Show and Tell
Sorcery
Each player may put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land card from their hand onto the battlefield.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Conspiracy: Take the Crown
- Price
- $18.41
- EDHREC rank
- #6925
Show and Tell puts any permanent into play for three mana — yours and every opponent's — making it the fastest way to land an Eldrazi, enchantment, or planeswalker that would otherwise cost five turns of setup. Unlike Braids, Conjurer Adept, which hands opponents a free trigger every upkeep, Show and Tell is a one-shot deal you control the timing of, which almost always makes it the stronger include.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Braids, Conjurer Adept
Braids, Conjurer Adept builds her whole game plan around cheating permanents into play, and Show and Tell accelerates that engine on turn three before she even hits the table — letting you land your biggest threat while opponents are still assembling lands.
Círdan the Shipwright
Círdan the Shipwright wants the biggest, most expensive Vehicles and artifacts in play as fast as possible, and Show and Tell shortcircuits the cost entirely — dropping an eight-mana artifact on turn three while Círdan's draw trigger starts generating immediate value.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Legacy, Show and Tell is a format-defining card, anchoring Sneak and Show combo decks that use it to drop Emrakul or Omniscience on turn one or two behind Force of Will protection. In Vintage it's legal but slower relative to the format's broken openers, so it sees fringe play rather than dominance. Commander is where Show and Tell earns its everyday reputation — a three-mana ritual for permanents that scales with the power of whatever you're hiding in hand, and critically, it triggers enter-the-battlefield effects that reanimation sometimes misses. It's locked out of Modern, Pioneer, Standard, and Pauper entirely.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Reanimation spells like Reanimate or Animate Dead do most of the same work for less than a dollar each, putting a massive creature into play well ahead of curve — the trade-off is they require the target to hit the graveyard first, so they demand a discard outlet or self-mill package that Show and Tell skips entirely. If you need the enchantment and artifact angle too, Sneak Attack covers creatures only but lets you repeat the effect every turn for one red mana, which outpaces Show and Tell in creature-heavy builds.
Price Context
Current price
$18.41 mid tier
At $18.41, Show and Tell sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate buy, cheap enough that it's not a barrier for most serious Commander players. It's been reprinted often enough that the price has stabilized rather than climbing, so you're not buying into a spike, just paying the going rate for a proven role-player.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Braids, Conjurer Adept
- Círdan the Shipwright
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.