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Role Reversal

Sorcery

Exchange control of two target permanents that share a permanent type.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{U}{U}{R}
Color identity
RU
Rarity
rare
Set
War of the Spark Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#7559
Buy on TCGplayer
Role Reversal card art
Role Reversal swaps two permanents' roles entirely — each player takes control of the other's — for two mana at instant speed, which is an absurdly low price for the chaos it enables. In a Zedruu the Greathearted deck, it doubles as a way to offload cursed junk like Despotic Scepter to an opponent before drawing cards and gaining life off it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Zedruu the Greathearted

Zedruu the Greathearted

69.0% of decks · synergy 0.66

Role Reversal is a core piece in Zedruu the Greathearted — it lets you trade a liability you own for something valuable an opponent controls, then Zedruu still rewards you for the thing you donated.

02
Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot

Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot

50.1% of decks · synergy 0.49

Lilah, Undefeated Slickshot casts cheap instants and sorceries to trigger prowess-style effects, and Role Reversal at two mana slots perfectly into that chain while also stealing a threatening permanent mid-combat.

03
Ian Malcolm, Chaotician

Ian Malcolm, Chaotician

20.7% of decks · synergy 0.19

Ian Malcolm, Chaotician cares about spells with chaotic or randomizing effects, and Role Reversal's swap effect fits that gameplan while providing real board-state impact rather than pure chaos for its own sake.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Role Reversal is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — but the honest assessment is that it's almost exclusively a Commander card. In competitive formats like Modern and Legacy, two mana to swap two permanents is too situational and too easily disrupted to see serious play when direct interaction exists. Commander is where Role Reversal earns its slot: multiplayer board states are cluttered enough that you can almost always find a favorable trade, and the instant speed means you can pull off the swap in response to a removal spell or attack declaration. Oathbreaker gives it a niche home in planeswalker-heavy builds that want to steal an opposing planeswalker mid-game.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Role Reversal isn't available in the current feed, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a live number. Given its narrow appeal outside Commander and its high inclusion rate in Zedruu the Greathearted decks specifically, it tends to stay affordable — it's not the kind of card that spikes on broad demand.

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Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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