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Sakashima's Protege

Creature — Shapeshifter

Flash
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
You may have this creature enter as a copy of any permanent that entered this turn.

CMC
6
Mana cost
{4}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Commander Legends
Price
$0.43
EDHREC rank
#5729
Buy on TCGplayer
Sakashima's Protege card art
Sakashima's Protege enters as a copy of any creature on the battlefield — no mana investment beyond its own cost, no targeting restrictions, just a clean clone effect on a 4-mana body. Sharuum the Hegemon loops, Averna, the Chaos Bloom cascade chains, expensive threats you don't own — the Protege doesn't care, it just copies the best thing in sight.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Averna, the Chaos Bloom

Averna, the Chaos Bloom

81.0% of decks · synergy 0.78

Averna, the Chaos Bloom cascades into Sakashima's Protege, which then copies Averna herself — letting you run two triggers off every subsequent cascade spell and dramatically accelerating how fast lands and permanents hit the battlefield.

02
Gyruda, Doom of Depths

Gyruda, Doom of Depths

42.2% of decks · synergy 0.41

Sakashima's Protege is one of the most natural companion-deck inclusions for Gyruda, Doom of Depths: it's an even-mana-cost creature that can copy Gyruda mid-loop, letting you mill twice per trigger and compound the engine exponentially.

03
Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty

Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty

35.5% of decks · synergy 0.34

Sakashima's Protege hits the six-mana cascade threshold that Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty cares about, and copying Imoti stacks a second cascade trigger onto every big spell you cast for the rest of the game.

04
Maelstrom Wanderer

Maelstrom Wanderer

28.0% of decks · synergy 0.25

Maelstrom Wanderer cascades twice and often cheats the Protege into play for free; once out, copying the Wanderer means the next cascade chain fires with two additional copies of that ability, turning a single big swing into a runaway value engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Sakashima's Protege is a Commander card through and through — the format's singleton rule, slower games, and abundance of high-value creatures make a four-mana clone competitive where it would be laughable elsewhere. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant; both formats are too fast and too hostile for a four-mana sorcery-speed creature with no enters-the-battlefield protection. Oathbreaker shares enough of Commander's DNA that the Protege can pull its weight there too, particularly in cascade or big-creature shells. Anywhere outside those slower, multiplayer environments, it simply doesn't make the cut.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

0 decks
Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned ScholarMyth UnboundPhyrexian AltarSakashima's Protege

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student // Tamiyo, Seasoned ScholarMyth UnboundPhyrexian AltarSakashima's Protege

Infinite card draw; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Near-infinite storm count; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite death triggers; Near-infinite sacrifice triggers; Near-infinite commander casts

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$0.43 bulk tier

At $0.43, Sakashima's Protege is firmly bulk — the kind of card you pick up without thinking twice. It sees enough dedicated play in Averna and Gyruda builds to stay in print demand, so don't expect it to spike, but at this price there's no reason to wait.

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Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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