Saruman of Many Colors
Legendary Creature — Avatar Wizard
Ward—Discard an enchantment, instant, or sorcery card.
Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, each opponent mills two cards. When one or more cards are milled this way, exile target enchantment, instant, or sorcery card with equal or lesser mana value than that spell from an opponent's graveyard. Copy the exiled card. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BUW
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
- Price
- $6.27
- EDHREC rank
- #11534
Saruman of Many Colors is a three-mana 2/4 that copies every instant and sorcery you cast — a persistent, on-board engine that demands an answer immediately. Soundwave, Sonic Spy runs it in nearly 15% of decks for good reason: the value accrues every single turn it survives.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Soundwave, Sonic Spy
Soundwave, Sonic Spy is built around casting spells from opponents' graveyards, and Saruman of Many Colors doubles every hit for free — each spell you poach becomes two, compounding the tempo advantage until the table folds.
Sen Triplets
Sen Triplets already steals your opponents' turns and resources; Saruman of Many Colors layers on top by copying everything you cast while doing so, turning stolen spells into double-spell turns that are nearly impossible to recover from.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Saruman of Many Colors earns its keep — a three-mana legendary that copies spells indefinitely is exactly the kind of value engine that takes over a long game, and the Esper color identity fits naturally into controlling and spell-slinging builds. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but irrelevant: five toughness and a three-mana investment doesn't survive contact with those formats' removal density, and dedicated combo decks don't want a slow value piece. Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper are off the table entirely. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format worth mentioning — as a signature spell companion to a planeswalker commander, the copy trigger can generate real pressure, though the format's pace limits how often it fully fires.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Strionic Resonator ($0.50) copies triggered abilities rather than spells, which misses the instant and sorcery payoff but hits creature triggers for a fraction of the price. Swarm Intelligence ($1–2) copies every instant and sorcery you cast just like Saruman of Many Colors does, but at seven mana it sits several turns later and doesn't block — if the on-board presence and defensive body matter to your build, the Resonator is the honest budget swap, and if the copy effect is all you need, Swarm Intelligence delivers it cheaper.
Price Context
Current price
$6.27 mid tier
At $6.27, Saruman of Many Colors sits squarely in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include, cheap enough that it belongs in any spell-heavy Commander deck that can support the Esper identity. The price is reasonable for what it does, and it's unlikely to spike unless a marquee commander pushes demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Soundwave, Sonic Spy
- Sen Triplets
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.