Gates of Istfell
Land
This land enters tapped.
: Add 
.
, , Sacrifice this land: You gain 2 life and draw two cards.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- UW
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Kaldheim
- Price
- $0.11
- EDHREC rank
- #12911
Gates of Istfell enters tapped and produces only blue or white mana, but it replaces itself with a 1/1 Spirit token whenever you exile cards from your hand or graveyard — a meaningful upside that turns the tempo loss into a resource. In the right shell, especially Ranar the Ever-Watchful, that token is never just a 1/1.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Ranar the Ever-Watchful
Ranar the Ever-Watchful's static ability triggers whenever you exile one or more cards from your hand or graveyard, and Gates of Istfell's land-drop trigger feeds that engine directly — every time you play it and cash in its exile clause, Ranar converts that into a 1/1 flying Spirit, stacking your board while you're just making a land drop.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Gates of Istfell is bulk in competitive formats — Modern and Pioneer have no patience for a tapped dual that asks you to exile cards just to break even on tempo. In Legacy and Vintage the floor is far too low to compete with fetchlands and duals. Commander is where it actually earns a slot: the Spirit token lines up with foretell payoffs, graveyard-exile synergies, and spirit-tribal builds, and the color identity of blue-white covers the commanders most likely to care about all three. Outside of dedicated Ranar the Ever-Watchful or spirit-token builds, though, it's still cuttable for a basic.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.11 bulk tier
At $0.11, Gates of Istfell is deep bulk — it costs less than a sleeve. That price will hold; there's no scarcity argument for a widely printed common-rare, and demand is narrow enough that a reprint would barely move the needle.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.