Gifts Ungiven
Instant
Search your library for up to four cards with different names and reveal them. Target opponent chooses two of those cards. Put the chosen cards into your graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then shuffle.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Double Masters 2022
- Price
- $6.44
- EDHREC rank
- #1798
Gifts Ungiven tutors four cards from your library at instant speed and puts two of them directly into your graveyard — your opponent chooses which two, but in a well-built deck, every pile is a winning pile. Noctis, Prince of Lucis makes this especially punishing, turning the discarded half into fuel rather than a concession.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Noctis, Prince of Lucis
Noctis, Prince of Lucis runs Gifts Ungiven because the graveyard is a second hand — pile any four pieces that let Noctis win through either half, and your opponent's 'choice' is an illusion.
Tameshi, Reality Architect
Tameshi, Reality Architect wants cards in the graveyard as much as in hand, so Gifts Ungiven functions as a four-card setup spell that guarantees two permanents hit the bin for Tameshi to recur.
Emet-Selch, Unsundered
Emet-Selch, Unsundered treats the graveyard as a resource, and Gifts Ungiven assembles piles that feed the engine regardless of which two cards survive to hand.
Mairsil, the Pretender
Mairsil, the Pretender needs specific activated abilities caged, and Gifts Ungiven can pile four relevant creatures or artifacts so that at least two land in the graveyard ready to be exiled by Mairsil's enter-the-battlefield trigger.
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 |
Commander is where Gifts Ungiven does its best work — singleton construction means four-card piles almost always represent four distinct pieces of an engine or combo, and instant speed lets you operate at the end of the turn before yours. In Legacy, it historically powered Intuition-style reanimator and control packages, and it remains legal but sees little play in a format that has moved toward faster threats. Vintage similarly permits it, but the raw power ceiling there is so high that a four-mana sorcery-speed-equivalent rarely competes. Gifts Ungiven is not legal in Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so Commander and Oathbreaker are the formats where you'll actually sleeve it up.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Intuition is the closest analogue — three cards instead of four, same graveyard-loading trick, similar price range — and in graveyard-centric decks it often does identical work for slightly less setup. If you need a true budget swap, Lorehold Command and similar pile-style effects fall short of replicating Gifts Ungiven's ceiling, so the honest answer is that this card has no clean replacement under $3; Entomb handles one card, and Buried Alive hits three creatures specifically, but neither offers the same flexible pile construction across all card types.
Price Context
Current price
$6.44 mid tier
At $6.44, Gifts Ungiven sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate inclusion decision, cheap enough that it belongs in any Commander deck built to abuse it. That price reflects steady demand without the spike ceiling of format staples, so it's a reasonable pickup now without overpaying.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Noctis, Prince of Lucis
- Tameshi, Reality Architect
- Emet-Selch, Unsundered
- Mairsil, the Pretender
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.