Is Single Combat good in Commander?

Single Combat in Commander — Combos, Decks & Price

Single Combat clears the board down to one creature per player and locks out new creatures until end of turn — all for four mana at sorcery speed. If you've built around a single indestructible or hexproof threat, this is a one-sided wrath; in any other context, you're paying four to set everyone back equally, Dogmeat, Ever Loyal included.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

57.9% of decks · synergy 0.55

Dogmeat, Ever Loyal tutors up Junk tokens and attachments that make his creatures resilient, so Single Combat lands as a near-one-sided reset — your scrappy, buffed survivor stays while opponents' boards fold. Nearly 58% of Dogmeat decks run it, the highest raw inclusion of any commander here.

02

Sergeant John Benton

46.2% of decks · synergy 0.44

Sergeant John Benton's ability rewards having exactly the right creature in play, and Single Combat guarantees that creature is the only creature in play. The lock on new creatures entering until end of turn also gives Benton a clean window to swing without chump blockers appearing.

03

Balan, Wandering Knight

49.1% of decks · synergy 0.43

Balan, Wandering Knight loads up equipment so aggressively that a single equipped Balan outclasses anything an opponent can keep — Single Combat just makes that math formal. Clearing down to one creature per player turns every post-wrath attack step into a Balan showcase.

04

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary

32.1% of decks · synergy 0.26

Cloud, Midgar Mercenary wants to attack with a single powerful creature and accrue value through combat, so Single Combat does real work by eliminating the chump blockers and board-stall threats standing between Cloud and a clean swing. A 32% inclusion rate reflects how naturally it fits a voltron-adjacent game plan.

05

Zethi, Arcane Blademaster

27.4% of decks · synergy 0.25

Zethi, Arcane Blademaster copies instants imprinted on it, so the ideal turn is a wide-open attack — and Single Combat clears the path by stripping opponents down to one blocker each. The enter-the-battlefield lockout also prevents opponents from rebuilding before Zethi connects.

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

Single Combat is a Commander card through and through — the political texture of a four-player table is exactly where a conditional wrath that rewards singleton-threat decks earns its slot. In Modern and Legacy, four mana at sorcery speed for a symmetrical board reduction is too slow against faster, more resilient threats, and the single-creature-per-player clause rarely translates into a meaningful advantage. Pioneer is legal but the same problem applies: the format's aggressive and combo shells will have already ended the game or refilled the board before this resolves. Single Combat is worth evaluating in Oathbreaker for the same reasons it works in Commander — the 1v1 or small-pod dynamics can still create the right setup for it — but its true home is a Commander deck built around one dominant creature that doesn't care about the symmetry.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.43 bulk tier

At $0.43, Single Combat sits firmly in bulk territory, which means there's no financial barrier to testing it. Bulk rares at this price point rarely spike without a tournament catalyst, and this card's appeal is almost entirely Commander-specific, so don't expect movement — just pick one up and slot it in.