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Paradox Haze

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player's first upkeep each turn, that player gets an additional upkeep step after this step.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
uncommon
Set
The List
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2828
Buy on TCGplayer
Paradox Haze card art
Paradox Haze gives its enchanted player an extra upkeep each turn — and every upkeep trigger on that player fires twice, which turns slow engines like Chronomantic Escape into perpetual motion machines. Three mana to enchant yourself is the entire cost, and in Commander that's a bargain for what amounts to doubling your time-based value every single turn. Jhoira of the Ghitu suspending threats is the canonical home, but any deck built around upkeep triggers treats this as a must-include.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Jhoira of the Ghitu

Jhoira of the Ghitu

68.4% of decks · synergy 0.67

Paradox Haze is the engine multiplier Jhoira of the Ghitu is built around — every suspended card ticks down twice per turn cycle, so threats land a full turn early and the suspend queue empties twice as fast.

02
Braids, Conjurer Adept

Braids, Conjurer Adept

59.9% of decks · synergy 0.58

Braids, Conjurer Adept's upkeep trigger lets each player drop a permanent for free, and Paradox Haze gives you two of those triggers per turn — meaning you're putting two permanents into play for free while opponents still get only one.

03
Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor

Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor

51.1% of decks · synergy 0.48

Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor generates and passes curses on upkeep, so Paradox Haze doubles the rate at which curse tokens get created and redistributed, accelerating the board-wide misery far ahead of schedule.

04
Zedruu the Greathearted

Zedruu the Greathearted

47.8% of decks · synergy 0.45

Zedruu the Greathearted draws a card and gains life on upkeep for each permanent donated, and Paradox Haze converts that per-turn drip into a twice-per-turn flood — then you donate the Haze itself for extra triggers.

05
Xanathar, Guild Kingpin

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin

44.4% of decks · synergy 0.43

Xanathar, Guild Kingpin lets you play the top card of an opponent's library each upkeep, and Paradox Haze doubles that — two opponents' top cards every turn cycle, which generates obscene card and tempo advantage at minimal additional cost.

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 the unambiguous home for Paradox Haze — the format is full of upkeep-trigger engines, games go long enough for a three-mana enchantment to pay off, and the political angle of donating it via Zedruu effects adds a second axis entirely. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees no meaningful play; those formats end before a slow enchantment accumulates enough value to matter, and there's no shell that needs what Paradox Haze provides competitively. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where it could see fringe use, specifically alongside a planeswalker that generates upkeep triggers, though the card pool there is narrow. The honest read: Paradox Haze is a Commander card, full stop.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data isn't available at the moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the current market on Paradox Haze. Given the card's dedicated niche in upkeep-trigger Commander builds and its lack of competitive crossover, it tends to sit at a modest price point — worth picking up if you're building any of the commanders listed above.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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