Summary
Game changers are a huge deal inMagic: The Gathering’sCommander format. These game-breaking cards can shift the tide of the game in your favor, keeping you ahead of your opponents in a variety of ways.
If these cards are a bit outside of your budget or you’re looking to keep a deck within a lower bracket, you might be looking for a few alternatives to these powerful cards. That’s why we dove through the thousands of Magic cards to find some cards you can slot in that will give you similar effects. They won’t be nearly as strong but can fill the same role relatively easily.
8Smothering Tithe
Monologue Tax Or Land Tax
Infamous for its ability to generate a massive amount of Treasure tokens incredibly quickly, Smothering Tithe is bound to cause some trouble when trying to find a replacement for it. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways you may make mana very quickly.
Two cards that slot in relatively easily are Monologue Tax and Land Tax. Monologue Tax triggers when an opponent casts two spells in a turn, giving you a Treasure token. While it won’t trigger quite as often, there is no way for your opponents to get around it. Land Tax functions similarly by not giving your opponent a choice of whether it is going to happen, so once they get more lands than you, you’re going to be digging for basic lands.
7Demonic Tutor And Imperial Seal
Demonic Counsel Or Diabolic Intent
A relatively easy card to replace giventhe wide range of tutors in the game, both Demonic Tutor and Imperial Seal can be swapped out with either Demonic Counsel or Diabolic Intent with little fuss in your decks.
The downside is that they have stipulations in their tutoring abilities like Demonic Counsel requiring you to have four or more card types in your graveyard and Diabolic Intent forcing you to sacrifice a creature to go digging, but that’s not really a problem in most games. There are other hard tutors in the game like Diabolic Tutor but that costs four mana so it’s not quite as efficient as these cards.
6Rhystic Study
Archivist of Oghma Or The Council of Four
Right up front, we want to be honest with you: not many cards are as efficient as Rhysic Study so you’re going to have to stretch a bit if you want to find something that matches this card. Two solid choices are the Archivist of Oghma or The Council of Four, though both require you to splash white in your deck.
The Archivist triggers when an opponent searches their library, letting you gain a life and draw a card when they do so. It only costs two mana so it’ll come down a turn quicker, but won’t be triggering nearly as often. The Council of Four is similar to Monologue Tax in that it triggers and lets you draw a card whenever an opponent draws their second, but you also get a 2/2 Knight token on their second cast spell as well.
5Fierce Guardianship And Force Of Will
Misdirection Or Daze
Free counterspells are a rarity in Magic, but, thankfully, there are a few alternatives you can bring in that match this role relatively easily while stopping your opponents plans. Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will let you counter any spell without paying the mana costs, though there are conditions you have to meet for both.
With Misdirection and Daze, you’re able to still get that free counterspell for very little extra work. Misdirection is probably the closest to Force of Will in terms of cost, letting you change the target of a spell with another single target, and all you have to do is exile a blue card from your hand.
Daze is a bit closer to a hard counter, letting you bounce an Island back to your hand in order to counter a spell unless your opponent can pay one generic mana, otherwise that spell still resolves. You have to be careful with Daze. If there are any Treasure tokens or mana creatures out that you missed, you’re able to waste the spell, but early in the game, Daze can come out of no where to trip up your opponents.
4Cyclonic Rift
Aetherize Or River’s Rebuke
Another card where there’s pretty much only one version of it, Cyclonic Rift is a massive upheaval on the battlefield, used to either secure the win or keep you alive for another turn so that you can win.
Much of what makes it unique is its modular ability, letting you remove a single target in a pinch, or everything if it all has to go. The easiest swaps to make with Cyclonic Rift are with either Aetherize or River’s Rebuke. Aetherize helps you dodge a single attack from an opponent, which is still more than enough to keep you alive for a turn or two. River’s Rebuke is more of a catch-all and more in speed with what you want Cyclonic Rift to do, but it’s at sorcery speed, so you lose a lot of utility with it.
3Drannith Magistrate
Alts: Meddling Mage Or Nevermore
Speaking of incredibly specific cards, Drannith Magistrate houses all sorts of Commander-specific strategies and some deck archetypes in general, by stopping your opponents from casting spells from places that aren’t their hands.
While the broad strokes of the Magistrate can’t be replicated, you’re able to stop specific problems with a few targeted cards. Meddling Mage lets you pick a specific card and stop your opponents from casting spells with that name. It can reach across decks though, so if you name a commander, and another opponent has that card in their deck, they also can’t cast that card. Nevermore fills a similar role, though as an enchantment, it fits in different deck archetypes and has lots of potential to be copied.
2Jeska’s Will
Alts: Escape To The Wilds & Rousing Refrain
What makes Jeska’s Will so good is that it does two very good things very well, and you may do both of them at the same time if you meet one very easy condition. The unfortunate thing is that it takes more cards to match it.
If you’re running green, Escape to the Wilds is a solid replacement, though it costs two more mana and doesn’t give you the explosive mana that Jeska’s Will does. Rousing Refrain is a bit better for that, giving you mana equal to the number of cards in one of your opponent’s hand. A nice little treat is it will resuspend itself automatically, so in a few turns you’ll get even more mana.
1The One Ring
Alts: Sylvan Library Or Mystic Remora
One of the best cards Magic has ever printed found its way onto the Game Changers list and finding an alternate to it isn’t easy. Thankfully Magic is no stranger to printing cards that are way too powerful so replacingthe artifact powerhouse The One Ringis easier than you might think, though it’s not quite as fun.
The best one to go with is Sylvan Library, a two-mana green enchantment that lets you draw two extra cards on your draw step. The downside is that you have to pay four life to keep each of those cards. Early in the game that’s not a problem, but when things get tight, it can cause some problems. Mystic Remora has a long-term commitment, requiring you pay an increasing upkeep cost every turn, but it all but guarantees you’ll be drawing a few cards every round since it lets you draw a card when an opponent casts any noncreature spell.
