Summons of Saruman
Sorcery
Amass Orcs X. Mill X cards. You may cast an instant or sorcery spell with mana value X or less from among them without paying its mana cost. (To amass Orcs X, put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It's also an Orc. If you don't control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
Flashback—
, Exile X cards from your graveyard.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- RU
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander
- Price
- $0.33
- EDHREC rank
- #5901
Summons of Saruman lands and immediately floods the board with a copy of every instant and sorcery you've cast this turn, which in a spell-heavy deck means multiple tokens and multiple triggers off a single six-mana play. The cost is real — six mana and a narrow condition — but Saruman, the White Hand turns that condition into a repeatable engine that justifies the slot completely.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Saruman, the White Hand
Saruman, the White Hand is the natural home: Summons of Saruman's token-per-spell engine stacks directly on top of the commander's amass triggers, letting a single spell-heavy turn generate an army and a horde of Orc tokens simultaneously.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Sauron, Lord of the Rings rewards controlling large Armies, and Summons of Saruman produces and grows one with every instant or sorcery you copy, feeding Sauron's damage trigger with a token that keeps getting bigger.
Sauron, the Dark Lord
Sauron, the Dark Lord cares about casting spells and putting the Ring's temptation to work, and Summons of Saruman's flood of spell copies generates the board presence and triggers needed to push that game plan forward.
The Emperor of Palamecia
The Emperor of Palamecia's chaos-spell engine thrives on quantity of spells cast, and Summons of Saruman effectively doubles the spell count for a turn, multiplying the Emperor's triggers at a moment when they matter most.
Melek, Reforged Researcher
Melek, Reforged Researcher builds value off instants and sorceries resolving in sequence, and Summons of Saruman drops into that chain as a payoff that converts a full spell-chain turn into a token-and-tempo swing.
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 |
Commander is where Summons of Saruman actually lives — six mana is manageable in a 40-life format, and the decks that want it are built around stacking spells in a single turn, which Commander facilitates better than any other format. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but competes against a card pool where six-mana enchantments that don't immediately win the game don't make the cut. Oathbreaker offers a narrower slice of the same appeal as Commander: if your planeswalker and signature spell synergize with spell copying, Summons of Saruman is a reasonable include, but the smaller deck size means you reach it less consistently.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.33 bulk tier
At $0.33, Summons of Saruman is firmly bulk — easy to pick up without a second thought. It's a set-specific card with a narrow tribal home, so don't expect the price to move meaningfully unless a high-profile Saruman build pushes demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Saruman, the White Hand
- Sauron, Lord of the Rings
- Sauron, the Dark Lord
- The Emperor of Palamecia
- Melek, Reforged Researcher
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.