The 40 Best Spell Copying Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 21, 2026

Lutri, the Spellchaser | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

Modern Magic has no shortage of incredible spells, from hyper-efficient removal and card advantage to flashy game-enders like Breach the Multiverse and Crackle with Power. Imagine how much more impactful they could be if you copied them!

Luckily, that trend began all the way back in Alpha, so Wizards has had plenty of time to develop the mechanic and put out some pretty sick twists on the classic Fork. So many options can be overwhelming, so let’s reduce these copy spells to a manageable list.

What Is Spell Copying in MTG?

Alania, Divergent Storm | Illustration by Joshua Raphael

Copy spells make copies of spells on the stack, an effect first established with Fork in Alpha.

These days, copy spells largely live within the Izzet () color identity with a focus on copying instants and sorceries, though Wizards has started printing cards that copy permanent spells more frequently over the past couple of years.

There’s also a subsection of copy spells that recognize a particular instant and sorcery—often by exiling it—and allow you to produce multiple copies of that particular spell. This list considers both types of copy spells with a focus on the Commander format. It only considers cards that copy spells on the stack or make copies to cast; if you need ways to copy permanents in play, you’ll need some clones.

Honorable Mentions: Storm, Squad, Replicate

A handful of mechanics function similarly to cards on this list, including storm (Tendrils of Agony), squad (Securitron Squadron), and replicate (Shattering Spree), but they have a distinct mechanical identity since they can only copy themselves, not other spells. While all are powerful in their own right, especially with magecraft or token-matters effects, they didn’t quite make the list because they serve a different purpose.

#40. Reiterate

Reiterate’s primary value lies in its combo potential, often with cards like Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser. The card’s novelty leans on the buyback cost, which is expensive enough I wouldn’t consider running it without combos.

#39. Primal Amulet

Four-mana rocks need to offer a substantial reward given how slow they are, which Primal Amulet does. This won’t work at high-power Commander tables, but Primal Wellspring gives casual spellslinger decks a great reward for playing slow and controlling strategies.

#38. Sunken Palace

I need ways to stock the graveyard before Sunken Palace really excites me, but this offers pretty decent value with a minimal opportunity cost: a tapped Island.

#37. Breeches, the Blastmaker

Breeches, the Blastmaker gives the gambling soul a crack at copying spells. Though copying the spell is almost always better than dealing extra damage, both options ensure that you always get something off this card, which is pretty nice considering you can pay the cost by sacrificing random Treasure.

#36. Alania, Divergent Storm

Alania, Divergent Storm staples the gift mechanic to all your spells. Giving your opponents cards makes friends, buying time until you can start copying Aminatou's Augury and other wild instants and sorceries to close with.

#35. Pyromancer’s Goggles

Pyromancer's Goggles works best with Fireball effects like Crackle with Power and Electrodominance, though it’s a little too slow and restrictive to make it into your average spellslinger deck. This card epitomizes feast or famine—you either love it or need to cut it.

#34. Repeated Reverberation

Repeated Reverberation is just a double Fork. Doubling up on loyalty abilities adds a bit of spice, so it fits pretty naturally with superfriends decks. Especially since those decks are already interested in extra turn spells….

#33. Arcane Bombardment

When I think of Commander, spells like Arcane Bombardment come to mind. They’re too expensive and low-impact to see play in any remotely competitive format, yet they’re exactly what a spellslinger deck needs to wreck three other players. It pairs nicely with delve cards like Dig Through Time to control what you exile.

#32. Riku of Two Reflections

The amount of value you can squeeze from Riku of Two Reflections makes up for its dismal body. Play control and pack a lot of protection spells to leverage this copy commander in the modern era of Magic.

#31. Sevinne, the Chronoclasm

Sevinne, the Chronoclasm works well because there are so many synergies surrounding it, like Secrets of the Dead and Torrential Gearhulk. Cards that let you cast spells from your graveyard already generate an advantage, so doubling down on it with this Jeskai card () gives you a straightforward yet powerful gameplan.

#30. Double Vision

Double Vision’s rather like Arcane Bombardment, but more palatable thanks to a lower mana value. It’s far easier to sequence this in a turn with a cantrip or cheap burn spell for immediate value. Cursed Recording can give you a similar effect for more mana, but has a huge downside if you're casting multiple spells per turn.

