Topiary Lecturer card art

Topiary Lecturer

Creature — Elf Druid MV 3

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

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What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Price historyEvery version

What it does

Increment (Whenever you cast a spell, if the amount of mana you spent is greater than this creature's power or toughness, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)

T: Add an amount of equal to this creature's power.

Combos with Topiary Lecturer

The lines this card is part of, what it needs alongside it, and what the cards do together. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

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

5 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2026-03-20

    Whenever you cast a spell, check the amount of mana you spent to cast it against the power and toughness of the creature with increment. If the amount of mana you spent isn't greater than either of that creature's stats, increment won't trigger at all.

  • 2026-03-20

    An increment ability will only trigger if the permanent it's on is a creature. Similarly, if the permanent is no longer a creature when its increment ability resolves, the ability won't do anything.

  • 2026-03-20

    The increment ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. It resolves even if that spell is countered or otherwise leaves the stack.

  • 2026-03-20

    When comparing the mana spent to the creature's stats as the increment ability resolves, it's possible that the stat that is less than the mana spent changes from power to toughness or vice versa. For example, say you control a 1/3 creature with increment and you pay two mana to cast a spell. Since the amount of mana you spent is greater than the creature's power, increment will trigger. While the increment ability is on the stack, an effect gives the creature with increment +2/-2, making it a 3/1. When the increment ability resolves, the creature will still get a +1/+1 counter since the amount of mana you spent is greater than that creature's toughness.

  • 2026-03-20

    If increment triggers, the comparison will happen again when the ability tries to resolve. If the amount of mana spent to cast that spell isn't greater than either of that creature's stats anymore, the ability will do nothing.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Topiary Lecturer, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 2
Games played 1
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games, which is not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Commander Decks Games Win rate
Zimone, Mystery Unraveler 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Simic 1 deck

Topiary Lecturer price history

The Secrets of Strixhaven #165 printing, as Scryfall reports the TCGplayer market. Updated nightly.

Non-foil today$0.27▼ $0.03 (10.0%)
Low $0.25 · High $0.40Tracked since Sep 28, 2026
Every recorded price change
DateNon-foilFoil
Oct 12, 2026$0.27$0.34
Oct 11, 2026$0.27$0.34
Oct 10, 2026$0.29$0.35
Oct 9, 2026$0.27$0.34
Oct 8, 2026$0.25$0.33
Oct 7, 2026$0.31$0.33
Oct 6, 2026$0.30$0.33
Oct 5, 2026$0.30$0.34
Oct 4, 2026$0.32$0.34
Oct 3, 2026$0.33$0.34
Oct 2, 2026$0.39$0.34
Oct 1, 2026$0.40$0.34
Sep 29, 2026$0.39$0.31
Sep 28, 2026$0.30$0.28

A row is recorded only on nights the price moved, so each price held until the row above it.

Every version of Topiary Lecturer

1 printing, 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 publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Topiary Lecturer. It runs a name search across every version, which covers 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.

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