Political Trickery
Sorcery
Exchange control of target land you control and target land an opponent controls. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- World Championship Decks 1997
- Price
- $1.00
- EDHREC rank
- #17117
Political Trickery swaps two lands on the board — yours and a target opponent's — for three mana at sorcery speed, which is the whole trick and the whole cost. In Zedruu the Greathearted decks it earns its slot by setting up a permanent you now own and can donate back for value, but outside that engine it's a narrow, slow answer to a problem most blue decks solve differently.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Zedruu the Greathearted
Political Trickery hands Zedruu the Greathearted a land to give away, converting a one-time land swap into a repeating draw-and-lifegain trigger every upkeep.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Political Trickery is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but the competitive eternal formats have no real use for a three-mana sorcery that rearranges two lands — Legacy and Vintage close games long before land disruption matters at that speed. Commander is the only format where Political Trickery is actually played, and even there it's a niche piece: the Zedruu donation engine is the primary home, with occasional appearances in chaos or group-hug builds that want to create board-state weirdness. Oathbreaker is legal but the card doesn't gain anything from the smaller format's structure.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$1.00 cheap tier
At $1.00, Political Trickery sits firmly in budget territory — easy to acquire without a second thought. Demand is narrow enough that the price is unlikely to spike outside a high-profile Zedruu build going viral, so it's a stable pickup if you need it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Zedruu the Greathearted
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.