#29. Display of Power

Display of Power has a pretty high ceiling since you get multiple Forks at a good rate, though engineering the ideal scenario with multiple spells on the stack takes some finagling.

#28. The Twelfth Doctor

I love the demonstrate mechanic, so I think very highly of The Twelfth Doctor, especially considering that most of red’s card draw enables its ability due to the prevalence of impulse draws. This plays well as a political commander if you want to leverage your silver tongue as much as your actual cards or as a support piece for a cast-from-exile deck that needs extra oomph.

#27. Chandra, Hope’s Beacon

Chandra, Hope's Beacon provides spellslinger decks a devastating top-end card. Since it draws cards and makes mana, this planeswalker does whatever you need to turn a game in your favor.

#26. Kalamax, the Stormsire

Kalamax, the Stormsire’s rather restrictive in what it copies, but we can forgive that when we draw an extra five cards off Blue Sun's Zenith. This spell-copying dino commander card attacks on two fronts by providing raw card advantage on top of a growing beater.

#25. Flamehold Grappler

Flamehold Grappler was designed in a set with the flurry mechanic, so you already have a good incentive to cast two spells a turn if you’re playing those flurry cards. Its most common use is to copy a simple, cheap spell, like a 1-mana cantrip or a light removal spell. In the late game, you can follow this spell with a nice target like a Dig Through Time or Big Score. Or, you can use a cheaper spell to blink this creature, like Ephemerate, and have more mana to cast the spell you want to copy.

#24. Thunderclap Drake

Thunderclap Drake constantly impresses me; Goblin Electromancer with game-winning upside makes the cut for any spellslinger deck since it sets up the early game while doubling as a potential finisher later.

#23. Summon: G.F. Cerberus

Summon: G.F. Cerberus is a nice summon saga that allows you to copy an instant or sorcery for free with the second chapter and twice on the third one. The biggest downside is that its fragile body needs to survive, but the upside is giant considering that you don’t need to do anything else to copy the spell. So, turn-4 Cerberus followed by turn-5 Time Warp is possible. In a blue-red deck, if this card survives, you get to do nice things like draw a bunch of cards or deal a lot of damage via burn spells.

#22. Zada, Hedron Grinder

The big appeal to Zada, Hedron Grinder is its ability to kill your opponents with relatively little input. Make sure to fill your deck with cantripping tricks like Fists of Flame and Expedite to refill your hand.

#21. God-Eternal Kefnet

God-Eternal Kefnet backs its copy effect up with a rather scary body, especially since you can’t permanently kill the thing with most removal. It plays nicely with cards like Mystic Sanctuary and Jace, the Mind Sculptor that let you control the top of your deck.

#20. Spinerock Tyrant

Spinerock Tyrant is already a giant under-costed dragon with wither, and it’s not hard to trigger its copy spell condition. Some call this a lazy design, as it doesn’t have any downside besides that it dies to Doom Blade. And speaking of the famous black removal spell, you can spam targeted black removal with this guy around, and without a “per turn” limit. What’s more, your red burn will have wither, so they’re much more effective. Be on the lookout for cards like Sign in Blood, which are targeted draw spells, so you can draw a bunch of cards or inflict double the damage to opponents.

#19. Thousand-Year Storm

Thousand-Year Storm makes any spellslinger deck into a storm deck. It shines alongside cards like Big Score and Unexpected Windfall to make mana and draw cards; plus, it’s just really funny to play a game of Commander and cast Shock for the win.

#18. Ral, Storm Conduit

Ral, Storm Conduit serves double duty as a copy effect and a card that rewards you for copying spells. Its strength comes from copying spells without investing additional mana, which sets up big turns by dropping Ral before following it up with Dance with Calamity or something similar.

#17. Fork + Twinferno + Reverberate + Twincast

The classic Fork has seen many iterations, with some functionally similar cards including Twincast, Reverberate, and Twinferno, though none of these change the color of the copied spell.

This is the going rate for the effect and often quite worthwhile, though there are stronger versions that relegate these cards to the redundancy category.

#16. Galvanic Iteration

Galvanic Iteration offers a clean 2-for-1. That’s kind of it, but you don’t need much more from a value card like this. It pairs nicely with rummage effects since discarding this Izzet card is like losing half a card rather than a whole one.

