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Gandalf the White

Legendary Creature — Avatar Wizard

Flash
You may cast legendary spells and artifact spells as though they had flash.
If a legendary permanent or an artifact entering or leaving the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{W}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
mythic
Set
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2662
Buy on TCGplayer
Gandalf the White card art
Gandalf the White hits the board and immediately doubles your next big spell — flash it in at the right moment and you're effectively casting two spells for the price of one. The five-mana cost is real, but pairing it with recursive loops alongside Scrap Trawler or the food-token engine in Samwise Gamgee decks means the investment pays back fast.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Samwise Gamgee

Samwise Gamgee

60.6% of decks · synergy 0.59

Samwise Gamgee is the native home for Gandalf the White — copying triggers off food creation and spell casts turns a slow value engine into an explosive loop. The 60% inclusion rate isn't a surprise; Gandalf is close to mandatory here.

02
Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg

55.1% of decks · synergy 0.53

Ratadrabik of Urborg generates token copies of legends as they die, and Gandalf the White's copy effect stacks beautifully with repeated enters-the-battlefield value as those tokens cycle through. The combination rewards you for running a dense legendary package, which Ratadrabik already demands.

03

Peter Parker

46.5% of decks · synergy 0.45

Peter Parker cares about instants and sorceries, and Gandalf the White turns any signature spell into two triggers for the price of one mana investment. That copy effect on a legend with flash is exactly the kind of redundancy a spell-heavy Peter Parker list wants on the stack.

04
Reyhan, Last of the AbzanYoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Reyhan, Last of the Abzan // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

33.7% of decks · synergy 0.32

The partner pairing of Reyhan, Last of the Abzan // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful leans on legendary density to grow Yoshimaru, and Gandalf the White both counts as a legend and generates extra spell value in the same shell. It's less a combo piece here and more a high-quality curve-filler that happens to do real work.

05
Captain Sisay

Captain Sisay

32.7% of decks · synergy 0.31

Captain Sisay tutors legends directly onto the battlefield, and Gandalf the White is a high-impact legendary target that pays you back the moment the next spell resolves. Sisay lists are already copy-friendly by nature, so slotting Gandalf in rarely requires adjusting the rest of the build.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Gandalf the White belongs — five mana and legendary status are no obstacle in a format defined by powerful singletons and recurring commanders. In Legacy and Vintage, it's technically legal but competes with faster, more focused tools and rarely sees play outside of casual brews. Modern can support it in slower midrange shells, though the legendary type and single-target copy effect don't line up with what most Modern decks are trying to do. Oathbreaker is a reasonable home if the signature spell is a high-value instant or sorcery worth copying on a loop.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Price data for Gandalf the White isn't currently available, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the latest market price. Given its combo ceiling in Samwise Gamgee and other legendary-dense shells, demand tends to track closely with LotR set popularity, so prices can vary significantly depending on reprint timing.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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