Planar Engineering
Sorcery
Sacrifice two lands. Search your library for four basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Secrets of Strixhaven
- Price
- $1.82
- EDHREC rank
- #8482
Planar Engineering lets you swap a land from your hand onto the battlefield tapped in exchange for bouncing one you control back to hand — a zero-mana-cost manipulation effect that keeps your land count static while resetting whatever enter-the-battlefield trigger you need most. It's a staple in any deck that cares about lands entering, and Tifa Lockhart builds in particular run it at over 40% inclusion for a reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tifa Lockhart
Tifa Lockhart cares about lands entering the battlefield, and Planar Engineering turns any land in hand into a free trigger on demand — bounce a basic, drop it again, stack the effect as many times as you have lands to cycle through.
Toph, Earthbending Master
Toph, Earthbending Master rewards you for lands entering, and Planar Engineering provides a repeatable, no-mana way to manufacture those entries mid-combat or at instant speed whenever the window is right.
Phylath, World Sculptor
Phylath, World Sculptor triggers off basic lands entering, so Planar Engineering's ability to bounce and replay a basic is a free plant token with no additional mana investment.
Tannuk, Memorial Ensign
Tannuk, Memorial Ensign builds around land-drop volume, and Planar Engineering slots in as a free reuse of any enters-the-battlefield land effect without eating a land drop for the turn.
Titania, Nature's Force
Titania, Nature's Force generates Elemental tokens when forests enter, and Planar Engineering turns a forest in hand into a free token by bouncing and replaying one already on the field.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Planar Engineering is legal in every major constructed format, but it's a Commander card through and through — the effect is incremental and build-around, which doesn't translate to the faster, more linear demands of Modern or Pioneer. In Standard it's technically playable but lacks the density of landfall payoffs to justify a slot. Commander is where Planar Engineering earns its keep: instant-speed land bounce at zero mana is a repeatable engine piece in any deck that converts land entries into value, and the floor of simply fixing a mana problem mid-game gives it utility even outside dedicated landfall builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.82 cheap tier
At $1.82, Planar Engineering sits in the cheap tier — low enough that including it in any landfall build is a no-brainer budget decision. Demand from Tifa Lockhart alone keeps over 12,000 decks running it, so the price is unlikely to drop further as long as those builds remain popular.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.