#15. Shiko and Narset, Unified

Shiko and Narset, Unified is easier to use than Flamehold Grappler. As the face of a Commander precon, it’s very easy to build around flurry, and provided that you can untap with this card, the next turn is very explosive. And even without copying spells, we’re talking a 4/4 with flying and vigilance here. It only works for targeted spells, but if you cast a regular spell, you’ll at least draw a card.

#14. Taigam, Master Opportunist

Taigam, Master Opportunist introduces something novel by suspending your copied spell, and any spell at that. If you cast two spells in a turn, you’ll copy the second one and suspend it, so you get only the copy for the time being. But you get to cast the real one later for free, so the best pattern is to play a cheap spell first and a bigger one later, like a Time Warp or Stock Up. You can build around this card with Paradox Haze and time travel cards to speed up the suspend process. It’s a really nice addition to 2-color spellslinger decks as well, increasing the range of spells you can effectively copy.

#13. Expansion // Explosion

Expansion might be more restrictive than the average Fork, but having a massive Fireball that draws cards makes up for it. Explosion blows your opponents out of the water and generally synergizes with your deck as anything interested in Fork effects wants spells worth copying.

#12. Fire Lord Azula

Fire Lord Azula saw some play in Standard as a way to grind games, but it truly shines in Commander, where it’s one of the most popular Grixis generals (). What sets this card apart is that while Azula is attacking, each spell you cast is copied, so Azula is an excellent storm enabler when you can copy rituals, cantrips, Frantic Searches, and the like. Firebending 2 even gives you some mana to spend. Cards like Shadow Rift are also excellent to copy, so your commander can’t be blocked while attacking, and you’ll draw two cards. Plus, any magecraft card that’s around the Fire Lord will do some major work.

#11. Mendicant Core, Guidelight

Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a nice artifact build-around card, and very cheap at just 2 mana. Blue and white have many incentives to play artifacts like metalcraft and affinity, so it’s easy to jam a lot of artifacts. As for copying spells, it allows you to copy any artifact spell by just paying 1 extra mana, which is sick, but you have to be aggressive to build up to max speed.

#10. Magus Lucea Kane

Magus Lucea Kane reigns as one of the best X-spell commanders in the game. The one-two punch of a mana accelerant, which the archetype craves, and a copy ability puts a disgusting amount of pressure on your opponents. You only need a few copied spells for Magus Lucea Kane to take over a game.

#9. Krark, the Thumbless

50% of the time, it works every time! Krark, the Thumbless leads to funny, coin-flippy games, at least until you bust out cards like Spark Double and a partner commander like Sakashima of a Thousand Faces to start breaking things.

#8. Lithoform Engine

Lithoform Engine requires lots of mana to get going, but the reward! I need a reason to play this legendary artifact, maybe a strong ability in the command zone like that of Chiss-Goria, Forge Tyrant, but it’s also a serviceable mana sink.

#7. Bonus Round

When you cast Bonus Round, you win the game. At least, you should with a card that has such high combo potential. You want this in a storm shell interested in copying cards like Jeska's Will and Mana Geyser for huge bursts of mana to spend on Reckless Impulse and other card advantage spells. And a wincon, I guess.

#6. Increasing Vengeance

Increasing Vengeance shines alongside cards like Snapcaster Mage and Sphinx of Forgotten Lore that skirt the expensive flashback cost. This card sets up nasty, often game-winning turns. It has incredible upside considering the front face is just… Fork.

#5. Flare of Duplication

Who knew free spells were good? Spellslinger decks don’t run many creatures, but tossing away a stray Goblin Electromancer or something is feasible in the late game, especially if your Flare of Duplication’s resolution gives you a win.

#4. Stella Lee, Wild Card

Stella Lee, Wild Card’s powerful activated ability doesn’t just copy spells for no mana down, it goes infinite with like a dozen different cards. Having a card that spews card advantage and wins out of nowhere is invaluable, making this Wild Card an impressive Izzet commander.

#3. Twinning Staff

You don’t want Twinning Staff to be your only copy effect; it’s too inefficient. But if your deck supports the theme, perhaps because of a commander like Kalamax, the Stormsire, it’s an invaluable investment that takes over games in short order.

