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As Dominaria United spoilers continue for Magic: The Gathering, a rather interesting card has appeared: Vesuvian Duplimancy. While this card may be too slow for widespread use in Magic: The Gathering’s Standard meta, it could be just the thing a variety of Commander decks need to spice up their lives.
It’s interesting that this card does not feature a “once per turn” wording, like many other powerful cards in this expansion. This may have been balanced out by its casting cost, but here’s what the card can and cannot do.
Vesuvian Duplimancy is going to be a lot of fun in Magic: The Gathering’s Commander scene
It’s not uncommon to see blue spells in Magic: The Gathering that clone or duplicate other cards. This is a really interesting way to play the game, and can often be quite frustrating for other players. It’s also worth noting that this will be fun in more than just Mono-Blue colored decks, considering how the card itself works.
Vesuvian Duplimancy
- Mana Value: 3U
- Type: Enchantment
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- First Ability: Whenever you cast a spell that targets only a single artifact or creature you control, create a token that’s a copy of that artifact or creature, except it’s not legendary.
The major downside to this card is that it costs 4 mana to put into play, so the turn it is deployed in a Standard deck, the odds of it being used are rather slim. Furthermore, it requires you to cast a spell on a creature you control to get anything out of it.
What can you do with this in Magic: The Gathering? A good example is Tail Swipe, a 1-cost green Instant. It chooses a creature you control and one you don’t, and if done during your main phase, your creature gains +1/+1 for the turn and those two cards will then fight.
A player can use Tail Swipe to target a powerful creature of yours, make a copy of it, and use the original to beat up an enemy target. You can also do this to artifacts you control, provided you have the right spells.
In Commander, you could animate an artifact like Karn’s Sylex, and make a copy of it to use later. There are quite a few cards in Commander, in particular, that can gain a lot of use out of this. Zada, Hedron Grinder will love this one especially:
“Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets only Zada, Hedron Grinder, copy that spell for each other creature you control that the spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those creatures.”
In this instance, players will want to use powerful buffs to make Zada and the rest of your attacking creatures suddenly become a terrifying force of nature that runs players down. Then, you receive another Zada, that is now not legendary, and this can be done repeatedly to make infuriatingly powerful creatures.
Another useful Commander for blue decks is Orvar, the All-Form. In particular, it’s his first ability that is potent.
“Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, if it targets one or more other permanents you control, create a token that’s a copy of one of those permanents.”
In this instance, Magic: The Gathering players target their Orvar, or another creature, with a spell and create a token copy of it, as well as another copy of it. As expected, this could get out of hand very quickly. Sadly, it’s currently not clear if it will have a place in Standard, but only time will tell.
Nevertheless, it’s definitely a very interesting card, and will undoubtedly find a home in many Commander decks when Magic: The Gathering’s Dominaria United expansion finally releases. The digital version will be available on September 1, 2022, while fans of the physical version will have to wait until September 9, 2022.
