Magar of the Magic Strings
Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.
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What it does
1: Note the name of target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard and put it onto the battlefield face down. It's a 3/3 creature with "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may create a copy of the card with the noted name. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost" and "If this creature would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else."
Combos with Magar of the Magic Strings
Lines this card is part of — what it needs alongside it, and what the two of them do. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.
- Savage Beating Infinite
- Infinite combat damage
- Infinite combat phases
- Infinite magecraft triggers
- Infinite mana creatures you control can produce
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite untap of creatures you control
- Time Stretch Infinite
- Infinite turns
- Lock
- Brass's Bounty Time Sieve Infinite
- Infinite turns
- Lock
- Sundial of the Infinite Last Chance Infinite
- Infinite turns
- Lock
- Brass's Bounty Aggravated Assault Infinite
- Infinite artifact ETB
- Infinite artifact LTB
- Infinite artifact sacrifice triggers
- Infinite artifact tokens
- Infinite colored mana
- Infinite combat damage
- Infinite combat phases
- Infinite magecraft triggers
- Infinite mana creatures you control can produce
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite Treasure tokens
- Infinite untap of creatures you control
- Rise of the Eldrazi Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty Infinite
- Infinite turns
- Lock
- Etrata, Deadly Fugitive Brass's Bounty Infinite
- Infinite artifact ETB
- Infinite artifact LTB
- Infinite artifact sacrifice triggers
- Infinite artifact tokens
- Infinite creature LTB
- Infinite creature ETB
- Infinite colored mana
- Infinite storm count
- Infinite magecraft triggers
- Infinite Treasure tokens
- Infinite casts of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard
- Final Fortune Stunning Reversal Infinite
- Infinite turns
- Lock
Showing the 8 shortest and most explosive. This card appears in more than these — follow any of them through to Commander Spellbook to browse the rest.
Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.
Rulings
7 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.
- 2022-10-07
You may look at face-down permanents you control at any time.
- 2022-10-07
If a creature enters the battlefield as a copy of a face-down creature (or if a token is created that’s a copy of one), that copy has the same characteristics as the face-down creature (in this case, it’s a 3/3 creature with the two abilities and no other characteristics), even though the copy is face up. Importantly, the noted name is not part of the face-down creature’s copiable values, so copies of the face-down creature won’t know the noted name. If one deals combat damage to a player, its controller won’t create a copy of any card.
- 2022-10-07
If an effect tries to “blink” a face-down instant or sorcery card—that is, exile it and then return it to the battlefield—the card is exiled and remains in exile.
- 2022-10-07
You must ensure that your face-down spells and permanents can easily be differentiated from each other. You’re not allowed to mix up the cards that represent them on the battlefield to confuse other players. The order they entered the battlefield should remain clear. Common methods for indicating this include using markers or dice, or simply placing them in order on the battlefield. You must also track how each became face down (Magar’s ability, cast face down using the morph ability, and so on).
- 2022-10-07
The face-down creature has no characteristics other than the ones given to it by Magar’s ability. It has no name, no mana cost, no creature types, and no abilities other than the two Magar gives it. The creature is colorless and has a mana value of 0.
- 2022-10-07
If a face-down permanent you control leaves the battlefield, or if the game ends or you leave the game while you control it, you must reveal it to all players (even though in this case, everyone saw it before it entered).
- 2022-10-07
There are no cards in this set that would turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, but some older cards can try to do this. If something tries to turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, reveal that card to show all players it’s an instant or sorcery card. The permanent remains on the battlefield face down. Abilities that trigger when a permanent turns face up won’t trigger, because even though you revealed the card, it never turned face up.
Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.
As a commander
Decks built with Magar of the Magic Strings in the command zone.
Every version of Magar of the Magic Strings
4 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

- Normal
- $1.25
- Foil
- $1.06

Showcase
- Normal
- $0.51
- Foil
- $0.67

- Foil
- $9.03

Showcase
- Foil
- $5.03
Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Magar of the Magic Strings — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.
Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.