Machine Over Matter
Instant
This spell costs 
less to cast if you control an artifact creature.
Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The Brothers' War
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #14351
Machine Over Matter bounces a nonland permanent for free when you discard it, turning every loot, madness trigger, and Izzet draw-discard engine into a tempo play with no mana attached. At instant speed and zero mana cost, it overperforms every other blue bounce spell in decks that want to be emptying their hand anyway.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Machine Over Matter is a role-player in any Izzet or Grixis shell built around looting, madness, or hand-cycling — the zero mana cost means it never competes for resources on your interactive turns. Outside Commander, it's legal in Pauper, where tempo-based blue decks occasionally want free bounce effects, though the discard-to-activate restriction limits its fit in draw-go strategies that prefer hard countermagic. In Modern and Legacy the competition is stiff — Brainstorm and Force of Will set a brutally high bar — but niche combo shells that already discard aggressively can find edge-case value. Pioneer and Oathbreaker round out the legality list without adding much to the story; Machine Over Matter is primarily a Commander card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Machine Over Matter is deep bulk — pick it up in any common box or throw it in a trade pile without thinking twice. Bulk bounce spells rarely spike unless they break a format, and nothing about this one's power level suggests that's coming.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.