The 40 Best Ability Doublers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on April 18, 2024

Ashnod the Uncaring | Illustration by Kieran Yanner

Word of warning: Things are about to get a little… repetitive. That’s because today I'm talking about ability doublers.

If one activation or trigger of an ability just isn’t enough for you, this list should get you the extra mileage you’re looking for. Let's get into it!

What Are Ability Doublers in MTG?

Wyll's Reversal | Illustration by Irina Nordsol

Ability doublers in MTG are cards that allow you to copy or double an activated ability or triggered ability on the stack. Cards like Teysa Karlov that make death triggers go off an additional time fit this definition, as is Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker, which doubles room abilities of dungeons. However, to limit the scope of this list, I’m not considering every doubling effect available. Cards like Doubling Season and Anointed Procession won’t make the list because they don’t copy a triggered or activated ability.

An honorable mention goes to Obeka, Splitter of Seconds from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. This is a Grixis creature that gives you additional upkeep steps, which isn’t necessarily doubling abilities. It can be used to get additional upkeep triggers but at the same time falls short of my doubling ability definitions.

#40. Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker

Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker is the most limited option of this list, restricted only to dungeon room abilities. Take Hama with you if you’re dungeoneering a lot.

#39. Dynaheir, Invoker Adept

Dynaheir, Invoker Adept is also in the restrictive camp, applying its doubling bonus only to abilities that cost 4 or more mana to activate. Dynaheir's own activation is free though, and these abilities are usually worth copying, like Azure Mage’s card draw. The real power of the card comes from activating abilities with haste.

#38. Wyll’s Reversal

Wyll's Reversal only doubles a spell effectively if you roll 15+ on a d20 die. That said, it’s mostly used to redirect removal spells as its base effect, and the copy effect only matters if you get lucky.

#37. Tawnos, Urza’s Apprentice

Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice copies activated or triggered abilities on artifacts only, which is also very limited. You can get significant abilities to copy from the Fallout Bobblehead cards, or you can simply use fan-favorite EDH cards like Mind Stone and Solemn Simulacrum.

#36. Verrak, Warped Sengir

Verrak, Warped Sengir cares about abilities you’ve paid life to activate. With fetch lands, you can pay 1 more life to fetch two lands instead of one. This vampire can get you a good mana discount on cards like Greed, which requires you to pay 2 mana and 2 life to draw a card, so in this case it’s 2 mana and 4 life for two cards.

#35. Panoptic Projektor

With Panoptic Projektor, you can cast your first morph card or disguise card for free each turn. You’ll get to double the flipping effect of morphs and disguise cards, so cards like Fathom Seer draw double cards, or cards like Exit Specialist bounce two targets.

#34. Annie Joins Up

Annie Joins Up lets you get double the triggers from legendary creatures you control. This can be absurd in many EDH decks that rely on their commander’s triggers like Hazezon, Shaper of Sand, Aragorn, the Uniter, and Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Plus, this enchantment is itself a removal spell.

#33. Unbound Flourishing

Unbound Flourishing is a 3-mana green enchantment that’s very similar to Magus Lucea Kane. It’s a great addition to big mana decks or hydra decks, but again, it’s very narrow.

#32. Sanctum of All

Sanctum of All is also very restrictive, in the sense that it only goes in 5-color shrine decks, and you must have six or more shrines for it to do its thing. Once it gets going, it’s hard to stop.

#31. Dungeon Delver

Dungeon Delver is the background equivalent of Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker. This blue enchantment is cheaper and more flexible, though, and can go into more decks. Plus, it should stay on the battlefield a bit longer since it’s an enchantment.

#30. Clara Oswald

Clara Oswald is awesome if you’re playing with doctors from the Doctor Who MTG set. Very restrictive, I know, but it can wreak havoc alongside doctors and be the doctor’s companion. Clara can add new colors to a doctor’s deck, enhancing the color combination possibilities.

#29. Chandra’s Regulator

Still in the doubling abilities’ restricted sector, we have Chandra's Regulator, which doubles abilities from Chandra planeswalkers only. At least you can rummage a little to make the card more useful.

