The 42 Best Cast Triggers in Magic Ranked

Last updated on June 20, 2025

Kambal, Consul of Allocation | Illustration by Vincent Proce

If you’ve ever found yourself foiled by a slew of counterspells and wished your spells just affected the board, you might enjoy cast triggers that provide at least a little value whenever you cast the spell, even if it doesn’t resolve.

Dodging countermagic is just the first layer of what makes cast triggers so powerful; they tend to run away with games by making your spells just that much more impactful, and they’re easily exploitable.

With this in mind, let’s look at Magic’s best casting triggers!

What Are Cast Triggers in MTG?

Storm-Kiln Artist | Illustration by Manuel Castañon

Cast triggers are a subset of triggered abilities that occur whenever a spell is cast. These are often attached to permanents that trigger while in play, but some spells have triggered abilities that go on the stack when you cast them; the best known of these are spells with cascade or storm.

The common syntax for cast triggers is: “Whenever you cast this spell/a spell,” with many cast triggers only seeing certain types of cards. Many spellslinger payoffs like Storm-Kiln Artist are excellent examples.

This list considers anything with a cast trigger, including permanents that trigger when you cast a spell, when your opponents cast a spell, or when you cast the card itself. I primarily considered Commander and Cube for these rankings, but a few Constructed all-stars crop up here and there.

#42. Writhing Chrysalis

Arguably the most iconic common from 2024, Writhing Chrysalis warped Modern Horizons 3 Draft around itself and has secured a long-term position as Pauper’s best midrange threat. Much of that rests within the cast trigger, which makes this a 4/5 the turn it touches down or builds up mana for an explosive turn later.

#41. Clarion Spirit

Clarion Spirit is one of my favorite cheap white creatures for Cube. It offers lots of value from an efficient body and plays nicely with equipment since the tokens fly.

#40. Spelltithe Enforcer

If you thought getting asked to pay the for Rhystic Study was bad, wait until you see Spelltithe Enforcer! Almost nobody knows about this stax piece, but it works well in the right pod. The presence of Treasure makes it weaker, and it can be slow, but I still love it.

#39. Kambal, Consul of Allocation

Kambal, Consul of Allocation often slides under the radar at Commander tables. None of your opponents think much of paying or granting 2 life when everybody starts at 40, and the 2/3 body is fairly insignificant.

Then the Kambal player has 60 life, and everybody else is dying. It’s a particularly useful meta call if your playgroup biases Izzet ().

#38. Sai, Master Thopterist

Sai, Master Thopterist turns a couple of trinkets into a significant board state thanks to its army of Thopters. It even offers sacrifice synergies to pair with Ichor Wellspring and the like.

#37. Karametra, God of Harvests

Casual EDH gives Karametra, God of Harvests a place to shine because mana is king. Playing small creatures to fuel larger creatures is just good business, especially when you eventually end up with a giant indestructible creature.

#36. Argothian Enchantress

There are many enchantresses in Magic with the “draw a card when you cast an enchantment” text, but Argothian Enchantress has always stood out for its efficiency and shroud. You need to be all-in on the archetype, but this is a fine reward for doing so.

#35. Eidolon of the Great Revel

Eidolon of the Great Revel has been a burn staple for years. It performs best in older formats that demand card efficiency and rarely play cards that cost more than 3.

#34. General Ferrous Rokiric

General Ferrous Rokiric only fits within a narrow range of decks, but getting free 4/4s whenever you cast cheap spells like Lightning Helix and Boros Charm is well worth building around.

#33. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

It’s amazing that the version of Jin-Gitaxias that counters spells for free is the friendly version, but here we are. Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant provides epic top end for non-green blue decks; I say non-green because it doesn’t copy creatures. But this works great in, say, Izzet artifacts.

#32. Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty

Do you like the value you get from cascade? Well, what if you could always cascade? That’s what Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty offers. It comes with a slight deckbuilding restriction, however—such a high density of cascade makes classic countermagic unplayable, so you better reach for Confounding Riddle and other modal counterspells.

#31. God-Eternal Oketra

God-Eternal Oketra provides a huge board to overwhelm your opponents with. The 4/4 Zombie Warriors provide a lethal board state and demand a board wipe, which can’t even keep Oketra down. This is a fine threat in a creature-dense deck, but you get something special when you build around it with Whitemane Lion.

#30. Jeskai Ascendancy

Jeskai Ascendancy’s heyday as a Modern staple has passed, but it’s still a powerful card. You can untap your entire team to facilitate combos, squeeze extra triggers from cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, or simply surprise your opponents with unexpected blockers. The card filtration’s also pretty nice.

