Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Gandalf, Shadow's Foe
Gandalf, Shadow's Foe
Legendary Creature — Avatar Wizard · {5}{U}{U} · Blue commander
Vigilance
When Gandalf enters, exile up to three target lands you control, then return them to the battlefield tapped under their owner's control.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on Gandalf.
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What Gandalf, Shadow's Foe actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Gandalf enters, exile up to three target lands you control, then return them to the battlefield tapped under their owner's control.
- Triggered ability · etbWhenever a land you control enters, draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on Gandalf.
- Keyword · vigilancevigilance
What a Gandalf, Shadow's Foe deck needs
Plays as lands. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
- counter doublers and proliferate (it grows only itself with +1/+1 counters)
- land ramp, extra land drops and landfall payoffs (its text counts or triggers on lands)
The Gandalf, Shadow's Foe deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 18× Put a land onto the battlefield — for a landfall commander this triggers where a normal land drop does not
- 8× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 10× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 8× Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
Best cards for Gandalf, Shadow's Foe
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Put a land onto the battlefield — for a landfall commander this triggers where a normal land drop does not
- Sword of Forge and Frontier3 mana
- Storm Cauldron5 mana
- Myriad Landscape0 mana
- Wayfarer's Bauble1 mana
- Krosan Verge0 mana
- Sword of the Animist2 mana
- Horizon of Progress0 mana
- Maze's End0 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Gossip's Talent2 mana
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling4 mana
- Nephalia Smuggler1 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice3 mana
- Deadeye Navigator6 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Snapcaster Mage2 mana
- Wan Shi Tong, Librarian2 mana
- Archaeomancer4 mana
- Urza, Lord High Artificer4 mana
- Aether Channeler3 mana
- Spellseeker3 mana
Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there
- Thrummingbird2 mana
- Vexing Radgull2 mana
- Kid Loki1 mana
- Dreamtide Whale3 mana
- Flux Channeler3 mana
- Glistening Sphere3 mana
- Walking Ballista0 mana
- Forge of Heroes0 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Umezawa's Jitte2 mana
- Titan's Presence3 mana
- Icy Prison2 mana
- Kozilek's Command2 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Reshape2 mana
- Mask of the Mimic1 mana
- Long-Term Plans3 mana
- Whir of Invention3 mana
- Merchant Scroll2 mana
- Mystical Tutor1 mana
- Muddle the Mixture2 mana
- Personal Tutor1 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Desynchronization4 mana
- Wave Goodbye4 mana
- Whelming Wave4 mana
- Consuming Tide4 mana
- Selective Obliteration5 mana
- Evacuation5 mana
- Perplexing Test5 mana
- Cyclonic Rift2 mana
Refill your hand
- Mystic Remora1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Curiosity1 mana
- Wizard Class1 mana
- Rhystic Study3 mana
- Faerie Mastermind2 mana
- The One Ring4 mana
- Combat Research1 mana
Combos with Gandalf, Shadow's Foe
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Gandalf, Shadow's Foe is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Ashaya, Soul Of The Wild501 decks
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Amulet Of Vigor + Deadeye Navigator247 decks
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Tiller Engine + Deadeye Navigator224 decks
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Amulet Of Vigor + Eldrazi Displacer4 decks
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Amulet Of Vigor + Emiel The Blessed4 decks
- Gandalf, Shadow's Foe + Tiller Engine + Eldrazi Displacer2 decks
Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →
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