#28. Repeated Reverberation

The secret sauce to Repeated Reverberation is the word twice, because doubling effects as the name says usually work only once. This red instant works on planeswalkers’ loyalty abilities, too.

#27. Wayta, Trainer Prodigy

Wayta, Trainer Prodigy was specially designed to work with dinosaurs' enrage abilities. Ideally, you’ll want to have your enraged dinosaurs fight their creatures to get a benefit and be a removal effect. But if you make your own creatures fight each other, survival of the fittest style, you’ll get double the enrage triggers from each creature. That’s very strong, even if you lose one of your creatures in the process. You can also protect the weaker one with a piece of equipment.

#26. Gandalf the White

Gandalf the White does its doubling trickery with triggers from legendary permanents or artifacts entering or leaving the battlefield. Not only that, but it’ll give these permanents flash. It’s got many applications and combos, but you can keep it simple and enjoy double triggers from legendary cards like Loran of the Third Path or Ao, the Dawn Sky.

#25. Illusionist’s Bracers

Illusionist's Bracers allows you to double the activated abilities of any creature, as long as the bracers are equipped to them. You’ll want to throw this card into Commander decks that live or die by their activated abilities, like Feldon of the Third Path or Brion Stoutarm. 

#24. Battlemage’s Bracers

Battlemage's Bracers and Illusionist's Bracers are a little redundant together – they’re fairly similar, although the Bracers is a red card and gives haste, which is a little better if you want to fire your commander’s ability right away.

#23. Wulfgar of Icewind Dale

Wulfgar of Icewind Dale is less popular than Isshin, Two Heavens as One, despite having the same ability. That’s largely due to the different colors and the higher mana value. That said, it’s interesting that Wulfgar can double its melee ability – this barbarian can get +6/+6 if you attack three different opponents.

#22. Magus Lucea Kane

Magus Lucea Kane is an awesome Temur commander to build around X spells. Not only do you get extra mana to pump the spells, but you also get to double the spell or ability cast. X spells are usually under rate for the mana spent, so now they’re above considering the bonus from Lucea Kane.

#21. Virtue of Knowledge

Virtue of Knowledge has the Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines / Yarok, the Desecrated text on a blue enchantment. You can’t build around it because it’s not a commander, and it doesn’t go in just any deck, though.

#20. Naban, Dean of Iteration

Naban, Dean of Iteration is very easy to build around, as it only requires wizards with good ETB triggers. You can add this blue creature in many wizard typal decks, too. Good wizards with ETB triggers to copy include Aether Channeler and Snapcaster Mage.

#19. Harmonic Prodigy

Harmonic Prodigy is decently-sized as a 1/3 creature with prowess. It excels when doubling triggers from shaman and wizard abilities, and it’s almost a must-include in these typal decks. This red creature is currently the best incentive you have for playing shaman-typal decks, and one of the best for wizard decks, too.

#18. Ancient Greenwarden

Ancient Greenwarden combines a huge body with nice abilities. You’ll get double your “landfall triggers” as well as a Crucible of Worlds effect.

#17. Drivnod, Carnage Dominus

Drivnod, Carnage Dominus has potential indestructibility and doubles dying triggers. It’s not quite a Teysa Karlov, but it’s a good addition to a Teysa deck, or any black deck that cares about creatures dying.

#16. The Peregrine Dynamo

The Peregrine Dynamo’s ability costs only 1 to activate, and you can copy an activated or triggered ability from a legendary source. This can vary between colorless planeswalkers to Eldrazi ETB triggers.

#15. Rings of Brighthearth

Rings of Brighthearth copies any activated ability by paying 2 mana, and you don’t even need to tap it. It’s very useful with commanders who rely on their activated abilities, like Vorel of the Hull Clade or Oswald Fiddlebender. It also works with planeswalkers’ activated abilities.

#14. Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier

Agrus Kos, Eternal Soldier is one of the more distinct members of this list. By paying 2 mana, you can give everyone on your team an ability that targets Agrus Kos. It must be an ability though, so you can’t target Argus Kos with Giant Growth – we already have Zada, Hedron Grinder for that.