#29. Bloodbraid Challenger

The successor to Bloodbraid Elf, I find Bloodbraid Challenger performs better in grindy match-ups thanks to escape. It’s also really funny to spike The One Ring off the cast trigger.

#28. Alela, Artful Provocateur

Alela, Artful Provocateur offers Esper () players a powerful commander that unites artifact and enchantment synergies while encouraging an aggressive play pattern. You can easily convert this cast trigger into pesky Faerie tokens.

#27.  Ugin, Eye of the Storms

While many planeswalkers protect themselves, often by dealing damage or destroying something by removing a few loyalty counters, Ugin, Eye of the Storms takes a more proactive approach by killing something with its cast trigger. This would be a fantastic planeswalker even if it didn’t turn every random mana rock and Ornithopter into a kill spell.

#26. Monastery Mentor

Monastery Mentor dominates games. Making a wide board of tokens would be good enough, but prowess gives them some extra power. It costs more than Young Pyromancer, but packs enough of a punch to warrant the third mana.

#25. Rona, Herald of Invasion / Rona, Tolarian Obliterator

Rona, Herald of Invasion shines as a combo engine with a cast trigger, so you often see it alongside Retraction Helix and Mox Amber. But it does far more.

Repeated looting pairs well with commanders like Hashaton, Scarab's Fist and Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer, and it practically prints money alongside Enduring Vitality or Relic of Legends. So long as you have a legend-dense deck, it puts in work.

#24. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun might be the strongest Izzet commander in the game. Even if we ignore the Curiosity combo, the level of card advantage, board control, and pressure it provides are ludicrous. It even punishes your opponents for playing the game by killing their small creatures while you draw cards.

#23. Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald

Impulse draws receive more support each set, which means Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald becomes better and better. Casting spells from exile often correlates with drawing cards, so the entire deck functions as a great value engine; Faldorn rewards you by giving you pressure to back up the card advantage.

#22. Jodah, the Unifier

The cast trigger would make Jodah, the Unifier a fine card even if it didn’t have a wildly powerful anthem stapled to the card. Turning each of your legendary spells into two legendary spells provides obscene value to stomp the table with.

#21. Conduit of Ruin

Eldrazi are infamous for their power, so finding them sounds like an excellent idea. Conduit of Ruin takes it even further by making it easy to cast the Eldrazi it grabs—though Magic has plenty of viable non-Eldrazi targets like Cityscape Leveler and Blightsteel Colossus. The cost reduction makes this an excellent inclusion in battlecruiser decks that don’t mind making space for a few tutor targets.

#20. Emrakul, the Promised End

Mindslaver is such a cool card, and that rubs off on Emrakul, the Promised End. Figuring out the best way to pick apart an opposing player’s strategy and sabotage them from behind enemy lines is an incredibly uncommon ability and quite potent when it comes attached to such a large body.

#19. Hydroid Krasis

Hydroid Krasis was the bane of my existence during its tenure in Standard, and I still flinch when it crops up in Cube. And it’s an excellent threat in Cube thanks to the combination of card draw and pressure, not to mention lifegain. It often turns games on its head, and a large Krasis can single-handedly stabilize you against aggressive decks.

#18. Third Path Iconoclast + Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Third Path Iconoclast and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer are similar to Monastery Mentor, but they come out on top due to the power of creating artifact tokens for cards like Urza, Lord High Artificer and Breya, Etherium Shaper.

#17. Guttersnipe + Friends

While Guttersnipe is the most iconic of the spellslinging pingers, others are arguably more powerful, like the cheaper Kessig Flamebreather or a Firebrand Archer that triggers off everything. But these are all invaluable for burning out your opponents while you toss cantrips around.

#16. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Storm players love Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain as its cast trigger pairs nicely with baubles and spells like Paradoxical Outcome to cast a flurry of spells before ending the game with a storm payoff. And I guess you could play it as a “fair” artifact commander, though that might be a tough sell.

#15. Edgar Markov

You’d be hard pressed to find a Commander player who thinks eminence was good design; chances are that if you do, they play Edgar Markov.

This card practically forces you to have a board wipe if you want to interact with the board it produces; it’s not like you can interact with Edgar in the command zone. This commander turns a pile of Draft chaff into a formidable threat at any stage in the game.

#14. Beast Whisperer

If you’re slinging creatures around, Beast Whisperer becomes a potent card advantage engine. It works best in decks filled with cheap creatures to get multiple triggers; if you’re landing one large creature each turn, something like Garruk's Uprising might be stronger.

#13. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Why shouldn’t my 15 mana 15/15 that wins the game when it attacks come with an extra turn? It’s honestly quite fair for the cost Emrakul, the Aeons Torn demands, but let’s be real: Nobody pays full price for this, making it an exceptional threat.

