Open the Gates
Sorcery
Search your library for a basic land card or Gate card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ravnica Allegiance
- Price
- $0.15
- EDHREC rank
- #4520
Open the Gates fetches any basic land or Gate onto the battlefield tapped — one mana, one card, one land drop. Outside of Gate-tribal builds like Nine-Fingers Keene, it's a worse Farseek that loses to almost every other one-mana green alternative.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Nine-Fingers Keene
Nine-Fingers Keene cares about Gates by name, and Open the Gates is the cheapest spell in the format that finds any Gate unconditionally — it triggers Keene's draw ability while accelerating the mana base at the same time.
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, Open the Gates is a role-player in Gate-tribal decks and close to unplayable everywhere else — one mana is the right price, but fetching a tapped basic rarely pulls weight when Nature's Lore and Three Visits exist. In Pauper, the commons pool is narrow enough that cheap land-fetch has real utility, though it still competes with Rampant Growth and Lay of the Land for the slot. Legacy, Vintage, and Modern have no reason to touch Open the Gates; the formats demand answers and threats, not tapped lands. Pioneer is the same story — the card is legal but irrelevant at any competitive level.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.15 bulk tier
At $0.15, Open the Gates is pure bulk — buy a playset without thinking about it if you're building Keene. The price has no meaningful floor to lose.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.