#13. Delney, Streetwise Lookout

Delney, Streetwise Lookout starts as a disguise/morph build-around, seeing as you can attack freely with your 2/2 facedown creatures and flip them after the attack. But it’s worth noting that there are many creatures with power 2 or less that have good triggers worth doubling, from Esper Sentinel to Karmic Guide. Adding black to the mix gives you some aristocrats rewards to double, mostly from cards like Blood Artist.  

#12. Felix Five-Boots

Felix Five-Boots is a great saboteur commander. Doubling the triggers whenever your creatures deal combat damage to an opponent is huge, and you can double the card you draw or the cards they discard, among other abilities.

#11. Ashnod the Uncaring

There are some differences between Teysa Karlov and Ashnod the Uncaring besides the color identity. They both work in a similar space; Ashnod doubles only the activated ability that sacrificed a permanent, but not the death trigger of said permanent.

#10. Teysa Karlov

Teysa Karlov is the go-to legend for aristocrats decks. These decks thrive on sacrificing creatures, so each time a creature dies, every card you own that cares about creatures dying triggers twice – including the death trigger of the creature that died. So, if Doomed Traveler dies, you’ll get two 2/2 creatures. If Blood Artist is around, you drain 2 life from a given opponent, and so on.

#9. Weaver of Harmony

Weaver of Harmony is seeing play in decks that care about enchantments like the ones in Standard. Buffing your enchantment creatures is huge, and sometimes you’ll get to double the triggers from cards like Spirited Companion and Ossification.

#8. Veyran, Voice of Duality

Veyran, Voice of Duality is a house at . It only works with instants and sorceries, but you have double magecraft/prowess abilities. Double the cards drawn by Archmage Emeritus or the tokens created by Young Pyromancer.

#7. Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines

Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is a twist on Yarok, the Desecrated by not only doubling your ETB triggers, but also denying your opponents’ triggers, and that’s huge. It’s slightly worse as a commander due to the color restriction.

#6. Isshin, Two Heavens as One

Isshin, Two Heavens as One was a small revolution when it was printed in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It currently ranks #6 on EDHREC with almost 20k EDH lists posted online. What Isshin excels at is copying triggers that happen when creatures attack. You can fill a deck like this with “Whenever this creature attacks” cards and have a good day.

#5. Yarok, the Desecrated

Yarok, the Desecrated is a Panharmonicon with a wider effect, and its ETB-doubling abilities apply to every permanent type. Yarok is one of the best Sultai commanders out there. It’s also a good creature as a 3/5 with deathtouch and lifelink, which is a creature that stands on its own, but it’s vulnerable to a large amount of creature removal.

#4. Roaming Throne

Roaming Throne is an excellent artifact creature that doubles typal triggers, and you can consider adding this golem to every deck that relies on its commander's triggers.

#3. Strionic Resonator

Strionic Resonator has a timing restriction on when it can be used, but it compensates by costing only 2 mana and being very flexible. There’s a load of combos that use Strionic Resonator in EDH, and you can also use this artifact to get extra value from some of your cards like Phyrexian Arena or Court of Ambition.

#2. Lithoform Engine

Lithoform Engine is a juiced-up Strionic Resonator that costs a little more to cast. It has three different activated abilities to Strionic’s one. You can even use it to copy spells and activated abilities.

#1. Panharmonicon

Panharmonicon is the go-to effect for doubling ETB triggers, whether from artifacts or creatures. It can go into every deck and it only costs 4. It’s near and dear to EDH players playing any sort of deck that has good ETB creatures or commanders that rely on ETB triggers/blink strategies.

Best Ability Doubler Payoffs

Many EDH decks are built around this idea, considering that you’ll have your commander around most of the time and you can fill your deck with specific abilities you want to copy. A good example is Obeka, Splitter of Seconds‘s ability to add extra upkeep steps. Cards that trigger on upkeep are extra good here, from Phyrexian Arena to Court of Ambition.

