Scheming Fence
Creature — Human Citizen
As this creature enters, you may choose a nonland permanent.
Activated abilities of the chosen permanent can't be activated.
This creature has all activated abilities of the chosen permanent except for loyalty abilities. You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to activate those abilities.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- UW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Streets of New Capenna Promos
- Price
- $0.35
- EDHREC rank
- #11742
Scheming Fence enters, copies a target nonland permanent's activated abilities, and shuts that permanent off — you get the engine, they lose it. The cost is two mana and a creature slot, which is cheap enough that commanders like Plagon, Lord of the Beach run it as a core piece rather than a hedge.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Plagon, Lord of the Beach
Plagon, Lord of the Beach cares deeply about activated abilities on creatures, and Scheming Fence lets it copy the best ability on the board while simultaneously neutering the source — doubling as disruption and fuel in the same card.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade builds around taxing and restricting opponents, and Scheming Fence fits cleanly by locking down a key activated ability on an opponent's permanent while giving Lavinia's pilot access to it — asymmetric disruption at two mana is exactly what that shell wants.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Scheming Fence is most powerful because the pool of activated abilities it can steal grows with every opponent — hitting a Seedborn Muse, a Grim Monolith, or a combo piece mid-game is backbreaking at instant speed. In Modern and Pioneer, the card sees fringe play as a surgical answer to specific permanents — Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin or Urza's Saga activations — but it's narrow enough that it rarely earns mainboard slots outside dedicated shells. Legacy and Vintage have more efficient options for the same role, so Scheming Fence sits at the margins unless a specific target justifies it. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander read: the smaller pod size concentrates high-value targets and makes the two-mana ask feel even cheaper.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.35 bulk tier
At $0.35, Scheming Fence is bulk — easy to acquire as a playset without a second thought. Its unique effect keeps it from being a true throwaway bulk rare, but supply is wide enough that price pressure upward would require a breakout competitive application that hasn't materialized.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.