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Somberwald Sage

Creature — Human Druid

{T}: Add three mana of any one color. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
uncommon
Set
Shadows of the Past
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#2526
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Somberwald Sage card art
Somberwald Sage puts three mana on the board the turn it lands — but only for creatures, which is either a non-issue or a dealbreaker depending on your deck. In creature-heavy shells like Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, that restriction vanishes entirely; in spell-combo decks like anything looping with Chakram Retriever, it's dead weight.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

61.4% of decks · synergy 0.56

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed punishes every noncreature spell your opponents cast, so the deck runs almost exclusively creatures — meaning Somberwald Sage's color-restricted mana feeds the entire gameplan without friction. Dropping a six-mana threat on turn four is exactly what this deck wants.

02
Kyler, Sigardian Emissary

Kyler, Sigardian Emissary

59.5% of decks · synergy 0.55

Kyler, Sigardian Emissary builds around Humans, and Somberwald Sage is a Human that accelerates into the rest of the tribe. It's doing double duty: counting toward Kyler's power/toughness buff while ramping out the next threat.

03
Nikya of the Old Ways

Nikya of the Old Ways

49.1% of decks · synergy 0.44

Nikya of the Old Ways locks you out of noncreature spells entirely, so Somberwald Sage's restriction is completely irrelevant — and the extra three mana every turn helps deploy the massive creatures Nikya is built around. The synergy score here is high for a reason.

04
Maelstrom Wanderer

Maelstrom Wanderer

40.5% of decks · synergy 0.38

Maelstrom Wanderer is an eight-mana commander, and Somberwald Sage shaves multiple turns off that clock in a Temur shell loaded with creatures. Getting Wanderer into play a turn or two early cascades into a dramatically faster clock for the whole table.

05
Sigarda, Font of Blessings

Sigarda, Font of Blessings

41.1% of decks · synergy 0.37

Sigarda, Font of Blessings helms an Angels-and-Humans tribal deck where Somberwald Sage is a Human that ramps directly into the expensive Angels at the top of the curve. It fills the ramp slot while staying on-tribe.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Somberwald Sage actually lives — the 100-card singleton format rewards cheap, high-ceiling ramp, and three mana per turn is a ceiling most green ramp pieces don't reach until much later. The creature-only restriction is a real cost in generic decks but barely registers in the tribal and creature-heavy strategies that dominate midrange Commander tables. Somberwald Sage is legal in Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but sees negligible play in any of them: competitive non-rotating formats favor mana rocks, land ramp, or mana dorks with broader utility, and a fragile 1/1 that only fuels creatures doesn't make the cut. Oathbreaker is the one fringe case where it could show up in a creature-dense green shell, but the format's faster pace means it's still a long shot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

6 decks
Somberwald SageChakram RetrieverDream Stalker

Somberwald SageChakram RetrieverDream Stalker

Infinite LTB; Infinite ETB; Infinite storm count; Infinite colored mana that can only be spent to cast creature spells

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data isn't available at the moment — check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a current number. Somberwald Sage has been printed a few times, so copies are generally easy to find, and it's rarely a high-demand card outside of dedicated creature builds.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.