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Whim of Volrath

Instant

Buyback {2} (You may pay an additional {2} as you cast this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Change the text of target permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another or one basic land type with another until end of turn. (For example, you may change "nonred creature" to "nongreen creature" or "plainswalk" to "swampwalk.")

CMC
1
Mana cost
{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Tempest
Price
$6.69
EDHREC rank
#11381
Buy on TCGplayer
Whim of Volrath card art
Whim of Volrath changes a permanent's color for one blue mana until end of turn — cheap enough to cast multiple times in a turn, which is exactly the point. In Orvar, the All-Form decks, each cast triggers a copy of any permanent you control, making it a one-mana engine piece with nearly zero downside.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Orvar, the All-Form

Orvar, the All-Form

60.3% of decks · synergy 0.58

Orvar, the All-Form appears in over 60% of Whim of Volrath decks for a reason: every time you cast it targeting one of your own permanents, Orvar triggers and clones that permanent for free, turning a one-mana cantrip effect into a repeatable duplication engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Whim of Volrath is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but its real home is Commander — specifically Orvar, the All-Form builds where cheap spells that target your own permanents are the entire game plan. In Legacy and Vintage, color-changing effects have no competitive niche; the card simply doesn't do enough in those formats to earn a slot. Oathbreaker could theoretically support an Orvar-style shell, but the format's smaller deck size makes the redundancy less necessary.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Whim of Volrath is already budget-friendly, but if you want functional overlap, Cerulean Wisps does the same job — changes a permanent's color and replaces itself with a draw — for the same one mana, and costs a fraction of a cent. The trade-off is that Cerulean Wisps only targets creatures, while Whim of Volrath hits any permanent, which occasionally matters when you want to copy a land or artifact with Orvar.

Price Context

Current price

$6.69 mid tier

At $6.69, Whim of Volrath sits in the mid tier almost entirely on the back of Orvar, the All-Form demand — it's a niche card with a narrow but loyal audience. The price is stable as long as Orvar remains popular, but outside that commander the card has essentially no value floor.

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Sources

Mentioned

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