7969
Buy on TCGplayer
Fluctuator card art
Fluctuator makes every cycling card in your hand effectively free to cycle, collapsing your draw engine's mana cost to zero and letting you chain through your deck at instant speed. The Necrobloom and Gavi, Nest Warden both go from good to broken with it in play — it's a two-mana artifact that warrants immediate removal or it ends the game.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Gavi, Nest Warden

Gavi, Nest Warden

80.0% of decks · synergy 0.79

Gavi, Nest Warden lets you cycle your first card each turn for free, and Fluctuator makes every subsequent cycle free too — the result is a hand that never empties and a board that fills with free 2/2 Cat Dinosaur tokens every single turn.

03
Sharuum the Hegemon

Sharuum the Hegemon

19.6% of decks · synergy 0.19

Sharuum the Hegemon runs enough artifact synergies that Fluctuator slots in as a cheap enabler, letting artifact-heavy hands cycle past dead draws without spending real mana.

04
Brallin, Skyshark RiderShabraz, the Skyshark

Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, the Skyshark

16.9% of decks · synergy 0.15

Brallin, Skyshark Rider // Shabraz, the Skyshark trigger on every card drawn, so Fluctuator turns a pile of cycling cards into a storm of +1/+1 counters and direct damage without touching your mana base.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Fluctuator is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — and Commander is where it sees the overwhelming majority of its play, almost exclusively in cycling-themed decks. In Legacy and Vintage, the card exists but hasn't carved out a competitive role; the formats move fast enough that a two-mana artifact with no immediate board impact struggles to justify a slot. Oathbreaker follows the same logic as Commander — fine in a cycling shell, irrelevant elsewhere. The card has no presence in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.31 cheap tier

At $1.31, Fluctuator sits firmly in the bulk-rare tier despite being an 80% inclusion in Gavi, Nest Warden decks. That price is a buy for anyone building a cycling commander — the demand is real, the card is narrow, and cheap staples in popular archetypes rarely stay this low indefinitely.

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Sources

Mentioned

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