Harness by Force
Sorcery
Strive — This spell costs 
more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Gain control of any number of target creatures until end of turn. Untap those creatures. They gain haste until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Journey into Nyx
- Price
- $0.33
- EDHREC rank
- #13103
Harness by Force steals any number of creatures until end of turn — scaling with strive to hit multiple targets at once — but returning them at the end of turn means you need to cash that tempo immediately, usually by swinging or sacrificing. It's a one-shot power play, not a value engine, and it lives or dies on what you do with the stolen goods.
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 |
Commander is where Harness by Force does its best work: opponents run expensive, game-ending creatures, and stealing two or three of them for a swing or a sac outlet can end the game on the spot. The strive mechanic scales with mana, so late-game it answers exactly as many threats as you need it to. Outside Commander, it struggles to compete — Modern and Legacy move too fast for a five-mana sorcery that doesn't permanently answer anything, and Pioneer's creature threats are often small enough that a clean removal spell does more. Oathbreaker can find niche use in high-powered metas where untapping with stolen finishers is realistic.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.33 bulk tier
At $0.33, Harness by Force sits firmly in bulk territory — you're paying almost nothing for a card that can swing games at the Commander table. Bulk rare prices rarely move without a reprint or sudden spike in competitive interest, and neither seems likely here, so pick it up for the gameplay, not the collection value.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.