Card Spotlight
Iroh, Grand Lotus
A 6-mana Temur legend from Avatar: The Last Airbender that gives every instant and sorcery in your graveyard flashback during your turn, so the spells you have already cast become a second hand.
Commander Spotlight
Iroh, Grand Lotus ↗
A 6-mana Temur legend from Avatar: The Last Airbender that gives every instant and sorcery in your graveyard flashback during your turn, so the spells you have already cast become a second hand.
See Iroh, Grand Lotus's full stats and printings →
Strategies it goes well with
- Spellslinger decks. A graveyard full of cheap cantrips and removal spells becomes a second hand the moment Iroh resolves, rewarding a deck built around casting a lot of spells.
- Ramp-and-value Temur shells. Recasting ramp spells for free value on top of their first cast is a strong mana-efficiency boost for a midrange deck.
- Prowess and instant/sorcery matters. Every recast off the graveyard also triggers prowess and similar payoffs a second (or third, or fourth) time.
How it does in Commander
As the commander
As the commander it anchors a spellslinger deck directly, since guaranteed access to the graveyard-wide flashback from the command zone rewards building the whole 99 around a low curve of efficient, recastable spells.
In the 99
A strong late-game value engine even outside a full spellslinger build, letting a Temur deck cast its used instants and sorceries a second time.
Formats it's strong in
- Spellslinger and prowess decks. The effect is a direct payoff for casting a lot of cheap instants and sorceries, which those decks are already doing.
- Long, grindy games. The longer a game runs, the fuller the graveyard gets, and the more value Iroh's ability produces.
Formats it's weak in
- Low spell-count decks. With few instants and sorceries in the graveyard, the ability has little to work with.
- Fast, aggressive decks. Six mana for an ability that pays off over a long game is a poor fit for a deck trying to end things quickly.
Synergistic cards
Brainstorm ↗
A cheap cantrip that becomes repeatable card selection for as long as Iroh is on the battlefield.
Lightning Bolt ↗
Efficient removal that becomes a recurring answer once it's sitting in the graveyard under Iroh.
Cultivate ↗
Ramp that can be recast for its full mana cost later in the game for extra land drops on top of its first cast.
Any cheap, repeatable removal or draw spell ↗
The lower a spell's mana cost, the cheaper it is to recast under Iroh's ability, which rewards a low, efficient curve.
Is it worth the price?
As a recent-set card, Iroh is inexpensive and a reasonable pickup for a Temur spellslinger or value deck, with little financial risk.
Frequently asked questions
How does Iroh, Grand Lotus's flashback ability work?
During your turn, every non-Lesson instant and sorcery in your graveyard has flashback equal to its own mana cost, and every Lesson card in the graveyard has flashback {1}. While Iroh is on the battlefield, nearly every instant and sorcery you've cast can be cast again, as long as you can pay for it.
What decks want Iroh, Grand Lotus?
A Temur spells-matter deck that's already filling its graveyard with cheap instants and sorceries, such as cantrips, removal, and ramp spells. Iroh turns that pile into a second hand without a dedicated recursion package.
Is Iroh, Grand Lotus good as a commander?
Yes, for a deck built around a low curve of efficient instants and sorceries. Leading with it means you have access to the payoff every game, which rewards building the whole 99 around cheap, repeatable spells.