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Mind Games

Instant

Buyback {2}{U} (You may pay an additional {2}{U} as you cast this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Tap target artifact, creature, or land.

CMC
1
Mana cost
{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
common
Set
Stronghold
Price
$0.31
EDHREC rank
#10975
Buy on TCGplayer
Mind Games card art
Mind Games taps any number of target permanents — and with Orvar, the All-Form in the command zone, every activation replaces itself with a free copy of any permanent you control. The cost is steep: a blue mana per permanent plus the initial investment, which means you're spending real resources for an effect that elsewhere costs one to two mana per target with no upside.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Orvar, the All-Form

Orvar, the All-Form

78.4% of decks · synergy 0.75

Orvar, the All-Form triggers off any spell that targets a permanent you control, and Mind Games lets you batch-target your own stuff cheaply enough to chain copy triggers — one activation can fire Orvar multiple times if you spread targets across your own board, generating a pile of permanents while still locking down opposing threats.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Mind Games is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, and its relevance lives almost entirely in Commander — specifically in Orvar, the All-Form shells where the multi-target clause converts into multiple copy triggers. In Pauper it's technically playable as a tap effect, but dedicated blue control lists have cleaner, cheaper answers and rarely reach for it. Legacy and Vintage have no reason to run it; the effect is inefficient at fair parity and does nothing broken in either format's landscape. Outside of Orvar, even in Commander, you're usually better served by a single-target tap with a cantrip stapled on.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

3,995 decks
Orvar, the All-FormSpark DoubleMind Games

Orvar, the All-FormSpark DoubleMind Games

Infinite copies of artifacts, creatures and lands you control; Infinite creature tokens; Infinite ETB; Infinite landfall triggers; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite mana lands you control can produce; Infinite proliferate; Infinite storm count

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$0.31 bulk tier

At $0.31, Mind Games sits firmly in bulk territory — pick it up for loose change out of any binder. Bulk status also means the floor is basically already here, so there's no meaningful price risk to buying in.

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Sources

Mentioned

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