Gate to the Aether
Artifact
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player reveals the top card of their library. If it's an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land card, the player may put it onto the battlefield.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Mirrodin
- Price
- $3.36
- EDHREC rank
- #10734
Gate to the Aether flips the top card of every player's library into play at the start of each upkeep — artifacts, creatures, and lands included — which means the whole table gets a free permanent every turn cycle. Six mana is steep, but in any deck that cheats expensive permanents into play, Gate to the Aether is the engine, not the support piece.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Braids, Conjurer Adept already lets each player put an artifact or creature into play on their upkeep, and Gate to the Aether stacks a second trigger on top of that — giving your opponents two free permanents a turn is a fine trade when you're the one with the fattest library and the most to gain from chaos at scale.
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 |
Gate to the Aether is a Commander card through and through — the multiplayer upkeep trigger scales with every player at the table, and the chaos it generates only becomes interesting when four people are flipping permanents simultaneously. In Legacy, Modern, or Vintage it's a six-mana enchantment with no immediate impact and no way to abuse the symmetry faster than just casting whatever you wanted, so it sees essentially no play there. Commander is the only format where Gate to the Aether earns its slot, specifically in decks built around artifact cheating, group hug, or flicker-and-reset strategies that can exploit the trigger more than opponents.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.36 cheap tier
At $3.36, Gate to the Aether sits in the cheap tier — low enough to slot in without budget anxiety, but not bulk. It's a narrow card with a loyal home in Braids-style Commander builds, so the price is stable rather than speculative.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Braids, Conjurer Adept
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.