Throne of the High City
Land
: Add 
.
, , Sacrifice this land: You become the monarch.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander
- Price
- $0.30
- EDHREC rank
- #4603
Throne of the High City hands you the Monarch the moment it enters — card draw stapled to a land, no attack required. The cost is that it taps for colorless and your opponents will fight to take the crown back immediately, so it earns its slot only in decks built to exploit the Monarch mechanic rather than just dip into it.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Jared Carthalion, True Heir
Jared Carthalion, True Heir is literally written around the Monarch — he enters as a 3/3, grows when you're dealt damage as Monarch, and kills himself to crown you — so Throne of the High City is a free on-curve way to become Monarch without attacking into open boards.
Aragorn, King of Gondor
Aragorn, King of Gondor makes you the Monarch whenever he deals combat damage to a player, but Throne of the High City lets you start drawing cards before Aragorn ever swings, giving the deck an early card-advantage engine that the combat trigger then reinforces.
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden rewards aggressive combat with legendary creature tokens, and Throne of the High City slots in as a low-cost way to establish Monarch early so the deck is already drawing extra cards when Éowyn's triggers start firing.
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser
Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser thrives on opponents attacking each other, and Throne of the High City puts the Monarch crown in the air immediately — guaranteeing that combat over the crown starts happening on other people's turns instead of just yours.
Queen Marchesa
Queen Marchesa reclaims the Monarch whenever you don't have it at your upkeep and rewards that cycle with deathtouch hasty tokens, so Throne of the High City is a clean way to crown yourself at the start of the game and let the engine run from turn one.
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 |
Throne of the High City is a Commander card through and through — the Monarch mechanic is designed for multiplayer tables where the crown changes hands repeatedly, generating sustained card advantage over a long game. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but sees essentially no play; the Monarch's payoff scales with the number of opponents, and one-on-one the card is just an awkward colorless land that costs four mana to deploy. Oathbreaker is a more plausible home than Legacy given the multiplayer structure, but the four-mana activation is steep in a 20-life format where games end faster. Stick to Commander.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.30 bulk tier
At $0.30, Throne of the High City is deep bulk — an easy inclusion that costs less than a sleeve. It's a narrow card with a small target audience, so don't expect the price to move meaningfully in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.