Another good EDH example is Isshin, Two Heavens as One, and in this case, you’ll want as many good attack triggers as possible. You can add cards like Panharmonicon to decks filled with ETB abilities, such as blink commanders, and you can have cards like Yarok, the Desecrated as a Panharmonicon commander.

What Triggers Panharmonicon?

Panharmonicon never actually triggers, it simply means anything that triggers from a creature or artifact entering the battlefield will trigger again. So Panharmonicon isn't the source of the second trigger, it's whatever the original source was triggering a second time. This happens most often when a card with an “enters the battlefield” effect hits the board, like Sun Titan or Prophetic Prism.

Remember that opponents can sometimes trigger your permanents, which might cause Panharmonicon to trigger that permanent again. For example, an opponent’s creature can cause your Suture Priest to trigger, which triggers an additional time from Panharmonicon.

How Does Strionic Resonator Work?

You can tap Strionic Resonator to target and copy a triggered ability while it's on the stack. The copy goes on the stack above the original ability and resolves before it. If the original ability targets, you can change the targets of the copy to something else. If the original ability had any costs, you don't have to pay those costs for the copy.

Imagine you trigger Arcades, the Strategist‘s ability to draw a card. That ability goes on the stack, and you have a chance to respond to it before it resolves. Resonator can target the “draw a card” ability, which copies it and creates another instance of “draw a card” on the stack. You then draw a card from the copy and draw one more from the original activation.

How Does Lithoform Engine Work?

Lithoform Engine’s first ability works exactly the same as Strionic Resonator. The second ability can copy instants and sorceries on the stack, and the third ability copies permanent spells. Remember that the copy goes on the stack above the original and resolves before it.

The third ability is a bit strange, since it copies a permanent spell. You can use Lithoform Engine’s third ability to copy one of these spells on the stack. When that copy resolves it enters the battlefield as a token copy of the original spell. This only copies permanent spells, not permanents already on the battlefield.

Can Strionic Resonator Copy Rings of Brighthearth?

Rings of Brighthearth has a triggered ability that can be copied with Strionic Resonator. When you activate an ability, Rings triggers. While the Rings trigger is on the stack waiting to resolve, you may target it with Resonator. If you do, a copy of the Rings trigger is put on the stack. You may pay two to copy the original activated ability when that copy resolves, which you can do again when the original Rings trigger resolves.

Does Stronic Resonator Work on Sagas?

Chapter abilities on sagas are triggered abilities, and can be targeted with Strionic Resonator. Resonator targets the ability, not the saga itself, and copying a chapter ability doesn't place extra lore counters on the saga.

Can You Use Rings of Brighthearth More Than Once?

You may pay only once when Rings of Brighthearth‘s ability resolves. If there are multiple copies of the Rings ability you can pay per copy, but you can’t pay multiple times for a single instance of this trigger.

Does Rings of Brighthearth work with Triggered Abilities?

No, Rings of Brighthearth doesn’t interact with triggered abilities at all. For example, resolving a creature with an ETB effect doesn't cause Rings to have any sort of effect or trigger.

Can Rings of Brighthearth Copy Planeswalker Abilities?

The loyalty abilities on planeswalkers are activated abilities, so you can copy them with Rings of Brighthearth. Rings triggers when you activate a loyalty ability, and you may pay to copy the planeswalker ability. Doing so doesn't affect the loyalty counters on that planeswalker.

Does Rings of Brighthearth Work With Kaalia?

Rings of Brighthearth doesn't work with either Kaalia. It copies activated abilities, but both Kaalia of the Vast and Kaalia, Zenith Seeker only have triggered abilities.

Double Time

Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice | Illustration by Matt Stewart

Doubling abilities have been extensively explored in Limited, Constructed formats, and EDH. The easiest way to blend this is to make a 2- or 3-color legendary creature that cares about something very specific, or that can be used in Limited to drive new draft archetypes, that boost a certain Standard deck, or inspire the creation of a new EDH deck. Plus, it seems like every set nowadays has a Panharmonicon variant. We’re here for the game, so options are good.

Anyway, now I want to hear from you. What’s your favorite trigger doubling effect in the game? Do you play them regularly in Constructed MTG? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe!