Is Oath of Jace good in Commander?

Oath of Jace in Commander — Combos, Decks & Price

Oath of Jace enters, draws three cards, discards two, and permanently scrys at every upkeep for the cost of three mana and an enchantment slot. In planeswalker-heavy builds — especially Commodore Guff — that scry trigger compounds across every player's turn and turns the card into a quiet engine that most tables underestimate.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Commodore Guff

39.3% of decks · synergy 0.38

Commodore Guff runs Oath of Jace because the upkeep scry fires once per player's turn, meaning Guff's loyalty ticks up against a board that's already been filtered — every planeswalker activation becomes slightly more reliable. The 39% inclusion rate reflects just how naturally the card slots into a shell that wants both card selection and enchantments triggering off planeswalker presence.

02

Elminster

12.5% of decks · synergy 0.12

Elminster wants scry effects that generate value without spending cards, and Oath of Jace delivers a repeating trigger that primes the top of the library before Elminster's ability resolves. At 12% inclusion, it's a second-tier include rather than an auto-slot, but the enter-the-battlefield draw-three still justifies the spot in most builds.

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

Oath of Jace is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's almost exclusively a Commander card in practice. In competitive 60-card formats, three mana for a loot effect with a conditional upkeep scry doesn't clear the bar when faster, cheaper card selection exists. Commander is where it earns its slot: a permanent that generates incremental advantage every turn cycle rewards the slower, multiplayer pace, and planeswalker-dense decks treat the upkeep scry as near-constant top-deck manipulation. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where it sees genuine play, since the format's planeswalker-as-commander structure directly rewards the Oath's tribal trigger.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.39 bulk tier

At $0.39, Oath of Jace is firmly bulk — easy to pick up in a trade binder or as a throw-in. That price is unlikely to move much; the card has narrow constructed appeal and enough printings to keep supply comfortable, so you're buying it for the effect, not for any ceiling.