Tower of the Magistrate
Land
: Add 
.
, : Target creature gains protection from artifacts until end of turn.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Mercadian Masques
- Price
- $8.73
- EDHREC rank
- #10104
Tower of the Magistrate taps for colorless and, for one mana, makes target creature lose all protection from colors until end of turn — stripping the shroud-like blanket that protection grants and leaving creatures wide open to targeted removal. The real payoff is in Horobi, Death's Wail shells, where targeting any creature with the Tower's ability immediately kills it, turning a land activation into a one-mana unconditional removal spell.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Horobi, Death's Wail
Horobi, Death's Wail makes every targeted ability a kill shot, so Tower of the Magistrate's activation becomes a one-mana removal spell that hits creatures with protection — the exact creatures that would otherwise dodge Horobi's engine entirely.
Ygra, Eater of All
Ygra, Eater of All turns every creature into a food source, and Tower of the Magistrate ensures that protection from colors never blocks a targeting trigger, keeping the sacrifice engine running smoothly against otherwise immune threats.
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 |
Tower of the Magistrate is a Commander staple in very specific builds — primarily Horobi, Death's Wail, where it functions as a repeatable land-based removal engine. Outside of those niche commanders, it occupies a narrow slot: too slow and too conditional for Legacy and Vintage, where protection creatures rarely dominate and the effect doesn't compensate for running a colorless land. In Oathbreaker it's legal but sees little play for the same reason — the meta rarely rewards a land slot spent on a situational activation. The honest verdict is that Tower of the Magistrate is a Commander card, and within Commander it's almost exclusively a Horobi card.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Tower of the Magistrate is already the budget option for this effect — no cheaper land replicates the targeted protection-stripping on demand. If the goal is simply making creatures targetable, Glaring Spotlight ($0.50) removes hexproof from all opponents' creatures for free and can double as a one-shot draw spell, though it doesn't handle protection specifically and requires sacrificing itself to become a combat trick.
Price Context
Current price
$8.73 mid tier
At $8.73, Tower of the Magistrate sits in the mid tier — expensive for a land that does nothing the turn you play it and reads as a blank in most matchups. The price is driven almost entirely by Horobi demand; if you're not running that commander, the card doesn't justify the cost.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.