#2. Isochron Scepter

Isochron Scepter’s mostly known for being broken. Dramatic Reversal’s a common partner for infinite mana, but Counterspell makes life miserable for your opponents; in 1v1 formats, Scepter + Silence can kill.

#1. Lutri, the Spellchaser + Dualcaster Mage

With the unbanning of Lutri, the Spellchaser in Commander, Dualcaster Mage now has some competition. Dualcaster Mage is the easier card to go infinite with, since it doesn't require being cast to copy spells like Ghostly Flicker, though the otter‘s still great as just a body that doubles up on another spell you're casting.

Best Spell-Copying Payoffs

Magecraft tops the list. It offers win conditions (Ral, Storm Conduit), ramp (Storm-Kiln Artist), and card advantage (Archmage Emeritus). These effects are often staples in spellslinger decks anyway, but they shine alongside copy spells.

When it comes to copying spells, you often want to go big. Cards like Aminatou's Augury and Breach the Multiverse are incredibly strong already; spending an extra 2 mana to copy them gives you an immense advantage.

Extra turn spells are fantastic with copy effects since you get so much out of them, though you should be wary; some Commander tables might not invite you back after you Time Warp three times for the win.

Spells that have an additional cost to cast as a downside are often good targets for copying. Big Score requires you to discard a card, but it gives you two cards and two Treasure tokens. Copying this effect gives you double the upside without the need to discard twice.

Do Spell Copies Resolve First?

Yes. A copy of a spell goes on the stack after the original, so it resolves first.

Does Copying Count as Casting? Like for Rhystic Study?

It does not… most of the time.

Certain copy effects make a copy, then cast it; Isochron Scepter and Arcane Bombardment do this because they don’t have an object on the stack to copy. But your average Fork effect doesn’t count the copy as a cast spell.

Do Copied Spells Trigger Prowess?

No. Prowess only cares about spells being cast, not copied.

Can You Counter a Copy of a Spell?

Yes! Once a spell has been copied on the stack, it’s treated as any other spell and subject to the same weaknesses.

Do Spell Copies Have a Mana Value?

Yes. Any effect that copies a spell or permanent copies its printed values; a copy of Counterspell has a mana value of 2, just like the original.

Do Copies Have Summoning Sickness?

Copied creatures do have summoning sickness because they entered the battlefield on that turn.

What Happens if You Copy a Creature Spell?

If you copy a creature or other permanent spell, the resulting copy will enter the battlefield as a token. This can be useful with cards like Ocelot Pride that become busted when they see themselves.

Is A Copy a Token?

If you copy a permanent spell, like a creature or an enchantment, the resolved copy becomes a token. Copies of instants and sorceries on the stack don’t count as “token spells”; tokens can only be permanents.

What Happens if you Copy a Modal Spell?

When you copy a modal spell, you copy all the chosen modes of the original, though you may select new targets. For example, if you cast Prismari Command and choose to create a Treasure and destroy an artifact, then copy it, the copy also creates a Treasure and destroys an artifact.

Do Copied Spells Add to Storm Count?

They do not; storm only counts the number of spells cast in a given turn.

Can a Copy Spell Copy Itself?

A spell cannot target itself; i.e. if you cast Reverberate, it must have another target on the stack; you can’t cast it and declare it as its own target. But if you have two copy spells, say a Twincast and a Reverberate, you can cast one, then cast the second and make those copy each other infinitely for magecraft.

Do You Have to Pay Additional Costs When Copying a Spell?

Only if you’re making a copy, then casting it à la Isochron Scepter. Creating a copy with Twincast and similar cards doesn’t count as casting it, so you don’t need to pay additional costs.

For example, if you discard a card to cast Tormenting Voice, then copy it with Reverberate, you do not need to discard and additional card for the copy, since you're not casting it.

Does Copying a Spell Copy Kicker?

Yes! When you copy a spell, you copy all modifiers, including additional costs like kicker. 

Wrap Up

Krark, the Thumbless | Illustration by Mathias Kollros

If you want to cast a spell, you likely want to do it again, which makes copy spells perfect for all manner of spellslinger decks, from those interested in storming off with the mana from Jeska's Will to the battlecruiser-esque that accelerate out Aminatou's Augury and Expropriate.

What’s your favorite copy spell? Do you prefer copying big spells or cheap ones? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe and thanks for reading!