#12. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is certainly the better card because of annihilator, but its cast trigger is half as good as Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger’s. Both of these exceptional battlecruisers remove potent threats while leaving you with the best creature in play.

#11. Chulane, Teller of Tales

One way to evaluate cards is to consider if you’ve seen the effect on a spell. Take Chulane, Teller of Tales‘ cast trigger, for example; draw a card, then put a land into play? They ripped that text off Growth Spiral. It effectively gives you 2 mana worth of value any time you play a spell! Totally fair, and absolutely not game-warping in casual EDH.

#10. Dragon’s Rage Channeler

Dragon's Rage Channeler is a premium red threat due to its low cost and high power. The cast trigger enables delirium, but also works nicely with other effects that care about cards hitting the graveyard, like Underworld Breach and Mizzix's Mastery.

#9. Prosper, Tome-Bound

If you want a recipe for a powerful commander, give it an ability that produces mana and another that draws cards. Prosper, Tome-Bound does both, and it’s as busted as you might expect. The trick is similar to Faldorn in that most of the time, casting spells from exile indicates card advantage. This can be a combo commander, a midrange value commander, a storm commander… whatever you want, really.

#8. Ledger Shredder

Ledger Shredder puts in an exceptional amount of work. It’s a cheap threat that provides card filtration and fills the graveyard while profiting from your opponents taking game actions. It’s the perfect setup piece since it becomes a formidable, evasive threat later in the game.

#7. Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff has one of my favorite Magic designs. It manages to exploit the multiplayer aspect of Commander without actually breaking the game, and a couple Treasure tokens do so much.

#6. Esper Sentinel

It turns out that even a balanced Rhystic Study is pretty good. Esper Sentinel works best with decks that buff its power to make the tax unmanageable, but even a 1-mana tax can be significant.

#5. Displacer Kitten

Wanna see me draw three cards and make 3 mana off Coveted Jewel? Wanna see me do it again?

The greatest downside to Displacer Kitten is how easily it encourages 20-minute turns as the Kitten player milks their mana rocks for all they’re worth. It’s a powerful combo/value engine that plays nicely with planeswalkers and anything that benefits from entering the battlefield over and over.

#4. Up the Beanstalk

Isn’t it funny how green gets to do everything? Up the Beanstalk is one of the most potent draw engines we’ve seen in recent years. It excels in Commander since you naturally play large cards, but it’s made an impact on many Constructed formats as well; it’s an all-star for a mere 2 mana.

#3. Trouble in Pairs

Trouble in Pairs might not be Rhystic Study, but it comes uncomfortably close. This white enchantment generates enough card advantage to turn a game in your favor. Cards that reward you when your opponents play the game are often obscene, and this one’s no exception.

#2. Mystic Remora + Rhystic Study

Mystic Remora isn’t quite as powerful as Rhystic Study, but both are arguably the strongest cards in Commander since they warp the game around themselves. If you have one of these in play for a few turns, you probably win. That’s the nature of card advantage, especially in such a high quantity.

#1. Brain Freeze + Tendrils of Agony

Storm being a cast trigger has befuddled many new players with Twincast in hand, but it honestly makes the archetype the powerhouse it is. If you could simply counter Brain Freeze or Tendrils of Agony, they wouldn’t be nearly the potent finishers they are: rewards for constructing an intricate combo shell that digs for the perfect elements before ending the game in a single, explosive turn.

Best Cast Trigger Payoffs

The best cast trigger payoffs are simply ability doublers. If you thought Niv-Mizzet, Parun was good on its own, wait until you land Veyran, Voice of Duality or Harmonic Prodigy!

Of course, there are more general ability doublers, like Fractured Realm and Echoes of Eternity. You can also pay for your doubled trigger with cards like Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine, which often cost less mana up front but more over the course of a game.

Ways to recast cards with triggered abilities are worth considering. The classic example of this is using Remand to re-cast your Brain Freeze to get a second storm trigger, but cards like Cloudstone Curio and Whitemane Lion can bounce permanents with cast triggers so you can do it again.

You should keep an eye out for cards that make your cast triggers into powerful engines. The combination of pitch spells and Up the Beanstalk proved too strong for Modern, and the steep mana discount offered by the Overlords from Duskmourn have kept the card relevant in Standard. Cards like Chulane, Teller of Tales and God-Eternal Oketra that reward you for casting creatures work will with Shrieking Drake and Whitemane Lion to keep triggering them; synergies like these abound and might become a core part of your deck’s card advantage engine!

Wrap Up

Up the Beanstalk | Illustration by Lucas Graciano

Cast triggers are some of the strongest in the game since they ignore some of the game’s best interaction and provide a steady stream of resources and value to construct your strategy around.

Which cast triggers are your favorite? How do you maximize them in Commander? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!