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Parallel Lives

Enchantment

If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Judge Gift Cards 2022
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#407
Buy on TCGplayer
Parallel Lives card art
Parallel Lives doubles every token you create — permanents, spells, triggered abilities, all of it — for four mana at enchantment speed, which makes it one of the highest-ceiling payoffs in green token strategies. Commanders like Roxanne, Starfall Savant and Camellia, the Seedmiser that generate tokens as a core resource function on a completely different axis once this hits the battlefield.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Roxanne, Starfall Savant

Roxanne, Starfall Savant

55.1% of decks · synergy 0.50

Roxanne, Starfall Savant creates Treasure tokens whenever she deals combat damage and whenever meteors enter, so Parallel Lives immediately doubles that mana production and snowballs the meteor count — the engine scales hard with each hit.

02
Koma, Cosmos Serpent

Koma, Cosmos Serpent

55.6% of decks · synergy 0.50

Koma, Cosmos Serpent generates a free Serpent token at the start of each upkeep, and Parallel Lives turns that drip into a flood — two 3/3s per upkeep compounds quickly into a board state that demands an answer.

03
Rhys the Redeemed

Rhys the Redeemed

59.9% of decks · synergy 0.50

Rhys the Redeemed's six-mana activated ability already doubles your tokens, so Parallel Lives on top of that turns one token into four — the combination is redundant in the best possible way and is why the card shows up in nearly 60% of Rhys lists.

04
The Cabbage Merchant

The Cabbage Merchant

53.5% of decks · synergy 0.48

The Cabbage Merchant rewards you for making Food tokens, and Parallel Lives doubles every Food you'd produce — more Food means more triggers, more life, and more fodder for sacrifice synergies the deck is built around.

05
Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

50.5% of decks · synergy 0.45

Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is itself a token-doubling effect, so adding Parallel Lives stacks multiplicatively with the commanders' ability — two doublers in play means four tokens for every one you'd normally make.

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 by far the primary home for Parallel Lives — the format's longer games give the enchantment time to generate absurd returns, and token strategies are endemic to the format in a way that no other format matches. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but functionally unplayed; the formats are too fast and too interactive for a four-mana do-nothing enchantment to survive long enough to matter. Modern is the same story — the card has never found a competitive shell there because the format's redundancy demands are better served by cards that also function as threats. Parallel Lives is a Commander card in practice, full stop.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

10,101 decks
Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorParallel Lives

Camellia, the SeedmiserPeregrin TookAcademy ManufactorParallel Lives

Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Clue tokens; Infinite Food tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on an infinite number of creature tokens; Infinite +1/+1 counters on Squirrels you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data isn't currently available in the system, so check Scryfall or your preferred retailer for the latest. Parallel Lives has historically commanded a premium as a staple enchantment with no functional reprint for years, so verifying current stock and pricing before purchasing is worthwhile.

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Sources

Mentioned

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