Setessan Tactics
Instant
Strive — This spell costs 
more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Until end of turn, any number of target creatures each get +1/+1 and gain "
: This creature fights another target creature."
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Journey into Nyx
- Price
- $0.44
- EDHREC rank
- #11232
Setessan Tactics turns your board into a removal engine — every creature you control gets +1/+1 and fights a target, all at instant speed for two mana with strive letting you scale the effect to multiple creatures. Commanders like Neyith of the Dire Hunt and Shelob, Child of Ungoliant that reward or trigger off combat damage and kills make this a two-mana wrath against creature-heavy boards.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Neyith of the Dire Hunt
Neyith of the Dire Hunt draws a card whenever one of your creatures fights, so Setessan Tactics with three creatures on board converts two green mana into three card draws and three dead blockers in a single instant-speed activation.
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant turns every creature killed by poison-counter damage into a Spider token under your control, and Setessan Tactics hands out deathtouch to all your creatures before fights resolve — meaning each fight is a near-guaranteed kill and a free token.
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 |
Setessan Tactics is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Oathbreaker. Commander is its natural home: multiplayer boards are wide, your creatures already outnumber any single opponent's blockers, and instant-speed mass fighting at strive cost scales well into the mid and late game. In competitive 1v1 formats like Modern and Pioneer, it rarely makes the cut — dedicated removal is cheaper and more reliable than paying green mana per target — but creature-combo and stompy shells that already want to attack can justify a copy. Legacy and Vintage have better tools at every point on the curve, so Setessan Tactics doesn't register there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Shelob, Child of UngoliantDevoted DruidSetessan Tactics
Infinite green mana
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.44 bulk tier
At $0.44, Setessan Tactics sits firmly in bulk territory despite being a genuine engine piece in the right Commander decks. Bulk rares with clear Commander applications tend to hold their floor price rather than crater further, so picking up copies now costs almost nothing.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.