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Magus of the Mirror

Creature — Human Wizard

{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Exchange life totals with target opponent. Activate only during your upkeep.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Time Spiral
Price
$0.74
EDHREC rank
#11728
Buy on TCGplayer
Magus of the Mirror card art
Magus of the Mirror lets you swap life totals with any opponent at instant speed — the catch is that it costs you your own life total, which means it's a kill shot when you're low and a liability when you're ahead. In decks that actively engineer low life totals, like anything running Platinum Angel to survive the swap or Bane, Lord of Darkness to weaponize death, this is a genuine finisher; everywhere else, it's a corner-case card that asks too much setup.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Bane, Lord of Darkness

Bane, Lord of Darkness

13.0% of decks · synergy 0.13

Bane, Lord of Darkness rewards stacking creatures with death counters, and Magus of the Mirror gives the deck a backup threat that turns a deliberately low life total — the kind Bane's attrition gameplan naturally produces — into a one-shot life-steal that can dome an opponent from 40 to wherever you were scraping.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Magus of the Mirror actually has a home: starting life totals are 40, opponents frequently pull ahead on life, and the instant-speed activation can close out a player who's been gaining life all game. Legacy and Vintage have the card legal but want no part of a 5-mana creature with a symmetry condition — faster, cleaner finishers crowd it out entirely. Modern is technically legal but the same logic applies: the effect isn't efficient enough to compete with the format's clock. Magus of the Mirror is a Commander card through and through, and even there it earns its slot only in decks deliberately manipulating life totals.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.74 bulk tier

At $0.74, Magus of the Mirror sits firmly in bulk territory — cheap enough to throw in speculatively, but the low price reflects genuine niche demand rather than a hidden deal. It's stable bulk: no reprint pressure worth worrying about, no spike potential, just a fair price for a card with a real but narrow use case.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.