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Naban, Dean of Iteration

Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

If a Wizard you control entering causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Foundations Jumpstart
Price
$0.36
EDHREC rank
#6223
Buy on TCGplayer
Naban, Dean of Iteration card art
Naban, Dean of Iteration doubles every enters-the-battlefield trigger on your Wizards — so Archaeomancer returns two spells, your blink targets fire twice, and your value engine runs at double speed for just two mana. The catch is narrow tribal dependency: outside a dedicated Wizard shell, especially Inalla, Archmage Ritualist, Naban is a dead card.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

64.9% of decks · synergy 0.62

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's eminence ability creates token copies of Wizards as they enter, and Naban, Dean of Iteration doubles the ETB triggers those copies carry — a single Wizard entering can spiral into cascading value that closes games in one turn cycle.

02
Cynette, Jelly Drover

Cynette, Jelly Drover

62.0% of decks · synergy 0.60

Cynette, Jelly Drover cares about creatures with ETB effects, and Naban, Dean of Iteration turning each of those triggers into two is a direct multiplier on every payoff Cynette generates.

03
Azami, Lady of Scrolls

Azami, Lady of Scrolls

20.7% of decks · synergy 0.19

Azami, Lady of Scrolls already wants a critical mass of Wizards on board, and Naban, Dean of Iteration converts any Wizard with an ETB into a two-for-one, letting the deck draw and filter faster without adding extra card slots.

04
Niko, Light of Hope

Niko, Light of Hope

15.9% of decks · synergy 0.15

Niko, Light of Hope builds around enters-the-battlefield effects to generate Shards, and Naban, Dean of Iteration doubling those triggers on any Wizard in the 99 is a consistent source of extra resources throughout the game.

05

Kefka, Court Mage

14.8% of decks · synergy 0.12

Kefka, Court Mage rewards stacking spell and permanent triggers, and Naban, Dean of Iteration feeding doubled ETB effects into that engine makes every Wizard entry a compounding event rather than a one-time payoff.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Naban, Dean of Iteration lives — the 100-card singleton format gives you enough Wizard ETB payoffs to make the doubling effect genuinely threatening, and the longer game gives him time to matter. In Modern and Legacy he's legal but essentially unplayed; competitive Wizard builds in those formats have historically leaned on prowess and tempo rather than ETB stacking, and a two-mana do-nothing-alone creature doesn't survive the pace. Pioneer shares the same problem at a lower power ceiling — the effect is powerful in theory, but the format lacks the density of ETB Wizards to make him consistent. Oathbreaker could support him in a dedicated Wizard shell, but Commander remains the only format where Naban, Dean of Iteration reliably earns his slot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.36 bulk tier

At $0.36, Naban, Dean of Iteration is deep bulk — a trivial pickup for any Wizard ETB deck. That price reflects narrow playability rather than power level; he's genuinely strong in the right shell, just useless outside it.

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Sources

Mentioned

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