Grandeur in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on April 12, 2024

Oriss, Samite Guardian | Illustration by Michael Komarck

Grandeur sounds like it’ll be good. It sounds like it’ll be the best.

Hence my disappointment when I did an image search for “grandeur” to try to explain the vibe of this word and saw many pictures of Hyundais. Not that that model of car isn’t spiffy in its own way, but I can’t help but feel let down.

That is also what I feel when I search for MTG cards with grandeur and find a list of five cards from Future Sight more than 15 years ago with a keyword that hasn’t been picked up since! It’s a whole cycle, and I want to see the promise of Future Sight, predicting the future, to be true. It’s like knowing we live without the flying cars Back to the Future promised!

So let’s take a look at this mechanic while we make the best case we can for its return (we’re looking at you, Modern Horizons 3!).

How Does Grandeur Work?

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade | Illustration by Daarken

To get specific, grandeur works by allowing you to discard another card with an identical name as the card in play with the grandeur ability for a powerful effect. That’s really cool! It’s a pitch effect that isn’t overpowered like Force of Will or the Modern Horizons 2 evoke elementals because it has a limit to its use.

The design space they seemed to be working with was the drawback of legendary creatures. Since I can’t cast a second copy productively unless they have an ETB effect that I desperately need, like maybe Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, the second copy just rots in my hand. What if I could pitch it for value? Nice!

Not to spoil the ending of this piece, but what if we expand that to nonlegendary creatures? What if we expand that to other permanents? Stew on that for a minute while we get to some FAQs.

The History of Grandeur in MTG

It’s only on that rare monocolored legendary creature cycle in Future Sight in 2007. Five cards. That’s it.

Is Grandeur an Additional Cost?

Yes. Any card that specifies discarding a card in order to cast the spell has that as an additional cost. And that applies to grandeur, as well, even though it’s an activated ability. Thus, if you can't meet the cost (you don’t have another copy in hand), you can’t activate the ability.

Is Grandeur an Activated Ability?

Yes. It’s an ability word that has an activation cost.

Can You Activate Grandeur Multiple Times?

Sure! If you happen to have multiple copies in hand, you can, especially because none of the grandeur creatures require tapping to activate the ability. It’s only one activation per card though.

Can You Counter or Stifle Grandeur?

Stifle effects yes, Counterspell effects, no. It uses the stack, so it can be responded to, but as it’s not the same as casting a spell, regular counters don’t work.

Can You Copy Grandeur?

Yes, grandeur can be copied by anything that copies an activated ability. When you copy a spell or effect you don’t pay the costs associated with the original, which is the allure of something like Lithoform Engine.

Gallery and List of Grandeur Cards

• Baru, Fist of Krosa
• Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
• Linessa, Zephyr Mage
• Oriss, Samite Guardian
• Tarox Bladewing

Best Grandeur Cards

This is tough. These are some decent effects, but not quite good enough for Modern. And in a singleton format like Commander, well, they just don’t work. Or do they???

#3. Korlash, Heir to Blackblade

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade is okay in EDH even though the grandeur text is basically a blank. It’s one of only three black cards with the Nightmare text about swamps and is better than Squelching Leeches because of the regeneration. That’s still not amazing, but it’s the clearest simple use of one of these cards for Commander.

#2. Baru, Fist of Krosa

The best grandeur card with a “normal’” use in Commander is Baru, Fist of Krosa. Its Overrun ability works with quite a lot, even though it’s probably not enough value for the mana. But it kind of pops off with Ashaya, Soul of the Wild and Awaken the Woods, not to mention basic land ramp.

#1. Oriss, Samite Guardian

This is where it gets weird. Oriss, Samite Guardian has a really powerful grandeur effect. With enough copies you could lock opponents out of the game. To do that in Commander you’d need to be able to clone Oriss and then get the original back to your hand. This is an easier proposition with only one opponent left, as doing this once a turn on their upkeep is a reasonable proposition if you build a deck to do that. But against three others?

This seems like a lot of work to make the game totally unfun for an opponent, but if you’re the kind of player who wants to win with a card that the Commander format seems to blank, then this is your Everest! I’ve not yet seen a decent deck that accomplishes this, but if you build one and wanna let me know in the comments, have at it!

Wrap Up

Tarox Bladewing | Illustration by Aleksi Briclot

Part of why we don’t have more cards with grandeur is because the mechanic seems antithetical to Commander. Sure. But that thinking was from a time when WOTC seemed to believe that the only format that cared about legendary creatures was Commander. Tell that to World Champion Jean-Emmanuel Depraz and his Esper Legends deck!

I would love to see, say, nice legendary lands with a grandeur ability on them. I’d also like to see this space for nonlegends. I get that it seems weird that they’d have something called “grandeur” without being legendary, but the most common word associated with grandeur in English seems to be “delusions,” so what if we lean into that? We don’t necessarily need a new supertype called “delusionary,” but we could have a naming convention like the “restless” lands in Wilds of Eldraine.

I want to see this happen, and I’ve got some designs in mind. I’ll bet some of you do, too? If so, drop us an idea in the comments or over on Discord. Happy delusioning!